Wynn Resorts paying $130M for letting illegal money reach gamblers at its Las Vegas Strip casino

LAS VEGAS — Casino company Wynn Resorts Ltd. has agreed to pay $130 million to federal authorities and admit that it allowed illegal money transmission companies around the world to funnel money to gamblers at its flagship casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

The publicly traded company said a non-prosecution settlement reached Friday represented an amount of money 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 CommissionThe company said the forfeiture was not a fine and that the findings in the decade-long case did not amount to money laundering.

U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath in San Diego said the settlement shows casinos are responsible for allowing foreign customers to circumvent U.S. laws. She said the $130 million is expected to be the largest forfeiture by a casino “based on admissions of criminal wrongdoing.”

Wynn Resorts said it was cutting ties with all people and companies involved in what the government described as “complex transactions” abroad.

“Multiple former employees facilitated the use of unlicensed money transfer companies, which violated both our internal policies and the law, for which we take responsibility,” the company said in a statement to The Associated Press on Saturday.

In his press releaseThe Justice Department provided an overview of several methods it said were used to transfer money between Wynn Las Vegas and people in China and other countries.

One of these, dubbed “Flying Money,” involved an unlicensed money broker using multiple offshore bank accounts to wire money to the casino, for use by a customer who otherwise had no access to cash in the U.S.

Another case involved an individual referred to as a “Human Head” who gambled at the casino at the direction of another individual who was unwilling or unable to place bets due to anti-money laundering and other laws.

The Justice Department said one individual, 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 affiliated entities” on behalf of more than 50 foreign casino visitors.

Wynn Resorts called the agreement with the government a final step in a six-year effort to “put the problems of the past behind us and focus on our future.” The SEC filing noted that the investigation began around 2014.

Former CEO Steve Wynn was not named. But the parent company has been embroiled in legal issues surrounding his departure since 2018 after allegations of sexual misconduct against him were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Wynn’s attorneys in Las Vegas did not respond Saturday to messages about the company’s settlement.

Wynn, now 82 and living in Florida, has said he no longer has any ties to his namesake company and has consistently denied any 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 himself of his shares in the company and stepped down from the board.

Last year, in a deal with Nevada gambling regulators, he agreed to cut ties with the industry he helped shape in Las Vegas and pay a fine of $10 millionHe didn’t admit that he had done anything wrong.

In 2019, the Nevada Gaming Commission fined Wynn Resorts record amount of 20 million dollars for failing to investigate sexual misconduct claims filed against him before he stepped down. Gambling regulators in Massachusetts fined the company and a top executive $35.5 million for failing to disclose allegations of sexual misconduct against Wynn when it applied for a permit for its Encore Boston Harbor resort. The company made no admission of wrongdoing.

Wynn Resorts agreed in November 2019 to accept $20 million in damages from Wynn and $21 million from insurance companies settle shareholder lawsuits in which the company’s directors are accused of failing to report allegations of misconduct.

The Justice Department said Friday that 15 people previously admitted to money laundering, illegal money transfers or other crimes as part of the investigation and paid more than $7.5 million in fines.

Wynn Resorts said in a statement Friday that the agreement with the government not to prosecute did not involve money laundering.