After nearly six years of legal wrangling, Las Vegas Sands Corporation has settled a wrongful termination suit brought by the former head of Macau casino operations.
More than $75 million will change hands. That settlement was supposed to be kept secret, but the Wall Street Journal learned the amount from sources.
But John L. Smith, columnist for the Daily Beast and a KNPR News contributor/commentator, said it is probably good news for Sands Corp. that it’s out in the open because it will keep reporters from prying and allow the story to fade away.
One story that isn’t going away is the ongoing scandal surrounding the 11-million documents known as the Panama Papers. Nevada figure heavily in those documents, because of its notorious secrecy laws for businesses that want to incorporate here.
But will state lawmakers do anything to toughen those laws and make corporate ownership more transparent? Smith guessed that would probably come around the same time that “Nevada outlaws gambling.”
And John L. Smith traveled to New Mexico for Memorial Day and came away believing, at least when it comes to politics, that our states might have something in common in the crazy department.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS:
On there being more to the settlement between Sands Corp. and the former head of its Macau gaming operation:
It came from a document filed late in the process right before the settlement. It's the usual flurry of documents that get filed. In this case, the documents are voluminous. Late in the process, there was a mention, a prominent mention, that there is a Justice Department investigation related to issues that were developed during this time. Not a past DOJ investigation but an ongoing one. That intrigues me. The parties are not talking.
But it's fascinating to me, this is a time when you cut a check for $75 million, and as I understand it, they're covering the attorney fees and all of that, they're clearly trying to put it behind them. I think that was a really wise decision nothing good would have come from the Jacobs case had it gone to trial for Sands, because all of the allegations, not proven, but all the allegations were pretty damning.
On Panama Papers:
In the continuing saga of the Panama Papers scandal, Nevada's poor laws, weak laws of incorporation are once again an embarrassment. Last couple of weeks, there was an announcement by the Secretary of State that there would be a committee to study this issue going forward but we all know that in Nevada and Wyoming and Delaware and elsewhere the state's make money doing this.
An article in USA Today explores how firms are using Nevada's laws to create shell corporations.
If ever there was a time this would be considered poor publicity for Nevada, I think this would be the time.
How does this reflect badly on the state of Nevada? We want to be a state that makes it easy to do business correct?
Well yes! But the problem is those entities aren't really doing business in Nevada. They're using Nevada as a pass through state. A kind of envelope through which to pass their transactions, often avoiding tax payments and things like that.
Will Nevada change its ways?
I think that there's almost no chance. Beyond the press release phase, I don't see any chance in changes to the system coming.
The laws generate revenue for the state and they are a very important source of revenue.
You made a comparison between crazy politics here and crazy politics in New Mexico:
I wanted to get out of Nevada to get away from crazy politics. I drove 700 miles well into New Mexico and what did I find? I found a Donald Trump rally where protesters in Albuquerque were burning his T-shirts. I also saw 24-hours cable news channel cameras turned on the fire, trying to turn it into the Tower Inferno and it really wasn't that.
Then there's Trump dissing Susana Martinez, the very popular Hispanic governor of New Mexico, and she in turn was not shy about criticizing him. You've got an appearance by Bill Clinton. He pops up to try to boost the spirits of the Democrats in New Mexico. First lady Michelle Obama was there. It was like a crazy vortex of politics in New Mexico.
On professional gambler Billy Walters and his bail:
It is really a staggering bail. It's a $25 million bail and he had to put up $10 million in cash to get the bond to get out of jail. He has a private jet. And there is concern by the prosecutors that because of the charges he faces, the insider trading charges, that at 68 or 69 years old, he's facing nearly a life sentencing. They fear he'll flee the country in his own jet.
It is fascinating to me. And this is where we have to speculate, but these are insider trading charges. This isn't Al Capone. This isn't violence related charges. Yes, they're serious. But, I'm left to wonder if all the charges he faces and that heavy bail he faces, if it isn't meant to send him a message that maybe if he knows something about how business is done and how politics is conducted in Nevada, and in Congress for that matter, that he might want to open up a line of communication, now that's just speculation.
To contact John L. Smith, email him at jlnevadasmith@gmail.com
John L. Smith, KNPR contributor/commentator; Daily Beast columnist
