A Las Vegas-area judge overseeing a civil lawsuit that could cost Las Vegas Sands Corp. millions of dollars ruled company Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson would not have to testify during the trial or sit for a deposition.
According to the Associated Press, the decision by Clark County District Judge Rob Bare was handed down Friday following a closed hearing and a day after Las Vegas Sands said Adelson, 85, is being treated for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The side effects from the medication have kept the company’s founder and largest stockholder away from the office since before Christmas.
Adelson won’t testify in the civil lawsuit brought by Hong Kong businessman Richard Suen, who has been seeking compensation from the gaming giant since 2004 over the assistance he claims to have provided Adelson and the company in the early 2000s in landing a lucrative concession to operate casinos in Macau.
The case starts Monday, but opening arguments and testimony may not begin until May 11.
Las Vegas Sands revealed Adelson’s diagnosis only after The Nevada Independent reported Thursday morning that the CEO – ranked No. 15 on the Forbes 400 list of billionaires with a net worth of $36.2 billion – was in poor health.
During a hearing last week, one of the attorneys representing Las Vegas Sands said he, “recently learned of the dire nature of Mr. Adelson’s condition.” During the closed hearing Friday, Adelson’s doctors were questioned via video conference.
Las Vegas Sands spokesman Ron Reese said in a statement Thursday afternoon the medication’s side effects “have restricted (Adelson’s) availability to travel or keep regular office hours. Reese said Adelson “has been fulfilling his duties as chairman and CEO” and the company “expects he’ll return after he completes treatment.”
President Rob Goldstein and CFO Patrick Dumont – Adelson’s son-in-law – handled Las Vegas Sands’ fourth quarter conference call on Jan. 23, which didn’t include Adelson, a normal participant. Goldstein said the CEO, was “a little bit under the weather. We met with him yesterday. He’s taking some medications making him a bit drowsy, so he decided this morning to take a rain check on this one.”
Adelson testified in two previous trials in 2008 and 2013 about his business dealings with Suen in the early 2000s. Suen won both cases and multimillion-dollar judgments, but the Nevada Supreme Court has twice remanded the case back to the District Court.
Suen’s lawyers said they want to question Adelson about events since the 2013 trial, including the company’s efforts to land a casino project in Japan.
Suen claims his Hong Kong-based Round Square Co. helped open doors for Las Vegas Sands as Macau was looking to expand its gaming market. He asserted that the company breached an agreement to pay him a success fee of $5 million plus 2 percent of the net profit of the company’s Macau resort operations.
Las Vegas Sands has become one of the largest casino operators in Macau with five major resort developments. In 2018, the company collected $8.67 billion in revenue from its Macau operations, 63 percent of the company’s $13.72 billion in revenues.
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgamingreports.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
