Gaming | Wynn Resorts’ lawyer exits, adding turmoil in founder’s wake

Wynn Resorts Ltd., whose founder stepped down earlier this year over allegations of sexual harassment, said General Counsel Kim Sinatra left her position, marking another high-profile change at the casino company.

Wynn Resorts hasn’t completed the terms of her transition, according to a filing last week. Sinatra held the post since 2004.

Her departure follows other top-level moves at the Las Vegas-based company since the resignation of Chief Executive Officer Steve Wynn in February. Six board members announced they were leaving; three new ones were added, all of them women. Meanwhile, the new CEO, Matt Maddox, has been trying to distance the company from the regime of his predecessor, even going so far as to drop the Wynn name from the new casino the company is building near Boston.

Sinatra’s exit is “reflective of the pressure the company’s management team is facing in the near term from regulators and shareholders,” David Katz, a Jefferies LLC analyst, wrote in a note Friday

Former board member Elaine Wynn said in legal filings that she told Sinatra about an alleged 2005 incident between Steve Wynn and a manicurist at the resort, which the departing general counsel has disputed. Regulators in Massachusetts, Nevada and Macau have been investigating claims of harassment at the company, probes that could result in Wynn Resorts losing its license to operate in those jurisdictions.

“We expect that pressure continues from both regulators in Nevada and Massachusetts and from shareholders regarding matters of governance and company performance,” Katz wrote.

The shares were little changed at USD154.98 at 10:05 a.m. in New York. They have fallen about 8 percent this year, partly on concern of a stalling recovery in Macau. Rob Golum, Scott Moritz, Bloomberg