Las Vegas Review Journal

Sands China Ltd. has cheated its former president and CEO out of his day in court “long enough,” the man’s attorney argued Thursday.

Attorney Todd Bice urged Clark County District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez to find that she has jurisdiction over the company in a wrongful termination case filed by the former executive, Steven Jacobs.

“It’s hard to believe that we are talking about jurisdiction in a case that is approaching the five-year mark, but we are,” Bice said.

The case was filed by Jacobs, former president and CEO of Sands China, shortly after he was fired in 2010. It has made several trips to the Nevada Supreme Court over the years, and Gonzalez has said she also expects an appeal of her decision on the jurisdiction issue.

Sheldon Adelson will be confronted in court for the first time with allegations of wrongdoing by a man he fired five years ago as the head of his Macau casinos.

Adelson, the 81-year-old billionaire founder and chairman of Las Vegas Sands Corp., is among the casino operator’s top executives listed as witnesses for a hearing starting Monday in a lawsuit brought by Steven Jacobs, the former chief executive officer of the company’s Macau unit.

Jacobs hasn’t had a chance during the 4 1/2-year-old Nevada case to put his ex-boss on the witness stand. He claims he was fired for balking at what he says were illegal demands, including to dig up information about high-ranking Macau government officials that, according to a court filing, could be used to “exert leverage.”

“There’s going to be mudslinging,” said Greg Doll, a lawyer at Doll Amir & Eley LLP in Los Angeles who isn’t involved in the case. “You can bet your bottom dollar that Jacobs is going to bring up stuff that is uncomfortable for Sands China and for Adelson in particular.”

Adelson denies allegations he ordered secret investigations into the business and financial affairs of government officials, as well as Jacobs’s claim that he personally approved a strategy condoning prostitution at the Macau casinos. Sands has said in court filings that Jacobs was dismissed for working on unauthorized deals and violating company policy.

District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez has ordered hefty sanctions against Las Vegas Sands subsidiary Sands China Ltd. for improperly withholding documents in an ongoing wrongful termination lawsuit.

In an order filed Friday, Gonzalez told the attorneys to surrender the documents, pay $250,000 to various legal charities and cover significant court costs incurred by plaintiff Steven Jacobs, the former president of Sands Macau. She previously ruled that failure to turn over the documents violated Jacobs’ rights.

Jacobs’ lawyer, Todd Bice, said the judge was trying to “level the playing field” by handing down the penalties.

“We’ll see whether or not they want to change their course of conduct,” he said.

In what Bice called one of the more significant sanctions, the judge also restricted Sands China Ltd. from calling any of its own witnesses during a hearing on jurisdiction.

“We are disappointed in the court’s decision and do not believe it is supported by the evidence,” Ron Reese, a spokesman for Las Vegas Sands Corp., wrote in an email in response to the 41-page ruling. “Sands China intends to seek review from a higher court.”

Gonzalez had previously ruled that Sands China violated her September 2012 order in the case by redacting the documents. The subsidiary’s “ongoing noncompliance is incompatible with and undermines the search for truth,” Gonzalez wrote Friday, calling the company’s lack of transparency “highly problematic.”

Jacobs sued Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Sands China in 2010 for breach of contract related to his termination and had asked the defendants to turn over about 100,000 emails and other documents. He sought the emails and documents to show that decisions made in Las Vegas controlled Sands China on many subjects. Included in the list was the allegation that Las Vegas Sands Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson had personally approved a “prostitution strategy” for Macau, which Adelson and the company deny.

A United States court has ordered Macau’s biggest casino operator to hand over sensitive documents it has been accused of withholding improperly as part of a wrongful termination lawsuit involving a former senior executive.

Nevada District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez also ordered Sands China, which operates the Venetian in Macau, to pay US$250,000 to legal charities and cover significant court costs incurred by Steven Jacobs, the former president of Sands Macau with whom it is in dispute.

Todd Bice, a lawyer for the former executive, said the judge’s order was an attempt to “level the playing field” in the legal tussle.

Sands China said it was disappointed by the court’s decision and did not believe it was supported by the evidence.

Ron Reese, a spokesman for Las Vegas Sands, said: “Sands China intends to seek review from a higher court”, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

Gonzalez had previously ruled that Sands China violated her September 2012 order in the case by redacting the various documents.

The first medical marijuana dispensary in Nevada is yet to open, but the lawsuits are already flying as applicants jockey for a starting position in the state’s green gold rush.

GB Sciences Nevada LLC, a company that won city approval for a Las Vegas dispensary but missed the cut on state licensing, has filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s rankings. The state also faces a lawsuit from seven dispensary applicants hoping to open in unincorporated Clark County who gained county approval but not state approval.

Industry observers say the lawsuits won’t stop the medical marijuana boom, but deal a setback that will slow the expansion of the industry at a critical juncture.

Much is at stake for Nevada’s would-be medical pot barons: Entry into the lucrative field is limited and competitive, and the possibility of legalized recreational use could fuel the industry’s future growth.

The Nevada industry’s entry into the courtroom mirrors what has happened elsewhere in the United States as medical marijuana started, including neighboring Arizona.

“My opinion is it’s not good for the industry,” said John Laub, president of the Las Vegas Medical Marijuana Association, of the lawsuits. “I’m not happy with it.”

On Friday, lawyers for the seven applicants who won approval from Clark County but not the state asked a judge to order the state to reconsider.