Mogul: Steve Wynn | Casinos U.S.-Macau | U.Penn
Background Wynn
2018Jan | Wsj Dozens of People Recount Pattern of Sexual Misconduct by Las Vegas Mogul Steve Wynn
Wynn Resorts employees and others described a CEO who sexualized his workplace and pressured workers to perform sex acts. Mr. Wynn responded: ‘The idea that I ever assaulted any woman is preposterous.’
By Alexandra Berzon Chris Kirkham Elizabeth Bernstein and Kate O’Keeffe
Updated Jan. 27, 2018 1:02 am ET
Dozens of People Recount Pattern of Sexual Misconduct by Las Vegas Mogul Steve Wynn
Alexandra Berzon, Chris Kirkham, Elizabeth Bernstein and Kate O’Keeffe
Updated Jan. 27, 2018 1:02 am ET
LAS VEGAS—Not long after the billionaire casino mogul Steve Wynn opened his flagship Wynn Las Vegas in 2005, a manicurist who worked there arrived at the on-site salon visibly distressed following an appointment in Mr. Wynn’s office.
Sobbing, she told a colleague Mr. Wynn had forced her to have sex, and she repeated that to others later.
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.
After being told of the allegations, the woman’s supervisor said she filed a detailed report to the casino’s human-resources department recounting the episode.
Mr. Wynn later paid the manicurist a $7.5 million settlement, according to people familiar with the matter.
The incident was referenced, in broad terms, in a lawsuit in which Mr. Wynn’s ex-wife, Elaine Wynn, seeks to lift restrictions on the sale of her stock in Attorneys for Mr. Wynn in a court filing admitted he made the personal payment; in a later hearing, his corporate attorney said there had been “allegations of assault.” Court records in the suit are heavily redacted. Specifics of the allegation and the size of the settlement haven’t been previously reported.
Beyond this incident, dozens of people The Wall Street Journal 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.
In response to written questions about the manicurist’s and others’ allegations, Mr. Wynn said, “The idea that I ever assaulted any woman is preposterous.”
He continued, in a written statement, “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.”
Mr. Wynn said that “the instigation of these accusations is the continued work of my ex-wife Elaine Wynn, with whom I am involved in a terrible and nasty lawsuit in which she is seeking a revised divorce settlement.” He said he remained focused on the company, its employees and its shareholders.
Ms. Wynn declined to speak to the Journal. An attorney for Ms. Wynn said the notion she instigated the Journal’s article “is just not true.”
Mr. Wynn didn’t provide further response to other allegations of sexual misconduct the Journal inquired about.
Wynn Resorts said it is committed to maintaining a safe and respectful culture, requires annual anti-harassment training for all, and offers an anonymous hotline. “Since the inception of the company, not one complaint was made to that hotline regarding Mr. Wynn,” the company said.
The Wynn Resorts board late Friday said its independent directors would form a special committee to investigate the allegations against Mr. Wynn.
Mr. Wynn, turning 76 on Saturday, is a towering figure in Las Vegas and the wider gambling industry. As builder of the Mirage, Treasure Island, Bellagio, Wynn and Encore casinos in Las Vegas—lavish, multiuse resorts with features such as artificial volcanoes, dancing fountains and French chefs—he brought a new level of sophistication and scale to the Strip.
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.
Dozens of powerful men have faced consequences in recent months after publicly aired accusations of sexual improprieties. Those against Mr. Wynn are the first in this wave to center on the CEO and founder of a major publicly held company, in this case one operating in a tightly regulated industry.
Mr. Wynn owns nearly 12% of Wynn Resorts, a stake worth $2.4 billion, and is considered integral to its success. His signature is the company logo. In a recent securities filing citing possible risks to the business, the company said, “If we lose the services of Mr. Wynn, or if he is unable to devote sufficient attention to our operations for any other reason, our business may be significantly impaired.”
Mr. Wynn’s political profile also has grown. He is a former casino-business rival of President Donald Trump, who said in 2016 that Mr. Wynn was a “great friend” whose advice he valued. After Mr. Trump’s election, Mr. Wynn became the Republican National Committee’s finance chairman.
Mr. Wynn is a regular on his casino floors, known for a keen attention to details and what employees say is a temper that can flare when they fall short. He has frequently had services such as manicures, massages and makeup application performed in his on-site office at the Wynn Las Vegas.
