LAS VEGAS (AP) — Casino company Wynn Resorts Ltd. has agreed to pay $130 million to federal authorities and admit that it let unlicensed money transfer businesses around the world funnel funds to gamblers at its flagship Las Vegas Strip property.
The publicly traded company said a non-prosecution settlement reached Friday represented a monetary figure identified by the U.S. Justice Department as “funds involved in the transactions at issue” at the Wynn Las Vegas resort.
In statements to the media and to the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said the forfeiture wasn’t a fine and findings in the decade-long case didn’t amount to money laundering.
U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath in San Diego said the settlement showed that casinos are accountable if they let foreign customers evade U.S. laws. She said $130 million was believed to be the largest forfeiture by a casino “based on admissions of criminal wrongdoing.”
Wynn Resorts said it severed ties with all people and businesses involved in what the government characterized as “convoluted transactions” overseas.
“Several former employees facilitated the use of unlicensed money transmitting businesses, which both violated our internal policies and the law, and for which we take responsibility,” the company said in a statement Saturday to The Associated Press.
In its news release, the Justice Department detailed several methods it said were used to transfer money between Wynn Las Vegas and people in China and other countries.
One, dubbed “Flying Money,” involved an unlicensed money agent using multiple foreign bank accounts to transfer money to the casino for use by a patron who could not otherwise access cash in the U.S.
Another involved having a person referred to as a “Human Head” gamble at the casino at the direction of another person who was unwilling or unable to place bets because of anti-money laundering and other laws.
The Justice Department said one person, acting as an independent agent for the casino, conducted more than 200 money transfers worth nearly $18 million through bank accounts controlled by Wynn Las Vegas “or associated entities” on behalf of more than 50 foreign casino patrons.
Wynn Resorts called its agreement with the government a final step in a six-year effort to “put legacy issues fully behind us and focus on our future.” The SEC filing noted the investigation began about 2014.
It did not use the name of former CEO Steve Wynn. But since 2018, the parent company has been enmeshed with legal issues surrounding his departure after sexual misconduct allegations against him were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Wynn attorneys in Las Vegas did not respond Saturday to messages about the company settlement.
Wynn, now 82 and living in Florida, has said he has no remaining ties to his namesake company. He has consistently denied committing sexual misconduct.
The billionaire developer of a luxury casino empire in Las Vegas, Massachusetts, Mississippi and the Chinese gambling enclave of Macao resigned from Wynn Resorts after the reports became public, divested company shares and quit the corporate board.
Last year, in an agreement with Nevada gambling regulators, he agreed to cut links to the industry he helped shape in Las Vegas and pay a $10 million fine. He admitted no wrongdoing.
In 2019, the Nevada Gaming Commission fined Wynn Resorts a record $20 million for failing to investigate claims of sexual misconduct made against him before he resigned. Massachusetts gambling regulators fined the company and a top executive $35.5 million for failing to disclose the sexual misconduct allegations against Wynn while it applied for a license for its Encore Boston Harbor resort. The company made no admissions of wrongdoing.
Wynn Resorts agreed in November 2019 to accept $20 million in damages from Wynn and $21 million from insurance carriers to settle shareholder lawsuits accusing company directors of failing to disclose misconduct allegations.
The Justice Department said Friday that as part of its investigation, 15 people previously admitted money laundering, unlicensed money transmission or other crimes, paying criminal penalties of more than $7.5 million.
Wynn Resorts noted in its statement on Friday that its non-prosecution agreement with the government did not refer to money laundering.
FILE - The Wynn Las Vegas is framed under a Las Vegas Boulevard street sign, Tuesday, April 19, 2011, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes are drifting near their records Monday as Wall Street gears up for the most anticipated meeting of the Federal Reserve in years.
The S&P 500 was 0.2% lower in midday trading after flitting between gains and losses earlier in the morning. It's sitting just 0.9% below its all-time high set in July.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 83 points, or 0.2%, as of 11:30 a.m. Eastern time, after climbing above its record closing high earlier in the day. The Nasdaq composite was down 0.7%.
Oracle rose 5.4% to help lead the market, continuing a strong run that began last week with a better-than-expected profit report. Alcoa also jumped 9% after saying it would sell its ownership stake in a Saudi Arabian joint venture to Saudi Arabian Mining Co. for $950 million in stock and $150 million in cash. But drops for some influential Big Tech stocks dragged on indexes, including declines of 2.8% for Apple and 1.9% for Nvidia.
Treasury yields eased in the bond market ahead of what’s expected to be the week’s main event. On Wednesday, the widespread expectation is for the Federal Reserve to cut its main interest rate for the first time in more than four years to deliver some relief to the economy.
The only question is by how much the Fed will cut. Traders are shifting more bets toward a larger-than-usual move of half a percentage point, according to data from CME Group. They’re anticipating a 61% chance the Fed will go beyond the more traditional cut of a quarter of a percentage point. That’s up from 50% on Friday and just 30% a week ago.
The difference between a half-point cut and a quarter may sound academic, but it can have far-ranging effects. While lowering rates relieves pressure on the economy, it can also give inflation more fuel.
The Federal Reserve has been keeping its main interest rate at a two-decade high in hopes of slowing the economy enough to stifle high inflation. With inflation having eased substantially from its peak two summers ago, the Fed has said it can turn more focus to bolstering the slowing job market and economy. Some critics say it may be moving too late, increasing the risk of a possible recession.
A Fed cut of half a percentage point would likely be the best case for the stock market in the very short term, according to Michael Wilson and other strategists at Morgan Stanley. But that's only if the Fed can convince investors it's not getting forced into a bigger-than-usual cut because of worries about a recession, among other factors.
Still, the more important thing for where stocks are heading over the next three to six months will be how well the job market holds up, according to Wilson. If employment weakens, stocks could fall regardless of whether the Fed cuts by half or a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 3.63% from 3.66% late Friday. The two-year yield, which moves more closely with expectations for the Fed, eased to 3.55% from 3.59%.
That was despite a report in the morning showing manufacturing in New York state returned to growth in September. That surprised economists, who were expecting another month of contraction for an area of the economy that’s been hit hard by high interest rates.
On Wall Street, Carl Icahn's Icahn Enterprises rose 7.1% after it said a U.S. judge dismissed a proposed class-action lawsuit against the company, one based on allegations by a research firm that looks for financial irregularities and tries to profit when the stock prices fall.
Fertilizer producer Mosaic fell 4.8% after it said electrical equipment failures at mines and Hurricane Francine will reduce its production of potash and phosphate in the current quarter.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed amid mostly modest movements across Europe and Asia. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.3% after data released over the weekend showed China’s economy slowed further in August.
Markets in Japan, mainland China and South Korea were closed for holidays.
AP Writers Matt Ott and Zimo Zhong contributed.
FILE - The American flag hangs from the front of the New York Stock Exchange on Sept. 10, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)
FILE - A currency trader passes by a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, on Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)
FILE - A person looks at an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm in Tokyo, on Sept. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
