Elaine Wynn didn’t pull any punches in her much anticipated testimony before the Massachusetts Gaming Commission Thursday.
The co-founder of casino giant Wynn Resorts and ex-wife of disgraced former CEO Steve Wynn testified how she confronted her then soon-to-be ex-husband about the email she received in 2009 detailing the rape allegations from 2005.
Elaine Wynn said, “He denied that anything of a sexual nature took place, he claimed he was being extorted by this individual.”
The hearing is the culmination of a months-long investigation into who knew what and when -- amid the fallout of the sexual misconduct allegations against Steve Wynn, and the subsequent cover up by top executives.
Elaine Wynn has maintained that she alerted both outside counsel and Wynn Resorts’ then-general counsel Kim Sinatra of Steve Wynn’s multi-million dollar settlement to cover up the 2005 rape allegation.
Sinatra denies that.
"She reported back to me that the matter had been turned over to outside counsel and that a determination had been made that since Mr. Wynn took care of this personally that it was not a company matter and that it had been handled appropriately," Elaine Wynn said.
U.S. & World
But gaming commissioners pressed her further about legal filings that suggest she knew before the multiple sexual misconduct allegations against Steve Wynn became public last year, that his conduct could expose Massachusetts Gaming regulators to risk.
One commissioner asked Ms. Wynn, “Did you believe Massachusetts regulators were misled?”
She responded, “I did not know the veracity of the claims, but I did believe that there should have been an investigation.”
Now that this hearing has wrapped up, the Gaming Commission will take what it has learned from its investigation and this hearing and deliberate in private.
They will issue their decision in writing as to whether Wynn Resorts gets to keep its Boston-area casino license.
Encore is slated to open in Everett in June.