The contrast between Mr. Wynn’s position and that of the salon and spa employees is stark. Former employees said their awareness of Mr. Wynn’s power in Las Vegas, combined with the knowledge that the jobs they held were among the best-paying available there, added up to a feeling of dependence and intimidation when Mr. Wynn made requests of them.
Some said that feeling was heightened at times by the presence in a confined office space of one or more of his German shepherds, trained to respond to commands in German.
The Journal contacted more than 150 people who work or had worked for Mr. Wynn; none reached out to the Journal on their own. Most of those who spoke to the Journal about Mr. Wynn said they worried that doing so could hurt their ability to work elsewhere because of his influence in the casino industry and the state.
Former employees said they sometimes entered fake appointments in the books to help other female workers get around a request for services in Mr. Wynn’s office or arranged for others to pose as assistants so they wouldn’t be alone with him. They told of female employees hiding in the bathroom or back rooms when they learned he was on the way to the salon.
“Everybody was petrified,” said Jorgen Nielsen, a former artistic director at the salon. Mr. Nielsen said he and others repeatedly told high-level company executives Mr. Wynn’s sexual advances were causing a problem, but “nobody was there to help us.”
One former massage therapist at the Wynn Las Vegas spa 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.”
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.
The woman said she told Mr. Wynn at a later session she was uncomfortable with his requests, and he then stopped asking for massages from her.
She said she didn’t tell anyone what happened at the time because she was embarrassed, adding she is still trying to deal with the incident emotionally. She did tell a colleague in a general way that Mr. Wynn had been inappropriate with her, that colleague recalled in an interview.
The colleague said she offered advice to the massage therapist—but didn’t mention that Mr. Wynn had also made advances toward her while she massaged him in his office’s private massage room. The colleague said in an interview Mr. Wynn would remove his towel and, while she massaged the front of his thighs, would tell her to “go higher,” which she understood to mean touch his genitals. She said she told him this made her uncomfortable, and then his requests for massages became less frequent.
Dennis Gomes, who was an executive at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas when Mr. Wynn was running that casino decades ago, said in a deposition in an early-1990s lawsuit that Mr. Gomes “routinely received complaints from various department heads regarding Wynn’s chronic sexual harassment of female employees,” according to a court filing that summarized his testimony.
In the suit over Mr. Gomes’s departure to work for a Trump casino, Mr. Gomes described what he called a “disgraceful pattern of personal and professional conduct” that he said included Mr. Wynn’s directing him to get the home phone numbers of casino cocktail waitresses.
Mr. Wynn denied the allegations in the suit in Nevada state court. The parties agreed to drop the suit in 1994.
Mr. Gomes died in 2012. His widow, Barbara Gomes, in an interview for this article, said, “I remember him saying, ‘I’m not his pimp,’ ” referring to Mr. Wynn.
Shawn Cardinal, who was a personal assistant to Elaine Wynn while she was married to Mr. Wynn, said that around 1987, Mr. Wynn repeatedly asked her to spend time with him outside of work. She said he continued asking, often approaching her at her desk outside his wife’s office, despite her telling him she had plans with her husband and child.
On the phone, he would ask, “What are you wearing? Why don’t you hang out with me after work?” said Ms. Cardinal. “I was not brave enough to say, ‘How dare you?’ I just joked my way out of it and I made sure I was never alone with him.”
Several former employees said Mr. Wynn 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.
One former employee said after she had performed services in Mr. Wynn’s office for years, one day he asked if he could kiss her. She said she laughed off the request, hoping to leave without upsetting him.
Another time, this employee said, she was performing services in her own workplace at the casino when Mr. Wynn said, “So when are you going to come into my office and f— me?”
She said that she again laughed off the proposition. “I would say, ‘Oh Mr. Wynn.’ ” she recalled. “I was just trying to get on with my job.”
One time as she did her work in Mr. Wynn’s office, this woman 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.
After around two weeks of pursuit, this woman said, Mr. Wynn stopped.
The former employee’s supervisor and another colleague confirmed being told of these advances in detail at the time. The employee and the supervisor said they sought to manage the situation rather than report it because they believed there would be repercussions if they did.
The 2005 allegations of the manicurist that led to the settlement were the most striking described by former employees. In this instance, a woman who was a salon manager at the time said she filed a written report to human resources. She said she got a call from an executive, Doreen Whennen, castigating her for filing to HR and saying she should have taken the matter directly to Ms. Whennen.
