Steve Wynn’s $7.5M settlement involved a paternity claim, report says

The $7.5 million settlement payment Wynn Resorts Chairman and CEO Steve Wynn paid to a former employee involved a paternity claim, Bloomberg News reported Friday.

There is no evidence of Wynn fathering a child, and Wynn, company representatives and Wynn’s ex-wife, Elaine Wynn, declined comment Friday afternoon.

The payment is a critical piece of an investigation being conducted by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission because there was no mention of the settlement when Wynn was scrutinized for licensing to build a $2.4 billion resort near Boston Harbor in Everett.

Earlier this week, Massachusetts regulators said they weren’t made aware of the settlement. That is now a concern because the commission could revoke Wynn’s gaming license before the property’s doors are scheduled to open in mid-2019.

“The people of Massachusetts have a right to know what the hell happened here,” Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby said at the Wednesday hearing.

Shares down again

Wynn Resorts shares on Friday closed down 2.3 percent, $3.93, to $166.56 on volume about twice the daily average. After hours, the issue crept up 39 cents, 0.23 percent, to $166.95. Since shares opened a week ago at $200.60, the company’s value has dropped 16.8 percent.

Other casino stocks were down in a broad Wall Street sell-off that saw the Dow shed 666 points and the Nasdaq slide 145 points.

Investigators with the Nevada Gaming Control Board and Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau and a three-member committee of independent Wynn Resorts board members also are conducting investigations of sexual impropriety involving Steve Wynn.

Wynn has vehemently denied allegations.

“The idea that I ever assaulted any woman is preposterous,” he said when allegations first surfaced last week. “We find ourselves in a world where people can make allegations, regardless of the truth, and a person is left with the choice of weathering insulting publicity or engaging in multiyear lawsuits. It is deplorable for anyone to find themselves in this situation.”

2005 settlement

Bloomberg cited sources familiar with the 2005 settlement involving a manicurist who worked at Wynn Las Vegas who told people she was pressured into having intercourse with Wynn. That allegation was first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Jan. 26.

At the time, Wynn had just opened Wynn Las Vegas on April 28, 2005, and was working on Wynn Macau, which opened Sept. 6, 2006. He kept the settlement secret because he didn’t want it to become a distraction to those events, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

The settlement, paid personally by Wynn according to Bloomberg, was referenced in court documents involving a legal dispute over company stock shares stemming from his 2010 divorce from Elaine Wynn.

When preparing court papers filed with the Nevada Supreme Court, Elaine Wynn said she learned of one incident of alleged sexual misconduct with a manicurist as she was preparing for divorce proceedings with her husband in 2009.

In the redacted document, her lawyers said Wynn discovered that her husband “had paid millions of dollars to settle a Wynn Resorts employee’s allegations of personal misconduct by Mr. Wynn.”

Elaine Wynn spoke with two company officials who had knowledge of the allegations and shared information about the conversations with her divorce lawyer, the court papers said.

The identity of the employee and the exact amount of the payment were not disclosed in the filing.

But Elaine Wynn’s lawyers said the settlement with the Wynn Resorts employee had “significant implications” for the divorce proceedings.

Elaine Wynn blamed

Last week, Steve Wynn blamed his ex-wife and said she is orchestrating a campaign against him.

“The instigation of these accusations is the continued work of my ex-wife, Elaine Wynn, with whom I am involved in a terrible and nasty lawsuit in which she is seeking a revised divorce settlement,” Steve Wynn said in a statement issued after the Journal story was published.

“Elaine has explicitly threatened to slander and destroy me and I am surprised that the media is allowing itself to be used to advance this agenda,” he said. “The conduct of Elaine during the course of the pending lawsuits has been shocking and deeply disturbing to me personally and as the CEO of Wynn Resorts. Despite such conduct, I have repeatedly refused to capitulate to her demands. In response, I remain focused on Wynn Resorts, our employees and our shareholders and will not be distracted from those efforts.”

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.