Okada to get another chance at Wynn Resorts documents
Japanese gambling magnate Kazuo Okada will get another chance to pry business documents out of Wynn Resorts Ltd., in which he was formerly the largest shareholder.
At a Thursday morning hearing, Clark County District Court Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez allowed Okada to file a new version of his original complaint, even though the case was formally closed last month. This sets the stage for a June 28 hearing, during which Gonzalez will rule on whether Okada's requests fit the legal standard of "reasonable."
At a similar hearing in March, Okada won only three more pages than Wynn had voluntarily turned over, with many of the documents already publicly available. At the time, Gonzalez allowed Okada to file a rewritten complaint, but his attorneys waited for two months.
"I had boxed up my records, put them away and thought we would go to where the real fight was," said attorney James Pisanelli, representing Wynn.
The other litigation between Okada and Wynn currently sits in U.S. District Court, where both sides have accused each other of engaging in corruption to obtain foreign casino rights.
As one phase of the procedural maneuvering, Wynn is attempting to shift the case back to Clark County District Court, where it was filed in February.
In the revised case, Okada seeks papers from the company's early years covering 2000-2002. Regarding what is called the Macau reimbursement account, they cover Wynn's activities in the Chinese gaming mecca and how a $120 million investment by Okada's company, Aruze USA, was used.
Attorneys attempt to lay out in more detail what they wanted and why.
Pisanelli described the latest move as a "back door attempt" by Okada to gain evidence for the federal case. But Okada attorney Gidon Caine described the two cases as covering different subjects.
Contact reporter Tim O'Reiley at toreiley
@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290.
