On Monday Las Vegas Sands Corp. returns to a Nevada court for the second time in 18 months to defend itself against a civil lawsuit over its acquisition in 2002 of a Macau gaming licence.
In May 2008 a Clark County jury awarded Hong Kong businessman Richard Suen almost USD60 million for his help in introducing Las Vegas Sands executives to Chinese government officials. LVS is in the process of appealing against that verdict in the Nevada Supreme Court.
This time, another lawyer will argue LVS owes USD500 million or more to three men who claim they linked LVS to a politically acceptable local gaming partner, Galaxy Entertainment, in place of an earlier Taiwanese suitor.
Clive Bassett Jones, Dax Turok and Cliff Cheong say they are owed five percent of the value of Las Vegas Sands’ Macau gambling licence, based on what they say is an agreement with LVS company executives.
The fact that LVS later ended its association with Galaxy in order to go it alone is hardly their fault, say the three. LVS emphatically refutes their claim.
The case is expected to hear evidence from David Friedman, a former senior executive of LVS and from Bill Weidner, a former LVS president and chief operating officer, who left the company in March.