The former manager said no one followed up with her about the matter. The manicurist soon left.
Ms. Whennen, who is no longer at the company, declined to comment.
In the lawsuit between the Wynns, Ms. Wynn cited a “multimillion dollar payment” made by Mr. Wynn following allegations he had engaged in “serious misconduct” on company property against an employee not named in the suit. A filing said Ms. Wynn had learned of the settlement in 2009.
In the suit, Ms. Wynn, who is a co-founder and former board member of Wynn Resorts, is seeking to free herself from restrictions on the control of her estimated $1.9 billion of stock that were imposed by a 2010 agreement with Mr. Wynn.
Her attorneys have argued that in making a settlement with a former employee without telling the board, Mr. Wynn recklessly exposed the company and other directors to liability.
Wynn Resorts, in its statement to the Journal, alleged that Ms. Wynn was trying to “tarnish the reputation of Mr. Wynn in an attempt to pressure a revised divorce settlement.” The company called it noteworthy that despite knowing of the allegations since 2009, Ms. Wynn didn’t make them known to the board, of which she was a member, or raise them until after she lost her board seat.
An attorney for Ms. Wynn said she raised the issue internally when she learned of it.
Mr. Wynn’s attorneys have argued the settlement wasn’t relevant to the Wynns’ dispute, which is headed for a trial this spring.
Jim Oberman, Lisa Schwartz and Zusha Elinson contributed to this article.
Corrections & Amplifications
Shawn Cardinal, who was a personal assistant to Elaine Wynn while she was married to Mr. Wynn, said that around 1987, Mr. Wynn repeatedly asked her to spend time with him outside of work. An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the date was around 1997. Also, a chart of Wynn Resorts’ revenue is in billions of dollars. A chart with an earlier version of this article incorrectly labeled it in trillions. (Jan. 26, 2018)
Write to Alexandra Berzon at alexandra.berzon@wsj.com, Chris Kirkham at chris.kirkham@wsj.com, Elizabeth Bernstein at Bonds@wsj.com and Kate O’Keeffe at kathryn.okeeffe@wsj.com
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Appeared in the January 27, 2018, print edition as 'Wynn Accused of Sexual Misconduct'.
2001 Penn Student paper | A newer, darker image for nn Commons [#Penn]
By Lisa Parsley 02/08/01 5:00am
https://www.thedp.com/article/2001/02/a_newer_darker_image_for_wynn_commons
Wynn Commons, the open-air stone plaza north of Houston Hall, came to life this summer via the generous gift of 1963 College alumnus Steven Wynn. Wynn, who made his fortune from humble beginnings as a bingo parlor manager in Anne Arundel County, Md., became the new face of casino construction in Las Vegas and Atlantic City during the 1980s by building or revamping such resorts as the Golden Nugget and Bellagio.
Wynn Commons, however, drew criticism from the first unveiling. Alice van Buren Kelley, an assistant dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, wrote that its design and layout created an ambiance reminiscent of "stormy days of dictators," where "symbols of repression served as a backdrop for bawling voices."
And at the east end, the abstract rendering of the Penn shield created a "totalitarian-state effect," according to one graduate student. After a career of redesigning skylines with casinos, Wynn is no stranger to rethinking a space, and knows controversy well. His name has bobbed up along side some of law enforcement's most salacious inquiries of the last 20 years, according to John L. Smith, an author and columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, who recently wrote Running Scared: The Life and Treacherous Times of Las Vegas Casino King Steve Wynn.
According to Smith's accounts, Wynn has had a life worthy of Dostoevsky. During the mid-1980s, the author writes, he purchased mafia-stained promissory notes valued at $73.9 million for three separate $20 million loans. The promissory notes were the result of mortgages held by the Teamsters' Central States Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund on the Las Vegas Stardust and Fremont hotels.
After the Pension Fund had to divest the notes due to mafia activity and subsequent federal sanction, the notes needed a new owner. Enter Steve Wynn, who purchased the notes, Smith says, from the Pension Fund.
But when the notes were prepaid at the full $73.9 million value only four months later -- an action that forfeited the Teamsters' savings from early payment -- the Pension Fund sued Wynn's Golden Nugget for racketeering, fraud, breach of contract and breach of good faith.
