CVN screenshot of plaintiff attorney John O’Malley delivering his opening statement. Click here to see video from the trial.
Las Vegas, NV - A Hong Kong businessman who claims Las Vegas Sands Corp. owed him $347 million for helping the company gain access to Macau's lucrative gambling market reached a confidential settlement with the casino chain on Thursday in Nevada state court.
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed when Clark County Circuit Court Judge Rob Bare dismissed the jury. The previous day attorneys for plaintiff Richard Suen and LVS delivered their opening statements in a trial that had been slated to run through March.
Courtroom View Network webcast and recorded the proceedings gavel-to-gavel.
The trial would have featured testimony from LVS CEO Sheldon Adelson, however Judge Bare ruled Adelson's ongoing cancer treatments would prevent him from participating. LVS argued Suen only deserved $3.8 million for helping LVS expand into Macau, a Chinese territory near Hong Kong, in the early 2000's.
Representatives for the parties did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Thursday's settlement marked an end to long-running litigation that saw two previous jury verdicts thrown out by appeals courts. An initial trial in 2008 resulted in a $43.8 million verdict for Suen, and another in 2013 (also recorded by CVN and available to subscribers) ended in a $70 million award that later grew to more than $100 million with interest.
The Nevada Supreme Court threw out the most recent award, preserving a verdict in favor of Suen and his company Round Square Co. but ordering a new trial on damages, finding the previous trial only showed a “tenuous relationship” between Suen’s efforts and the profits Las Vegas Sands ultimately generated in Macau.
Suen is represented by John O’Malley out of Norton Rose Fulbright’s Los Angeles office, and by local Nevada counsel Todd Bice of Pisanelli Bice.
Las Vegas Sands is represented by Richard Sauber out of Robbins Russell’s Washington, DC office, and local Nevada counsel Jim Jimmerson of the Jimmerson Law Firm.
The case is captioned Richard Suen, Round Square Company Ltd vs Las Vegas Sands Corp., case number 04A493744 in Nevada’s Eighth Judicial District Court (Clark County).
E-mail David Siegel at dsiegel@cvn.com