A lawsuit filed by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) against disgraced casino mogul Steve Wynn pushing for him to register as an agent of the Chinese government has been dismissed by a federal judge.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said the Justice Department could not compel Wynn to register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) because any relationship Wynn had with Beijing ended in 2017.
The DOJ filed its lawsuit in May alleging Wynn acted as an agent of the Chinese government by making requests on its behalf to Donald Trump when Trump was President.
It specifically claimed that Wynn asked Trump, at the behest of China, to deport a Chinese national who was seeking asylum in the US. Businessman Guo Wengui fled to the US in 2014 after being accused of bribery and sexual assault.
The lawsuit had been seeking to force Wynn to register as an agent of the Chinese government under the Foreign Agents Registration Act after he refused to do so on three separate occasions in 2018, 2021, and 2022.
Commenting on the lawsuit being dismissed, Wynn’s lawyers Reid Weingarten and Robert Luskin said: “We are delighted that the District Court today dismissed the government’s ill-conceived lawsuit against Steve Wynn. Mr Wynn never acted as an agent of the Chinese government and never lobbied on its behalf.”
Wynn, now aged 80, stepped down as Chairman and CEO of Wynn Resorts in early 2018 over sexual misconduct allegations and sold off his entire 12.1% stake in the company.
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