Another Noisy Exit

Steven Jacobs was the President of Macau Operations for Las Vegas Sands Corp. ("LVSC"), a company with shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange (see here).

That is, until his termination on July 23, 2010.

In an October 20th complaint filed against LVSC in District Court, Clark County, Nevada (see here) alleging breach of contract and tort-based causes of action, Jacobs alleges, among other things, that LVSC's "notoriously bellicose" Chief Executive Officer and majority shareholder made several "outrageous demands" upon him including, but not limited to the following:

"demands that Jacobs use improper 'leverage' against senior government officials of Macau in order to obtain Strata-Title for the Four Seasons Apartments in Macau;"

"demands that Jacobs threaten to withhold Sands China business from prominent Chinese banks unless they agreed to use influence with newly-elected senior government officials of Macau in order to obtain Strata-Title for the Four Seasons Apartments and favorable treatment with regards to labor quotas and table limits;"

"demands that secret investigations be performed regarding the business and financial affairs of various high-ranking members of the Macau government so that any negative information obtained could be used to exert 'leverage' in order to thwart government regulations/initiatives viewed as adverse to LVSC's interests;" and

"demands that Sands China continue to use the legal services of a Macau attorney [...][an individual media is reporting as a member of a Chinese local government executive council] despite concerns that [the individual's] retention posed serious risks under the criminal provisions of the United States code commonly known as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ('FCPA')."

A LVSC spokesperson has been quoted as saying "While Las Vegas Sands normally does not comment on legal matters, we categorically deny these baseless and inflammatory allegations."

For other examples of recent noisy exists that may implicate the FCPA see this prior post.