A lawyer acting for Las Vegas Sands Corp. says the company will continue its attempts to overturn a USD58.6 million civil court award to Hong Kong businessman Richard Suen.
In a six-week trial at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas that ended in May, lawyers for Mr Suen successfully argued he helped LVS secure a gaming licence in Macau and was entitled to financial reward for doing so.
The original trial judge, District Judge Michelle Leavitt has already denied two post trial motions from LVS lawyers in the case, one to have the judgment overturned and one to have the award reduced, the Las Vegas Review Journal has reported.
LVS says Mr Suen’s role was incidental. In filing to overturn the judgment, attorney Rusty Hardin, for LVS, said the jury relied on hearsay testimony. John O’Malley, an attorney for Mr Suen, countered this was “stretching the bounds of reality”, the newspaper reported.
Mr Hardin said LVS would take the case to the Nevada Supreme Court, the Review Journal added.
Mr Suen was originally claiming a USD5 million success fee and two percent of LVS’s net profit in Macau.
A jury awarded Mr Suen USD43.8 million in May as compensation for consulting services he claimed he provided for LVS in the run-up to Macau’s gaming industry liberalisation. This included arranging a meeting in Beijing in July 2001 between the LVS Chairman Sheldon Adelson and China’s then vice-premier Qian Qichen, said Mr Suen. The Nevada court later added USD14.8 million in interest payments to the jury’s award.
Lawyers for Mr Suen and his Hong Kong-registered firm Round Square unsuccessfully petitioned the Nevada court in October to require Las Vegas Sands to post a bond to guarantee payment of the award.
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