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Thursday, April 07, 2016 6:46:58 PM
Sheldon always wins!____Las Vegas Sands to pay $9 million to end SEC investigation
By RICHARD N. VELOTTA
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
TODAY
Las Vegas Sands Corp. will pay a $9 million fine and be required to hire a consultant to monitor its business activities in China and Macau under a settlement reached Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company that owns The Venetian and Palazzo on the Las Vegas Strip as well as properties in Macau, Singapore and Pennsylvania, said the settlement resolves a six-year SEC investigation involving the company’s compliance with the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act that found no evidence of corrupt intent or bribery by the company.
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act makes it illegal for companies and their executives to attempt to influence foreign government officials with personal payments.
The company also said the investigation shows that allegations made against the company in a lawsuit filed by Steven Jacobs, who formerly ran the company’s China operations, were unrelated to the SEC investigation.
In a statement Thursday, the company said “not one of Jacobs’ allegations was the basis for those (SEC) findings.”
“The SEC findings were primarily related to projects started in 2006 — a period long before Steve Jacobs’ tenure began with the company or any of its subsidiaries,” Las Vegas Sands said in a statement. “The projects were orchestrated through a consultant whose activities under a former company president and other former employees were not sufficiently monitored.”
Jacobs, who ran the company’s operations in China for about nine months before he was fired, filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against Sands and its chairman and CEO, Sheldon Adelson, in 2010.
Las Vegas attorney Todd Bice, who represents Jacobs, said the FCC investigation isn’t the final word, and that his client’s lawsuit will show that Jacobs had knowledge of improprieties in Macau.
The SEC’s investigation found that Sands kept inaccurate books and records that lacked supporting documentation or proper approvals for more than $62 million in payments made to a consultant in Asia.
The SEC said the consultant acted as an intermediary to obscure the company’s role in purchasing a professional basketball team in China and a Beijing building the company planned to develop into a business center for Americans seeking to enter the Chinese market.
At one point, Sands could not account for more than $700,000 transferred to the consultant for team expenses, yet continued to transfer millions of dollars to him, SEC investigators said. A portion of the payments were improperly recorded in company books and records, such as money supposedly spent on artwork for the building when none was actually purchased.
“Publicly traded companies must have appropriate financial controls in place to ensure that expenses are paid for bona fide services,” said Andrew Ceresney, director of the SEC Enforcement Division. “Las Vegas Sands failed to implement controls to prevent tens of millions of dollars from being paid out without appropriate documentation or authorization.”
Adelson said the company is happy to have the matter resolved.
“We are committed to having a world class compliance program that builds on the strong policies we already have in place. While we started corrective action on this particular matter prior to the initiation of the government investigations, we understand that running an industry-leading compliance operation takes time, resources and the full support of senior management – I’m proud to say our company has exactly that,” Adelson said in a statement. “We will build on this experience, which has reemphasized to our 50,000 team members worldwide the same values I have made the foundation of my seven decades in business – integrity and reputation matter.”
The Review-Journal is owned by a limited liability company controlled by the Adelson family, majority owners of Las Vegas Sands.
http://www.reviewjournal.com/business/las-vegas-sands-pay-9-million-end-sec-investigation
By RICHARD N. VELOTTA
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
TODAY
Las Vegas Sands Corp. will pay a $9 million fine and be required to hire a consultant to monitor its business activities in China and Macau under a settlement reached Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company that owns The Venetian and Palazzo on the Las Vegas Strip as well as properties in Macau, Singapore and Pennsylvania, said the settlement resolves a six-year SEC investigation involving the company’s compliance with the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act that found no evidence of corrupt intent or bribery by the company.
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act makes it illegal for companies and their executives to attempt to influence foreign government officials with personal payments.
The company also said the investigation shows that allegations made against the company in a lawsuit filed by Steven Jacobs, who formerly ran the company’s China operations, were unrelated to the SEC investigation.
In a statement Thursday, the company said “not one of Jacobs’ allegations was the basis for those (SEC) findings.”
“The SEC findings were primarily related to projects started in 2006 — a period long before Steve Jacobs’ tenure began with the company or any of its subsidiaries,” Las Vegas Sands said in a statement. “The projects were orchestrated through a consultant whose activities under a former company president and other former employees were not sufficiently monitored.”
Jacobs, who ran the company’s operations in China for about nine months before he was fired, filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against Sands and its chairman and CEO, Sheldon Adelson, in 2010.
Las Vegas attorney Todd Bice, who represents Jacobs, said the FCC investigation isn’t the final word, and that his client’s lawsuit will show that Jacobs had knowledge of improprieties in Macau.
The SEC’s investigation found that Sands kept inaccurate books and records that lacked supporting documentation or proper approvals for more than $62 million in payments made to a consultant in Asia.
The SEC said the consultant acted as an intermediary to obscure the company’s role in purchasing a professional basketball team in China and a Beijing building the company planned to develop into a business center for Americans seeking to enter the Chinese market.
At one point, Sands could not account for more than $700,000 transferred to the consultant for team expenses, yet continued to transfer millions of dollars to him, SEC investigators said. A portion of the payments were improperly recorded in company books and records, such as money supposedly spent on artwork for the building when none was actually purchased.
“Publicly traded companies must have appropriate financial controls in place to ensure that expenses are paid for bona fide services,” said Andrew Ceresney, director of the SEC Enforcement Division. “Las Vegas Sands failed to implement controls to prevent tens of millions of dollars from being paid out without appropriate documentation or authorization.”
Adelson said the company is happy to have the matter resolved.
“We are committed to having a world class compliance program that builds on the strong policies we already have in place. While we started corrective action on this particular matter prior to the initiation of the government investigations, we understand that running an industry-leading compliance operation takes time, resources and the full support of senior management – I’m proud to say our company has exactly that,” Adelson said in a statement. “We will build on this experience, which has reemphasized to our 50,000 team members worldwide the same values I have made the foundation of my seven decades in business – integrity and reputation matter.”
The Review-Journal is owned by a limited liability company controlled by the Adelson family, majority owners of Las Vegas Sands.
http://www.reviewjournal.com/business/las-vegas-sands-pay-9-million-end-sec-investigation
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