Adelson again to be lead witness in case brought by consultant

In a rerun of five years ago, Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson will be the lead witness in the breach-of-contract case brought by one-time consultant Richard Suen.

Short-circuiting any argument by attorneys, Clark County District Judge Rob Bare on Tuesday ruled that Adelson had been properly served with a summons to appear at the trial, set to start on April 3 after jury selection the previous week. Adelson would face questioning by Suen’s attorneys the next day.

To balance this, Bare allowed Adelson to delay his trip to the witness stand until after Passover. Sands attorney J. Stephen Peek said Adelson would spend the entire Jewish religious holiday in Israel with his family. Otherwise, his testimony would start during Passover, which starts on March 26 and runs until April 2.

Suen alleges he paved the way for Sands to enter Macau, which has turned out to be a highly lucrative franchise, by arranging meetings with key Chinese government officials. Former Sands President Bill Weidner signed the deal with Suen a dozen years ago to pay him a fee of $5 million plus 2 percent of the casino revenue if his work led to securing a gaming license.

In a trial that ran 29 days in 2008, a jury awarded Suen $43.8 million for his work, which rose to $60 million with interest. Las Vegas Sands contended he did nothing to earn the money.

However, the Nevada Supreme Court overturned the verdict three years ago because of what it deemed errors by the trial judge. Although there were hints of a settlement, the case has steamed toward a second round.

By taking the approach that he did, Bare avoided a battle over whether Adelson had properly received the subpoena to appear at the trial. Suen’s attorneys said service was rebuffed in August, so they hired a process server to hand the papers to Adelson as he emerged from a deposition in another matter on Sept. 6.

As part of their case, Suen’s attorneys submitted a crude video of Adelson emerging from an office building with bodyguards and the subpoena being handed to Peek.

Contact reporter Tim O’Reiley at
toreiley@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290.