Although the racketeering charges were dismissed, a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled that Wynn's Golden Nugget must divide the $14.4 million profit on the notes with the Pension Fund to settle the other charges. Smith further alleges another connection between Wynn and the mafia, claiming that Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno, head of the Genovese crime family, was unhappy with Wynn for holding out for the full amount due on the notes. He recounts an FBI-recorded conversaton between Salerno and his deputy, John "Peanuts" Tronolone, at New York's Palma Boy Social Club.
During the conversation, the two alleged gangsters discuss Wynn's interest in the promissory note. The tape -- although it never brought about a prosecution against Wynn -- helped get Fat Tony a 70-year jail sentence. The conversation about Wynn was later admitted to the evidence, according to Smith. If Smith's account is correct, Wynn brushed up against the mafia on other occasions as well.
In 1982, he writes, Anthony Castelbuono -- a Harvard-educated attorney -- laundered $1.187 million along with a bodyguard in Wynn's Golden Nugget. Smith implies that the casino even had a protocol set up for certain gamblers who entered their doors with large sums in small denominations.
Castelbuono once used the Golden Nugget to launder 300 pounds in small bills from the heroin trade, he adds.
Goodbye segregated money;
hello first wash cycle.
Castelbuono was later sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined $50,000 for helping to "launder millions in illicit profits," according to Smith.
Wynn denies that GNAC courted mob money launderers. But if Smith is correct, then one of Penn's newest campus meeting spots is named after a casino king with mob associations noted by law enforcement and regulatory agencies.
Perhaps Wynn is using architecture as penance. His dark issues are buried under a heavy stone slab, never to be heard from again. Why recreate the campus in a newer, darker image? Does the purchase of neo-conservative public space recycle reputations? Does it matter? But for the addition of junkies rattling change cups, the Commons is complete. Penn has respectability for sale, but perhaps it has lost something in the exchange of commodities.
Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.
From <https://www.thedp.com/article/2001/02/a_newer_darker_image_for_wynn_commons>
money laundering by casino operators - Steve Wynn's Golden Nugget in AC, NJ
1985 Gold Nugget Wynn | New Jersey Attorneys gone Bad - Anthony Cake
Anthony C. Castelbuono
Anthony Cake | Tony Cake
Date of Birth April 26, 1944
Occupation-lawyer
The respondent was indicted by the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of New York for conspiring with nine codefendants to import into the U.S. a quantity of heroin hydrochloride, in excess of 100 grams; utilizing a money laundering device in which small denominations of U.S. currency were converted into larger denominations at various casinos in Atlantic City; defrauding the U.S. Treasury Department and its agencies by impairing, obstructing and defeating the lawful governmental functions of collecting data and reports of currency transactions for use in criminal, tax, and regulatory investigations and proceedings; and failing to file reports of international transportation of currency. The disposition is still pending concerning the respondent.
A complaint was filed against respondent on 3/7/85 alleging that he and others had laundered cash at various casinos in 1982 in excess of $2,000,000.
From <https://www.nj.gov/oag/ge/exclusion/castelbuono_anthony.htm>
1984 ALLEGATIONS OF MONEY LAUNDERING DISPUTED BY JERSEY CASINO OPERATOR
By Eric Schmitt
June 27, 1985
The owner of an Atlantic City casino yesterday disputed assertions by Federal authorities that heroin traffickers ''laundered'' at least $1 million from drug sales through his gambling house in 1982.
Authorities say that a criminal suspect, Anthony Castelbuono, used the casino to change at least $1.1 million at the casino, the Golden Nugget, in November and December 1982. Money laundering is an attempt to camouflage illegally gained money.
Mr. Castelbuono, a 40-year-old lawyer who lives at Waterside Plaza in Manhattan, was indicted last March in connection with laundering $3 million from drug sales through four Atlantic City casinos, including the Golden Nugget. He was arrested in March with four others in the case.
In testimony yesterday before the President's Commission on Organized Crime, the owner of the Golden Nugget, Stephen A. Wynn, said Mr. Castelbuono had legitimately wagered away the $1.1 million. Mr. Wynn said that in his 14 years in the gaming industry no member of organized crime had ever tried to intimidate him or manipulate his business.
2021 A Walk Down Memory Lane of The Golden Nugget Atlantic City
by Harry Hurley
Published: September 22, 2021
https://wpgtalkradio.com/a-walk-down-memory-lane-of-the-golden-nugget-atlantic-city/
The former Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City was located at the Southernmost end of the casino boardwalk strip.
