Asian American lawsuit still pending

The Court of Final Appeal (TUI) has confirmed a ruling made by a lower court that recognizes and enforces a foreign decision made in a case between Las Vegas Sands (LVS) and the Asian American Entertainment Corp. (AAECL).
With TUI’s decision, Macau’s judicial authorities are recognizing a sentence dated April 10, 2009 from the Ninth Circuit of the United States Court of Appeal, based in Nevada, stating that AAECL’s action should be partially dismissed.
AAECL claims that it is owed money for a breach of contract of a joint venture agreement relating to a casino license bid. The chairman of the insolvent company (which requested and was granted legal aid in Macau on the grounds of insufficient funds) is Taiwanese businessman Shi-Sheng Marshall Hao, who claims he negotiated an agreement with Sheldon Adelson, Sands’ majority shareholder, in 2001 to win a Macau gaming concession for the following year 2002. Asian American Entertainment alleges that Sands terminated the joint venture and instead teamed up with Hong Kong group Galaxy Entertainment.
However, the consequences of the recognition of Nevada’s court decision on the lawsuit filed by AAECL on 19 January 2012 remain to be seen. In the lawsuit, AAECL is claiming damages correspondent to roughly 70 percent of all Sands profits in Macau (provisionally set as MOP3 billion), from the start of operations until the end of the concession (2022). This court action is pending on the decision of the 2nd Chamber of the Court of First Instance.
Jorge Menezes, who represents Asian American Entertainment in the ongoing lawsuits in Macau, declined to comment on the content of the case and on TUI’s ruling, which recognizes the US court decision.
“This court judgment was not issued in the AAECL lawsuit. It is absolutely not true that the lawsuit has been dismissed. I was quite surprised to have seen published by an English-language local newspaper [Business Daily] on Monday that the Asian American claim has been denied,” he said.
“There are two court cases pending in Macau, and this [the one ruled by TUI last week] is not the lawsuit where AAECL claims damages, which is still pending and being prosecuted. The relevance of this judgment to the Macau lawsuit will be decided by the Court of First Instance,” Mr Menezes added.  MDT