Las Vegas Sands has been ordered by a judge to pay $25,000 to the Legal Aid Center of Nevada, and to cover attorney’s fees for a previous employee that was fired. The company owns significant casino operations in Macau, China, and it claims that the executive was fired from his position as CEO of these holdings for just cause. However, as we have previously discussed, the plaintiff in the wrongful termination lawsuit claims that he was fired for refusing to engage in improper conduct and for opposing company demands. According to the lawsuit, he wasn’t able to collect on valuable stock options due to his termination by the company.
The judge claimed that information pertinent to the lawsuit filed by the fired executive was held up by the company in an effort to stall the lawsuit against it. The company has said that the holdup of information occurred because of the Macau Personal Data Privacy Act. Nine hearings were held between May 2011 and May 2012, but Las Vegas Sands was unable to provide all of the needed documents because of this law that prevented them from accessing key information. Lawyers for Las Vegas Sands acknowledged that the act served as a detriment to accessing electronic information, similar to emails.
The judge admonished the defendant, claiming that the company had the requested information as early as August 2010, but didn’t reveal this to the judge, despite her requests for the information. Therefore, she imposed this financial penalty on the company. Although Las Vegas Sands has said that it disagrees with the judge’s decision against the company, it is unclear at this time whether Las Vegas Sands will appeal the decision or pay the penalty ordered by the judge.
Source: VEGAS INC, “Judge fines Las Vegas Sands $25,000 for failing to disclose information in lawsuit,” Steve Green, Sep. 14, 2012
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