Wynn Resorts Reaches $130M Settlement with Feds Over Foreign Casino Transactions

Las Vegas-based Wynn Resorts has agreed to pay $130 million to the United States Department of Justice in order to reach a “non-prosecution agreement” and resolve an investigation into transactions at the Wynn Las Vegas that has been ongoing for 10 years.

The investigation concerned “convoluted” transactions used by foreign clients and facilitated by former Wynn employees to transfer money to and from people in other countries.

Agents Worked with Wynn to Help Foreign Players Gamble

In a news release, the United States Attorney’s Office said that this is believed to be the largest forfeiture agreement by a casino based on admissions of criminal wrongdoing. 

“Casinos, like all businesses, will be held to account when they allow customers to evade US laws for the sake of profit,” US Attorney Tara McGrath said in the statement. “Federal oversight seeks to prevent illegal funds from tainting legitimate businesses, ensuring that casinos offer a clean, thriving, and safe entertainment option.”

As a part of the agreement, Wynn Las Vegas (WLV) admitted that it had used unregistered money transmitting businesses to get around the constraints of traditional financial systems. 

The US Attorney’s Office press release gives several examples. For one, the casino “regularly” worked with third-party agents in order to recruit foreign gamblers to WLV, using those independent agents to transfer funds through other companies, bank accounts, or by other means to eventually get the money into a WLV-owned bank account and provide gamblers with funds to bet with or repay their debts to the casino. 

“In one example, Juan Carlos Palermo, while acting as an independent agent for WLV, operated and controlled multiple unlicensed money transmitting businesses in the United States and abroad that conducted more than 200 transfers with bank accounts controlled by WLV or associated entities,” the press release read. “These transactions, on behalf of more than 50 foreign casino patrons, exceeded $17.7 million.”

The federal government also says that WLV knowingly allowed “Human Head” gambling, in which one person would purchase chips and gamble at the casino as a proxy for another person who was unable or unwilling to gamble themselves because of anti-money laundering laws or the Bank Secrecy Act. 

Wynn Ready to Move on from ‘Legacy Issues’

Wynn Resorts says that the settlement will allow the company to put “legacy issues” resulting from the actions of previous employees behind it and move forward. 

“The actions of these individuals, for which Wynn has accepted responsibility, date back many years and violated Wynn’s compliance policies and procedures,” Wynn Resorts said in a statement. “We are pleased that [Wynn Resorts] has now resolved this long-standing legal matter.”

While the name of former CEO Steve Wynn was not mentioned by either the government or Wynn Resorts, the company has been faced with several issues from his time at the helm of the casino giant in recent years.

Chief among those problems were several accusations of sexual misconduct against Wynn, which ultimately led to his resignation from his post in February 2018. Last week, the Nevada Supreme Court ended a defamation lawsuit that Wynn had tried to bring against the Associated Press related to some of those allegations, citing Nevada anti-SLAPP laws it said protected journalists reporting on public figures such as Wynn.

(Image: Ty ONeil / AP)