DOJ Wants DC District Court to Compel Former Wynn Resorts CEO to Register as Agent of China
Wynn Resorts' former CEO Stephen Wynn is the subject of a DOJ enforcement action seeking to compel Wynn to register as an agent of China under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. In a complaint filed May 17 at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the U.S. said Wynn was previously asked to register as an agent for his work advocating on behalf of the Chinese government but that he failed to do so.
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The government alleges that Wynn from at least June through August 2017 contacted then-President Donald Trump and members of his administration to make a request on behalf of the Chinese government to cancel the visa or somehow remove a Chinese businessperson from the U.S. The businessperson, who had left China in 2014, later sought asylum in the U.S. after the Chinese government charged him with corruption. Wynn allegedly made the request on behalf of Sun Lijun, then public security vice minister.
Wynn made the request to Trump over dinner and by phone, also holding multiple discussions with Trump and senior administration officials at the White House and the National Security Council, the complaint said. Throughout his engagement on the process, Wynn Resorts owned and operated casinos in Macau, and DOJ alleges that Wynn, looking to protect his business interests in Macau, acted at the request of the Chinese government. The U.S. then took its case to the D.C. District Court, requesting that the court compel Wynn to register as a foreign agent under FARA.
“The filing of this suit -- the first affirmative civil lawsuit under FARA in more than three decades -- demonstrates the department’s commitment to ensuring transparency in our democratic system,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen said. “Where a foreign government uses an American as its agent to influence policy decisions in the United States, FARA gives the American people a right to know.”