Casino magnate Steve Wynn has thwarted a legal bid by the Department of Justice in the United States to force him to register as an agent of China.
Wynn was accused of lobbying former US president Donald Trump and several members of his administration in 2017 to expel a Chinese national who was seeking political asylum in the United States. The individual in question had been charged with corruption by Chinese authorities. However, multiple efforts to fly the man back to China drew a blank.
The Justice Department alleged that Wynn was doing so in order to protect his gaming business interests in Macau at a time when he was about to renegotiate his casino concession with the Macau SAR Government.
In a lengthy judgement, US District Judge James Boasberg ruled that the Department of Justice had no legal authority to force Wynn to register retroactively under the Foreign Agents Registration Act after his alleged relationship with Chinese authorities ended in 2017.
“We are delighted that the District Court today dismissed the government’s ill-conceived lawsuit against Steve Wynn,” Wynn’s lawyers, Reid Weingarten and Robert Luskin, said in a statement quoted by South China Morning Post. “Mr Wynn never acted as an agent of the Chinese government and never lobbied on its behalf.”
According to media reports, it was the first time in three decades the Department of Justice had resorted to a civil lawsuit to push for a registration under the Act.
Wynn, 80, resigned as Chairman and CEO of Wynn Resorts in 2018 following a spate of sexual misconduct allegations.
