United States judge orders Sands China to hand over documents in case involving former president
Papers relate to a breach of contract suit brought by a former Sands China president
A United States court has ordered Macau's biggest casino operator to hand over sensitive documents it has been accused of withholding improperly as part of a wrongful termination lawsuit involving a former senior executive.
Nevada District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez also ordered Sands China, which operates the Venetian in Macau, to pay US$250,000 to legal charities and cover significant court costs incurred by Steven Jacobs, the former president of Sands Macau with whom it is in dispute.
Todd Bice, a lawyer for the former executive, said the judge's order was an attempt to "level the playing field'' in the legal tussle.
Sands China said it was disappointed by the court's decision and did not believe it was supported by the evidence.
Ron Reese, a spokesman for Las Vegas Sands, said: "Sands China intends to seek review from a higher court", the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Gonzalez had previously ruled that Sands China violated her September 2012 order in the case by redacting the various documents.
The company's "ongoing non-compliance is incompatible with and undermines the search for truth", Gonzalez wrote in a ruling delivered on Friday.
Jacobs sued Las Vegas Sands and Sands China in 2010 for breach of contract related to his termination and asked the defendants to turn over about 100,000 emails and other documents.
Included in the list of documents was the allegation that Las Vegas Sands chairman and CEO, Sheldon Adelson, had personally approved a "prostitution strategy" for Macau, which Adelson and the company strenuously deny.
In a 2012 order, Gonzalez ruled that neither defendant could cite the Macau Personal Data Protection Act as an objection to disclosure of any documents.
She made the ruling after learning that "significant amounts of data from Macau related to Jacobs were transported to the United States" and reviewed by in-house counsel for Las Vegas Sands and outside counsel.
The judge also determined that the transferred data was relevant to the ongoing question of whether the Nevada court had jurisdiction over Sands China.
"One of the principal sanctions this court imposed for the misrepresentations and lack of candour continues to be ignored by [Sands China]," the judge wrote in Friday's decision, adding that the defendants should cover Jacobs' legal bills for nine "needless" hearings that involved issues related to the Macau Personal Data Protection Act.