Steve Wynn Persuades Judge to Toss US Foreign-Lobbying Case

(Bloomberg) -- Casino magnate Steve Wynn persuaded a US judge to dismiss a Justice Department civil lawsuit seeking to force him to register as a foreign agent acting for China when he lobbied the Trump administration several years ago.

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The Justice Department claimed Wynn should have registered after the fact for lobbying he did in telling President Donald Trump and others in his administration in 2017 that China wanted the US to extradite Guo Wengui, a wealthy exile who criticized China’s government. US District Judge James Boasberg disagreed.

“Wynn’s obligation to file a registration statement has years since passed, and the government cannot now compel him to register,” Boasberg ruled Wednesday in federal court in Washington.

Boasberg agreed the government had a laudable goal in seeking “to compel disclosure to allow government officials as well as the public to evaluate” Wynn’s activities as an agent of a foreign principal, which is “plainly consistent with the central goal of” the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

But the judge said he must follow an earlier appellate court ruling that said the government couldn’t compel FARA registration long after the fact in a criminal case.

Wynn’s attorneys, Reid Weingarten and Robert Luskin, applauded the dismissal of a lawsuit they said was “ill-conceived.” “Mr. Wynn never acted as an agent of the Chinese government and never lobbied on its behalf,” they said in a statement. “This is a claim that should never have been filed, and the Court agreed.”

In May, the US sued Wynn, 80, the former Wynn Resorts Ltd. chief executive officer. It marked the first FARA lawsuit by the Justice Department in three decades. The US has criminally charged about a dozen people with FARA violations in recent years.

The judge noted the “unusual cast of characters” involved in the lobbying effort, including former Republican National Committee finance chair Elliott Broidy; businessperson Nickie Lum Davis; and Pras Michel, a member of the 1990s hip-hop group The Fugees. Both Broidy and Davis pleaded guilty to FARA-related violations, although Trump pardoned Broidy. Michel awaits trial.

“Perhaps embracing The Fugees’ famous line -- ‘ready or not, here I come, you can’t hide,’” China sought to have the Trump administration cancel the dissident’s visa and have him removed, the judge wrote.

With Wynn acting as the RNC finance chair, Broidy believed that experience, combined with Wynn’s business dealings in China and friendship with Trump would help him push their argument case, wrote the judge, in laying out the US claims. Wynn had dinner with Trump in June 2017 and conveyed China’s request to deny Guo’s visa-renewal request. The US had claimed Wynn’s lobbying campaign was motivated by a desire to protect his casinos in Macau.

The case is Attorney General of the US v. Stephen A. Wynn, 22-cv-013712, US District Court, District of Columbia.

(Updates with details from the ruling starting in third paragraph.)

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