It is very sentimental to me.
I spent almost 9 years, working 6 long days per week in the earliest days of the Atlantic City casino hotel industry.
It was an exceptional proving ground, working for the most successful and dynamic owner and personality in the history of the hotel and casino industry in the United States, Steve Wynn.
Wynn built a winning culture, and this relatively tiny property at the corner of Boston and Pacific Avenues in Atlantic City (at the time) became the most profitable casino in the history of the world.
Envisioned by Wynn, designed by Joel Bergman and Atlandia Design, which was the beginning of a storied career for one of the world’s most successful casino designers, Paul Steelman.
It was built for $ 140 million and less than 8 years later, Wynn sold it to Bally’s for $ 440 million; as they blocked President Donald Trump from purchasing Bally’s.
In those days, one entity could not own more than three casinos.
Bally’s gladly paid Wynn a premium to keep Trump from buying them.
For those of us who worked at The Golden Nugget, it served as a launching pad for successful careers that would be built over the next 40 years.
If you can make it there (with Steve Wynn) … you can make it anywhere … cue the music and Frank Sinatra.
Here is the timeline and various iterations of this iconic property:
The Golden Nugget Atlantic City - 1980 to 1987
Bally’s Grand & The Grand - 1987 to 1996
Atlantic City Hilton - 1996 to 2011
ACH - 2011 to 2012
The Atlantic Club - 2012 to 2014
The Atlantic Club closed its doors on January 14, 2014.
Caesars Entertainment bought the property and Tropicana bought all the slot machines, gaming tables, and player databases in a joint bankruptcy purchase for $23.4 million combined.
On May 29, 2014, Caesars Entertainment sold the Atlantic Club to TJM Properties, a Florida development firm that purchased and reopened the former Claridge Casino Hotel in Atlantic City earlier in the year.
The reported Atlantic Club purchase price was $13.5 million. The firm planned to either reopen it as a non-gaming hotel property or sell it.
Despite numerous attempts to reopen the property as a non-gaming hotel (due to a deed restriction, which resulted in a lower purchase price), the property has remained dormant since January 2014.
The property, both interior, and exterior was recently used to make a Zombie movie.
The movie wasn’t great, but, it was a personal thrill to once again see activity inside the hotel, including the pool and spa area that I helped Chuck Malamut and Paul Steelman design.
In 2015, 2017, 2018 & 2019 numerous proposals for retail and nongaming proposals, even a water park were floated. No deal has been able to make it to the settlement table.
For example, In September 2018, Stockton University attempted to purchase the property to expand itself. It planned to keep the parking garage, but demolish the main structure. The deal fell through after TJM declined the sale.
Still later in the year, in November 2018, a development group from New York was in talks to buy The Atlantic Club, but a deal could not be reached.
It is always pleasant to reminisce about fond memories.
In many respects, these were the best of times (at this stage of our lifetime). Many of us were in our early to mid ’20s. We were a part of something exciting and big … we were living history in a brand new industry.
Steve Wynn gave us great responsibility and authority to manage his property and bought us brand new cars to drive and offered generous stock options.
It was an honor to work with presidents the likes of Shannon Bybee, Boone Wayson, and Hank Applegate.
And, I personally learned from the best in his field, Chuck Malamut, who taught me how to be a Hotel General Manager.
We’ll most likely never again be personal witnesses to a brand new industry and be afforded such golden opportunities.
It was a truly magical time.
NOTE: I have a book of spectacular personal photos of this amazing property. Check back with us here, as we’ll be updating this soon with a nice gallery of photos from The Golden Nugget in the 1980s.
Read More: A Walk Down Memory Lane of The Golden Nugget Atlantic City | https://wpgtalkradio.com/a-walk-down-memory-lane-of-the-golden-nugget-atlantic-city/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral
~2000 | Wynn some, lose some
From <https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/wynn-some-lose-some/WROOKQBMVEXCSXCURJJI2Q4MBY/>
by ANDREW GUMBEL, 2000, NZ Herald
Steve Wynn ruled Las Vegas. Politicians, superstars and Mobsters all paid court to his high-rolling genius. But now, with one huge throw of the dice, he is gone.
