Suen 'couldn't deliver' on Macau gaming licence
Casino mogul testifies HK businessman's influence 'cut off' after 2001 tender launch
Las Vegas Sands' chairman Sheldon Adelson has told a jury a Hong Kong businessman who seeks US$328 million over claims he helped the casino operator get a Macau gaming licence could not deliver what he promised.
"I think he asked me whether or not, if he could deliver a licence, I would like it," Adelson testified on Thursday at a trial in the state court in Nevada, recalling his early meetings with Richard Suen, a business friend of his brother Leonard Adelson.
I think he asked me whether or not, if he could deliver a licence, I would like it. He never said anything more than I know somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody
"He never said anything more than I know somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody," Adelson said.
Under questioning from Suen's lawyer, John O'Malley, Adelson said he didn't recall discussing the possibility of pursuing a Macau licence with Suen in 2000 because at that time nobody knew for sure whether the Macau government would discontinue the monopoly Stanley Ho Hung-sun had on gambling in the former Portuguese colony.
Suen alleged in his complaint that Adelson breached a 2001 agreement to pay him and his associates US$5 million and 2 per cent of the net income from the company's Macau casinos if it was awarded a permit.
This is the second time the claims have gone to trial. The Nevada Supreme Court in 2010 reversed a US$43.8 million jury award two years earlier in favour of Suen and sent the case back for a new trial.