WSJ: Casino Magnate, RNC Finance Chair Wynn Faces Years Of Allegations
Casino magnate and Republican National Committee Finance Chair Steve Wynn has been accused of what the
Wall Street Journal called a “decades-long pattern of sexual misconduct,” including allegedly forcing his employees to engage in sex acts with him.
Citing “dozens” of accounts from employees of the Wynn Resorts company and others, the Journal reported on allegations that ranged from Wynn pressuring a manicurist he employed to have sex with him to repeatedly requesting that massage therapists engage in sex acts with him.
The manicurist was later paid a $7.5 million settlement, the Journal reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.
Wynn said in a statement to the Journal that “[t]he idea that I ever assaulted any woman is preposterous.”
He added: “We find ourselves in a world where people can make allegations, regardless of the truth, and a person is left with the choice of weathering insulting publicity or engaging in multi-year lawsuits. It is deplorable for anyone to find themselves in this situation.”
Wynn said his ex-wife “instigated” the accusations, charges Elaine Wynn’s attorney said weren’t true. Wynn Resorts pointed to its sexual harassment training and anonymous hotline, which, the company said, had not received a single complaint about Wynn.
The Journal cited an early ‘90s deposition from the late Dennis Gomes, who said he “routinely received complaints from various department heads regarding Wynn’s chronic sexual harassment of female employees,” when he was an executive at a casino Wynn ran, according to a court summary. Gomes described a “disgraceful pattern of personal and professional conduct” including instructions from Wynn to get cocktail waitresses’ home phone numbers. Wynn denied the allegations at the time, the Journal noted.
The allegations continued, according to the report: Wynn would wear short shorts that exposed his genitals, several former employees said, and repeatedly propositioned his employees for sex, among other things.
After stories broke last year on the extensive allegations of sexual harassment against media mogul Harvey Weinstein, the Republican National Committee pressured Democrats to return Weinstein’s political contributions.
Now, faced with similar allegations against the billionaire Trump ally in their ranks, the RNC has not indicated it will follow its own lead. A request for comment to the organization went unanswered.