Even by the hyperbolic standards of Las Vegas, Steve Wynn is quite something. A visionary, they call him. A genius. A god. A man who, virtually single-handed, rebuilt America's gambling mecca from the ruins of its Mobster-tainted past and made it look respectable for the new millennium. A man who proved that Vegas - a town once notorious for loose morals, fast living and financial transactions murky enough to blot out the desert sun - was safe for children, for families, and even for respectable business corporations.
Most of all, Wynn is a man of imagination, unafraid to recreate the pirate ships of the high seas or the splendours of the Italian Renaissance, and hang the cost. He sank a staggering $US1.6 billion ($3.2 billion) into his luxury dreamboat hotel, the Bellagio, and, to prove he wasn't going to be content with computer-coordinated dancing fountain displays, hand-blown glass ceiling ornaments and gourmet Italian cuisine, stuffed it full of Impressionist masterpieces from his private art collection.
A man like that can go far in so impressionable a town as Vegas, and indeed Wynn became known as the most powerful man in Nevada. Politicians jumped at his command, candidates prostrated themselves to seek his endorsement and his campaign contributions, city planners re-routed roads and sewers at his behest, water authorities allowed him to siphon off millions of precious gallons to feed his private golf course, and a coterie of public officials, showbiz superstars, prominent businessmen, university luminaries and assorted minions rushed to pay homage at every opportunity.
But something odd has happened to Wynn's reign as the undisputed king of the Las Vegas casino world. It has just ended, abruptly, spectacularly, and utterly without warning. This month, after more than a decade of undisputed dominance, his Mirage Resorts empire was eaten up in one enormous corporate gulp by its rival MGM Grand Inc for a dizzying $US6.4 billion ($13 billion), the largest buy-out in the history of the gambling industry.
For sure there have been problems, notably some tough competition from the Bellagio's new competitors on the Strip, the Paris and the Venetian, and a slow start to business at his Beau Rivage resort in Biloxi, Mississippi. Mirage Resorts' share price has fallen from a high of almost $US27 ($55) last May to less than $US11 ($22) at the end of February. But there was nothing to suggest Wynn would give up so easily after a 30-year career of one-man empire-building, and a driving ambition to match that of his perennial rival, the New York construction magnate Donald Trump.
"This capitulation by a man considered egomaniacal is of record proportion," said Robert Chapman, who runs a Los Angeles-based hedge fund specialising in mergers. "Nobody in the arbitrage community expected him to roll over this fast."
Like a mirage in the desert, then, he is gone. Not that Wynn will go away empty-handed. His personal compensation for the deal runs to $US483 million ($985 million), enough to start a new gambling empire if he really wanted one, and certainly more than ample for him to pursue his passions for golf and art and indulge his little fantasy of one day owning a basketball team.
But Wynn, a youthful 58, has seemingly given up being a player. With the merger, his political power has vanished in a puff of smoke and his ability to keep innovating with bigger and glitzier resort hotels has been cut from under him. What could possibly motivate such an abdication?
"I think the guy's basically had enough," Chapman suggested.
Enough of what?
That's not a question Wynn seems ready to answer. After a lifetime of bragging about his achievements and inviting questions on any topic, no matter how uncomfortable, the casino king has gone strangely quiet.
"The man who never shut up has shut up," commented John L Smith, author of a tough biography about Wynn and a columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the city's leading daily.
It is worth remembering that in a town as slippery as Vegas, nothing is ever quite as it seems and everything is forever subject to sudden change. For all the adulation he has attracted, Wynn has always been a deeply ambivalent figure in keeping with the shifting sands of his chosen environment.
On the one hand, here was a man with an Ivy League education, effortlessly elegant taste in clothes and a publically displayed taste for art, in stark contrast to the loud-suited Mob types and the neon vulgarities of the Strip.
On the other hand, Wynn was also the hustling son of a small-time bingo operator who had grown up in the old Vegas and, throughout his career, brushed up against accusations of ties to the Mafia and personal responsibility for everything from money-laundering to drug-dealing.
Wynn likes to say the Mob has been a "non-event" in his life story, but this is also the town of Bugsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky and a clutch of other famous pioneer gangsters, and it would be disingenuous to think he had managed to shrug off their legacy as easily as he has made out, time and again, to federal investigators and licensing boards considering the allegations against him.
"Wherever he has been, the Mob has been close by," Smith writes in his biography, Running Scared.
