It looks as though lawyers are in for another decent payday after yet more litigation over Las Vegas Sands’ entry into the Macau casino market.
This time it’s a case within a case. The writs are out in a defamation process sparked by claims allegedly made by Moshe Hananel, an Israeli who says he is owed a fee as ‘partner’ in LVS’s Macau venture.
LVS has dismissed Mr Hananel’s stance as ‘absurd’ in filings to a Las Vegas court. It has also taken issue with stories written about Mr Hananel’s claims in a Las Vegas newspaper.
Recently lawyers for LVS sought to subpoena a reporter in order to pursue a defamation suit on behalf of their client. Last week that move was rejected by a federal magistrate in the US.
Judge Peggy Leen in Las Vegas ruled that Nevada’s media shield law protected Las Vegas Sun reporter Rick Velotta from questioning under oath about stories written in 2004 concerning a legal dispute in Israel between LVS’s chairman Sheldon Adelson and Mr Hananel.
In theory LVS could appeal the judge’s order to Senior US. District Judge Edward Reed Jr, who is presiding over the defamation suit.
Mr Adelson filed the lawsuit on 11th December 2006 in the US District Court in Nevada against Mr Hananel, an employee from 1996 to 2000 of one of Mr Adelson’s companies, Interface Partners International Ltd. He accused Hananel of making false statements about their relationship in interviews with Mr Velotta and other Las Vegas media.
