{"id":15790,"date":"2015-03-26T12:46:40","date_gmt":"2015-03-26T20:46:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=15790"},"modified":"2015-03-26T12:46:40","modified_gmt":"2015-03-26T20:46:40","slug":"elaine-wynns-credibility-problem-caesars-faces-tough-scrutiny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/elaine-wynns-credibility-problem-caesars-faces-tough-scrutiny\/","title":{"rendered":"Elaine Wynn’s credibility problem; Caesars faces tough scrutiny"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elaine Wynn<\/strong> is starting to develop a credibility problem, at least if you read<\/a> the Bloomberg<\/em> story that characterizes various instances of Ms. Wynn either passing the buck or \"Elaine<\/a>being in denial. For instance, she claims not to have known that Steve Wynn<\/strong> wanted to do a joint-venture development on the old New Frontier<\/strong> site with El-Ad Properties<\/strong>. Hell, everybody<\/em> in the gaming world knew that, Mr. Wynn having broadcast it in an investor call. She also claims ignorance of a $9.5 million stock sale made during a “dark” period leading up to an earnings report. She puts the blame for the stock boner on her foundation.\u00a0\u201cI did not sell shares to put money in my pocket to go buy boats,” she said defensively. “After the fact they raise the issue this was a dark period.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Wynn does have a good point, made previously, when she says that sharing insider information about any Wynn Resorts<\/strong> interest in the New Frontier parcel with nephew Andrew Pascal<\/strong> would have been detrimental to her own financial interest, which is deeply intertwined with that of Wynn Resorts itself. As for controversial perks,“such as\u00a0leasing a personal art collection to the companies, use of company-owned residences and private jets,” Elaine Wynn again pleads ignorance, pointing the finger of blame at board\u00a0member Bob Miller<\/strong>. Those extra goodies, by the way, earned Wynn Resorts a “D” for corporate governance from GMI Ratings<\/strong>. The former Mrs. Wynn can’t run from those issues, know matter how fast she skis\u00a0up DeNile.<\/p>\n

* What did Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> know and when did it know it? That may be one of the operative questions now that former Watergate<\/strong> prosecutor Richard Davis<\/strong> has been appointed<\/a> by Judge Benjamin Goldgar<\/strong> to investigate the labyrinthine transactions \"caesarscasino_1\"<\/a>whereby Caesars ended up shielding many of its best assets from bankruptcy. “You game for this? You’re in,” asked Goldgar, who is obviously taking this gargantuan Chapter 11 with all due seriousness. (Caesars may yet rue its choice of an Illinois<\/strong> courtroom.)<\/p>\n

Notches on Davis’ belt include the 18.5-minute gap in Richard Nixon<\/strong>‘s Oval Office<\/strong> tapes and negotiations with Iran<\/strong> for the release of American hostages. So both Caesars and its creditors can probably expect to be asked some tough questions. Reuters<\/strong> reports, “Examiners can dramatically affect a restructuring. Caesars’ creditors have cited the bankruptcy of energy producer Dynegy Holdings<\/strong>, where an examiner’s report spurred the return of assets that had been transferred outside Dynegy’s estate.” Those creditors would certainly like to see Davis pull a Dynegy here.<\/p>\n

* Casino fever is spreading across the Bible Belt. In Georgia<\/strong>, Rep. Ron Stephens<\/strong> (R) is proposing six “destination casinos” with an aggregate investment of $2.2 billion to raise revenue for scholarships and preschool programs, as well as to create 20,000 jobs, half of them permanent. His revenue target is $250 million a year<\/a>. Since it’s too late for the bill to voted upon this session, Stephens is sending it up as a trial balloon, to see what his colleagues think of it, then tweak it for the next Legislature. After that (if it passes), it would need two-thirds approval from the voters. Stephens is bucking a strong headwind: Bills to legalize horseracing were dismounted in the Lege earlier this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elaine Wynn is starting to develop a credibility problem, at least if you read the Bloomberg story that characterizes various instances of Ms. Wynn either passing the buck or being in denial. For instance, she claims not to have known … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[152,7,58,33,32,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15790"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15790"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15791,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15790\/revisions\/15791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}