Federal Appeals Court Will not Toss RICO Case Vs. Steve Wynn, Wynn Resorts
Posted on: April 25, 2022, 05:31h. 
Final updated on: April 25, 2022, 05:31h.
A 9th Circuit appellate panel final week denied a motion to dismiss a civil RICO case that accuses Steve Wynn, Wynn Resorts, and other individuals of bribery and judicial corruption.
The case was brought by Angela Limcaco, who says she blew the whistle on Steve Wynn’s alleged sexual misconduct 15 years ago but was bullied into silence.
Limcaco is a former salon manager at Wynn Las Vegas. In 2015, she told senior casino management that Wynn had sexually assaulted and impregnated a single of her employees at the salon. The unnamed woman’s employment was abruptly terminated, and she was paid a concealed $7.5 million settlement.
The existence of the settlement was later confirmed by a Massachusetts Gaming Commission investigation.
Limcaco’s account was the basis for a bombshell Wall Street Journal exposé, published in January2018, that alleged Wynn engaged in a “decades-lengthy pattern” of misconduct against female personnel.
The write-up led to Wynn’s resignation and withdrawal from the casino organization.
But back in 2005, when Limcaco very first aired her concerns, she claims she was fired and blacklisted from the gaming business.
Alleged Conspiracy
Limcaco initial sued Wynn Las Vegas in 2018 in a Nevada federal court, alleging sexual harassment, retaliation, and wrongful termination. But Judge Miranda Du dismissed the case in April 2020, ruling Limcaco had not created her claim inside the statute of limitations.
Wynn’s lead counsel in that case, Elayna Youchah, was appointed a magistrate judge in US District Court in Nevada quickly following she filed a motion to dismiss Limcaco’s complaint.
That produced Youchach a colleague of the presiding judge, and she took up her new post shortly just before the Judge Du tossed the case.
This, according to Limcaco’s lawyers, raised “serious inquiries relating to the District Court’s potential to remain impartial.”
Then they found that Wynn Resorts had created payments to the Legal Help Center of Southern Nevada (LACSN) that coincided with the dismissal of the case and Youchach’s appointment.
The executive director of LACSN is former Democratic leader of the Nevada Assembly Barbara Buckley, who was also on the panel that chosen Youchach for the magistrate position.
Limcaco filed the RICO suit in California, alleging the LACSN payments had been a condition of Youchach’s appointment. The complaint claimed there had been a higher-level conspiracy to protect Wynn Resorts’ license in Massachusetts, which was then below scrutiny, by quashing a negative ruling in Nevada.
‘Highly Speculative’
In November 2021, Senior United States District Judge Ronald Lew dismissed the case, describing it as “highly speculative.”
But last Thursday, the appellate panel mentioned it was ready to examine the allegations, opining that the “arguments raised in the opening brief are sufficiently substantial to warrant additional consideration.”
Limcaco lawyers argue that the District Court need to have deemed numerous public records that have been filed as evidence, and which purportedly show “a pattern [at Wynn Resorts] that is straight relevant” to the case.
These incorporate the conviction of former Wynn Resorts executive Gamal Aziz on fraud and bribery charges connected to the College Admissions Scandal.
Broidy is accused of attempting to correctly influence the Trump administration into dropping charges against 1MDB fugitive Jho Low, and of pushing for the extradition of outspoken Chinese dissident Guo Wengui back to his residence nation.
Broidy attempted to enlist Wynn’s assist in this final matter, according to the WSJ and numerous court filings, with Broidy and Wynn calling Trump from Wynn’s yacht to inquire about Guo’s status in August 2017.
