District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez on Thursday declined to unseal records in a wrongful termination case against Las Vegas Sands that the plaintiff says could reveal business ties between Las Vegas Sands Corp. and high-ranking members of China-based triads.
But the judge also said she was not cutting off the three separate groups that want what‘s known as the Vickers Reports made public.
Guardian News & Media, publisher of British newspaper The Guardian, the Campaign for Accountability, a new nonprofit watchdog organization, and UNITE HERE, a hospitality union group, might have stronger legal reasons in the future to unseal the records in the suit filed by Steven Jacobs against Las Vegas Sands and Sands China Ltd.
In her ruling Thursday, Gonzalez found that the reports contained sensitive commercial and gaming information that should not be made public.
The Campaign for Accountability wants access to the reports “to serve the compelling public interest in learning the extent to which Sheldon Adelson,” the billionaire chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands, “has used money acquired through criminal activity in Macau casinos to make campaign contributions to candidates for public office.”
Jacobs, who joined in motions to unseal the reports, is the former president and CEO of Sands China. He filed the wrongful termination lawsuit shortly after he was fired in 2010. The case made several trips to the Nevada Supreme Court while the parties argued over jurisdiction. Gonzalez ruled last month that she has jurisdiction over Sands China.
Adelson testified in April that he had “at least 34 good reasons” for firing Jacobs, but Jacobs claimed he was terminated “for blowing the whistle on improprieties and placing the interests of shareholders above those of Adelson.”
The motions to unseal argue that the reports involve matters of extreme public interest: reputed business ties between Sands companies and Cheung Chi Tai and Heung Wah Keung, alleged organized crime figures in China.
International law enforcement authorities alleged that Chinese organized crime groups, or triads, have influence over high-end junket operators who arrange visits of big-spending gamblers to private gaming salons in Macau’s casinos.The Vickers Reports were compiled by private investigator Steve Vickers, a former Hong Kong police official with expertise on the triads.
The Campaign for Accountability wants access to the reports “to serve the compelling public interest in learning the extent to which Sheldon Adelson,” the billionaire chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands, “has used money acquired through criminal activity in Macau casinos to make campaign contributions to candidates for public office.”
Randall Jones, who represents Sands China, told Gonzalez that the subsidiary has stopped doing business with Cheung, and that Jacobs stole the Vickers Reports from Sands.
“Whether there is anything salatious in there or not, and we don‘t think there necessarily is anything embarrassing or salacious, it‘s still sensitive commercial and gaming-related information that our client thinks shouldn‘t be allowed to be released,” he said. “There‘s a lot of rhetoric in this case. There‘s clearly a political agenda here that has no place in whether or not these” documents should be unsealed.
Allen Lichtenstein, who represents the watchdog group, said public interest in the case is strong. Adelson reportedly spent as much as $150 million in an effort to unseat President Barack Obama in the 2012 election. In a motion to unseal the report, Lichtenstein said that laundered Macau organized crime funds could have ended up in the coffers of political candidates.
“Not all commercial information is sensitive,” Lichtenstein told Gonzalez on Thursday. “Openness is in the public interest, regardless of whether it is favorable or unfavorable to people.”