Las Vegas, NV – A U.S. District Court judge has ruled that a former employee of Las Vegas Sands owner Sheldon Adelson did not come up with plans to build a casino off the China coast and is not entitled to compensation.
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Moshe Hananel, who managed Adelson’s Interface Partners International’s office in Tel Aviv, alleged that he had a deal to be compensated with 12 percent of investments he managed while employed at the Needham-based firm.
Hananel’s attorneys said their client not only came up with the idea to construct a casino on Macau, but researched the area and prepared documents for Adelson.
But following a three-week trial, Judge Patti Saris found that Hananel is not due a share of the Sands casino in China, one of the largest in the world.
The judge also noted that at the time of Hananel’s research, more casinos were not allowed on the island.
“Not only did Hananel fail to take sufficient action to initiate the Macau casino, given the timing of his actions, it was impossible for him to initiate it,” she wrote. In terms of any deal to collect a percentage, the judge said the details were too vague to be enforceable.
Still, in June, the Las Vegas Sands Corp. paid three men $42.5 million to settle a lawsuit, according to the firm’s second-quarter earnings. Clive Bassett Jones, Dax Turok and Cliff Cheong sued the company over payment for their assistance in helping Las Vegas Sands acquire a Macau gaming license in 2002.