Wynn Reportedly Paid a Manicurist $7.5 Million in a Settlement
Steve Wynn, the billionaire builder and operator of several prominent Las Vegas casinos and Finance Chairman of the Republican National Committee has been accused of sexual misconduct by “dozens” of people, according to a just-published report in The Wall Street Journal.Â
The report states “Wynn Resorts employees and others described a CEO who sexualized his workplace and pressured workers to perform sex acts,” and recounts some of the allegations in specific detail. Wynn denies the allegations as “preposterous.”
A large donor to the RNC, Wynn was also the vice-chairman of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration committee before becoming the RNC’s finance chairman.
Wynn, according to the Journal, paid a manicurist who says he forced her to have sex with him in his office $7.5 million in a settlement.
After she gave Mr. Wynn a manicure, she said, he pressured her to take her clothes off and told her to lie on the massage table he kept in his office suite, according to people she gave the account to. The manicurist said she told Mr. Wynn she didn’t want to have sex and was married, but he persisted in his demands that she do so, and ultimately she did disrobe and they had sex, the people remember her saying.
The Journal reports that “dozens of people” it “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. Some described him pressuring employees to perform sex acts.”
It also includes an explicitly detailed report by a “former massage therapist at the Wynn Las Vegas spa” who “said that several years ago, when Mr. Wynn was booking multiple appointments a week with her in the private massage room in his office suite, he would continually adjust a towel to expose himself.”
Then at one session, she said, he threw it off and said, “Just get this thing off of me.â€
She said he wouldn’t let her use a towel to cover his genitals after that, contrary to state licensing regulations, and he also began rubbing her leg while she massaged him.
After a few weeks, the former employee said, Mr. Wynn instructed her to massage his penis to climax. The woman said that because he was her boss, she felt she had no choice but to agree to some of Mr. Wynn’s requests, including that one. She said masturbating him became a frequent part of the massage sessions for several months.
At the end of each hour-long massage session, she said, he handed her $1,000 in cash, which was the same amount as before the sexual activity began.
In subsequent sessions, the woman said, Mr. Wynn asked her to perform oral sex on him and described in detail how he wanted it done. This request she refused, she said.
Wynn reportedly “often walked around some areas of the complex in extremely short shorts without underwear, and he would sit in the salon to get pedicures in such a way that his genitals were exposed,” according to several former employees.
Another former employee “as she did her work in Mr. Wynn’s office … said, he repeatedly rubbed his genitals, which were falling out of his shorts, and made comments about things he would like to do with her sexually. On one occasion as she was leaving his office, the former employee said, Mr. Wynn grabbed her waist as she stood against a wall and told her to kiss him. She said she slipped out of his hold and left.”
The Journal describes Wynn as “a towering figure in Las Vegas and the wider gambling industry,” and the “builder of the Mirage, Treasure Island, Bellagio, Wynn and Encore casinos in Las Vegas.”
“Mr. Wynn no longer owns the Mirage, Treasure Island or Bellagio, but his empire now includes two casinos bearing his name in the Chinese gambling enclave of Macau, and he is building a $2.4 billion Wynn casino in the Boston area. He is the chairman and chief executive of Wynn Resorts.”
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