Steve Wynn accused of sexual misconduct, report says

Shares of Wynn Resorts plunged 10% in Friday trading after The Wall Street Journal reported allegations that billionaire CEO and chairman Steve Wynn engaged in sexual misconduct with company employees over decades.

The report quoted accounts in which dozens of people who worked at Wynn casinos said his behavior represented a pattern of sexual misconduct, including allegedly pressuring some employees to perform sex acts with him.

In a statement sent to the Journal and issued as a news release by the casino company, Wynn wrote that "the idea that I ever assaulted any woman is preposterous."

"We find ourselves in a world where people can make allegations, regardless of the truth, and a person is left with the choice of weathering insulting publicity or engaging in multi-year lawsuits," Wynn continued in the written statement. "It is deplorable for anyone to find themselves in this situation."

Wynn, who is to turn 76 on Saturday, is the latest in a series of high-profile men who have been accused of improperly using their power to pressure female employees and other women into sex.

The lengthy Journal report cited one episode shortly after the flagship Wynn Las Vegas opened in 2005. A manicurist who worked there was purportedly pressured by Wynne to disrobe and, eventually, to have sex, according to a colleague who said the worker sobbed as she described afterward what allegedly took place.

Citing unidentified people familiar with the matter, the Journal reported that Wynn paid the manicurist a $7.5 million settlement.

According to the report, the alleged incident was referenced, in broad terms, in a lawsuit filed by Elaine Wynn, Wynn's ex-wife, against the casino mogul and the gaming company.

"It is clear that Mr. Wynn's ex-wife has sought to use a negative public relations campaign to achieve what she has been unable to do in the courtroom: tarnish the reputation of Mr. Wynn in an attempt to pressure a revised divorce settlement from him," Wynn Resorts said in a statement issued Friday.

"It is noteworthy that although Ms. Wynn says she knew about the 2005 allegations involving Mr. Wynn in 2009, she never made them known to the board of directors, of which she was then a member, and she did not raise them until after Mr. Wynn remarried and the shareholders of Wynn Resorts voted not to elect her to the board," the statement said.

"Beyond this incident, dozens of people The Wall Street Journal interviewed who have worked at Mr. Wynn’s casinos told of behavior that cumulatively would amount to a decades-long pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Wynn," the newspaper report said. "Some described him pressuring employees to perform sex acts."

Among other things, the report cited accounts from former employees who said they entered fake appointments in casino salon calendars to help female employees to avoid Wynn requests for services in his office suite.

Others recounted incidents in which female employees hid in the bathroom or back rooms when they learned Wynn was on the way to the salon, the Journal reported.

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Wynn Resorts investor Richard Miller, the managing partner of Gullane Capital Partners, recommended an outside investigation of what he characterized as the "darn serious allegations," Bloomberg News reported.

Wynn, an internationally known casino executive, is listed with a current net worth of $3.6 billion on the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans. Along with Wynn Las Vegas, Wynn created some of the most notable gaming and hotel landmarks in Las Vegas, including The Mirage, Treasure Island, and Bellagio.

The son of an East Coast bingo parlor operator, he took over the struggling business when his father died and moved into the Las Vegas casino industry in 1967, the Forbes report said.

Wynn Resorts' president is Matthew Maddox, who joined the company in 2002. Maddox also serves as a non-executive director of Wynn Macau, a company subsidiary that operates a luxury casino and hotel in China.

Steve Wynn has supported both Republican and Democratic campaigns over the years. However, he has become more involved in Republican politics as former casino rival Donald Trump rose to national political power and won the 2016 presidential election.

Wynn served as the vice chair — alongside fellow casino mogul and GOP booster Sheldon Adelson — for the committee that raised more than $107 million for Trump’s inauguration.

Shortly afterward, Wynn was named as the Republican National Committee’s finance chairman. He has since worked on raising campaign financing for the 2018 midterm congressional elections.

The Republican National Committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Journal report.

The published allegations sent Wynn Resorts shares 10.1% lower to a $180.29 close. Even with Friday's nosedive, the stock is up roughly 87% from this time last year.

The steep drop sliced $2.09 billion from the company's market capitalization, according to market data from FactSet. At the same time, Wynn, whom the data shows as owning an 11.8% stake in the company via 12.132 million shares, lost $246.4 million in stock value Friday.

The Vanguard Group, a U.S. investment advisor giant, is the casino company's top institutional investor, with a nearly 8% stake, the data shows.

Contributing: Adam Shell