The Chinese arm of US billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s gambling empire is being investigated by Macau privacy authorities over its handling of documents related to a lawsuit by its former CEO, who claims the company has links to crime bosses and encourages prostitution as part of its business strategy.
Sands China Ltd said yesterday it was notified by Macau’s privacy watchdog that an official investigation has been launched into the alleged transfer of “certain data” from the Asian gambling city to the US.
The former CEO, Steve Jacobs, was fired in July 2010 and filed a wrongful dismissal lawsuit three months later. He accuses the company of breach of contract and pushing him into illegal activity in Macau. The suit has drawn interest from US Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission investigators for possible violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Photo: Reuters
Sands China revealed no other details about the privacy investigation. The probe follows statements by Jacobs in US legal filings that Las Vegas Sands Corp, which is the parent company of Sands China, withheld documents related to his wrongful dismissal lawsuit.
Jacobs’ legal team has been seeking the documents from Las Vegas Sands, which the company’s lawyers initially said could not be moved out of Macau. However, they revealed recently that the files had been transferred in error more than a year ago, without notifying Macau or US authorities.
Macau has stringent privacy regulations that require consent and notification of authorities before personal data can be transmitted out of the territory.
A judge in the US has scheduled hearings for Aug. 30 and 31 on possible sanctions against Sands and its lawyers for failure to disclose the information to the other side.
Macau is the world’s biggest gambling market, raking in US$33.5 billion in casino revenue last year. Sands also operates casinos in Singapore as well as the Venetian and Palazzo casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, but its four Macau casinos account for the bulk of the company’s revenue.
Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday introduced the company’s latest supercomputer platform, featuring six new chips made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), saying that it is now “in full production.” “If Vera Rubin is going to be in time for this year, it must be in production by now, and so, today I can tell you that Vera Rubin is in full production,” Huang said during his keynote speech at CES in Las Vegas. The rollout of six concurrent chips for Vera Rubin — the company’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) computing platform — marks a strategic
Enhanced tax credits that have helped reduce the cost of health insurance for the vast majority of US Affordable Care Act enrollees expired on Jan.1, cementing higher health costs for millions of Americans at the start of the new year. Democrats forced a 43-day US government shutdown over the issue. Moderate Republicans called for a solution to save their political aspirations this year. US President Donald Trump floated a way out, only to back off after conservative backlash. In the end, no one’s efforts were enough to save the subsidies before their expiration date. A US House of Representatives vote
REVENUE PERFORMANCE: Cloud and network products, and electronic components saw strong increases, while smart consumer electronics and computing products fell Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday posted 26.51 percent quarterly growth in revenue for last quarter to NT$2.6 trillion (US$82.44 billion), the strongest on record for the period and above expectations, but the company forecast a slight revenue dip this quarter due to seasonal factors. On an annual basis, revenue last quarter grew 22.07 percent, the company said. Analysts on average estimated about NT$2.4 trillion increase. Hon Hai, which assembles servers for Nvidia Corp and iPhones for Apple Inc, is expanding its capacity in the US, adding artificial intelligence (AI) server production in Wisconsin and Texas, where it operates established campuses. This
US President Donald Trump on Friday blocked US photonics firm HieFo Corp’s US$3 million acquisition of assets in New Jersey-based aerospace and defense specialist Emcore Corp, citing national security and China-related concerns. In an order released by the White House, Trump said HieFo was “controlled by a citizen of the People’s Republic of China” and that its 2024 acquisition of Emcore’s businesses led the US president to believe that it might “take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States.” The order did not name the person or detail Trump’s concerns. “The Transaction is hereby prohibited,”
RSS