Wynn's first investment, made through his late father's gambling contacts in 1967, was in the Frontier hotel, an operation so dodgy it resulted in the conviction of three Cosa Nostra figures from Detroit on federal racketeering charges. His next, involving a highly advantageous land-swap deal with Howard Hughes, was the Golden Nugget casino, in which other investors were known associates of Jimmy Hoffa's Mafia-ridden Teamsters Union, which had previously invested heavily in Vegas.
Among Wynn's social contacts at the time were Niggy Devine, a courier for Meyer Lansky, and Maurice Friedman, a business associate of the Detroit Mob leaders. In their company in 1967, he joined a private yacht cruise notable for the accidental death of a young woman passenger who somehow fell over the back of the boat, stark naked, and was chewed to a pulp by the propeller blades.
As his business ventures prospered, Wynn sought new financing from Michael Milken, the junk-bond king later convicted for his role in the grand orgy of corruption on Wall Street in the late 1980s, and branched out to Atlantic City. There, however, he nearly lost his gaming licence after a Mafioso called Tony Castelbuono was caught recycling the profits of heroin trafficking at the gambling tables. It did not help that Wynn later sought Castelbuono's investment advice and went skiing with him.
In 1983, Wynn was prevented from expanding his operations to London after a Scotland Yard report alleged that he had links to the Genovese Cosa Nostra family.
"The man has made an untold fortune in an industry which historically has been proved to be replete with organised crime," the British lead investigator, Frank Pulley, commented. "It was invented by the Mob, it was modernised by the Mob, the Mob have put money into it, and they've taken vast amounts of money out of it."
These are not the stories Las Vegas usually hears about Steve Wynn. In a town that has legitimised much that is illegal elsewhere, and has striven to sell itself as something more wholesome than it is, a man like Wynn is, if anything, admired for his ability to keep his investments just beyond the spotlight of federal investigators. There has never been any major official judgment against him. More often, he is remembered for the opulent luxury of his resorts - the Mirage, Treasure Island and the Bellagio - and the flamboyance of his personality.
Not all of the latter is entirely positive. He has a reputation for vanity (he has had at least one facelift and takes great pride in his tanned, highly coiffed appearance), has a notorious penchant for his own female blackjack dealers, and a celebrated temper that has seen him hurling large ashtrays at employees who provoke his displeasure. But in Vegas they are seen as signs of a certain macho charm. In what other city would a business entrepreneur accidentally shoot off his left index finger, as Wynn did in 1991, with a handgun given to him by a former Chicago Mob hitman?
The emblematic Wynn moment that will go down in Vegas history came in 1993, when he symbolically blew up the Dunes Hotel, once the Mafia's favourite hangout, to make way for the corporate-financed, impeccably upscale Bellagio. That was supposed to be the moment the old Las Vegas finally crumbled and the new, cleaner Vegas took over.
In reality, the transition was never going to happen that fast. With his volcanic personality and his colourful history, Wynn has always been too stealthy and too sly to be fully convincing as the face of the future. He certainly introduced Vegas to the world of mainstream corporate financing, and now the MGM buy-out is likely to solidify the ties with Wall Street.
Wynn himself, though, seems destined to keep running. Maybe he will buy the crumbling Desert Inn on the north end of the Strip, as some are speculating, or maybe he will bolt out of town and find a new beginning elsewhere.
The high-life might be over for him, but with his wealth the options are wide open. As John Smith remarked: "If we could all have an end like that ..."
If nothing else, Wynn played the odds and pulled out while he was ahead. In a gambling town like Vegas, that is reason enough to shower him with admiration.
From <https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/wynn-some-lose-some/WROOKQBMVEXCSXCURJJI2Q4MBY/>
2005 | Why Wynn can't lose in 'the last honest place in America'
As another, $2.7bn monument to excess is unveiled, Andrew Gumbel reports from Las Vegas on the winning streak of the casino king and asks how long Sin City can stand the pace
by Andrew Gumbel 01 May 2005
A casino opening in Las Vegas is not unlike the premiere of a hotly awaited Hollywood film; the frisson of anticipation, the round of exclusive parties, the insistent whispers in the local press of celebrity sightings. More often than not, there are fireworks.
A casino opening in Las Vegas is not unlike the premiere of a hotly awaited Hollywood film; the frisson of anticipation, the round of exclusive parties, the insistent whispers in the local press of celebrity sightings. More often than not, there are fireworks.
The difference is that new casino resorts in Vegas are much rarer than new movies, the last being the ill-fated Aladdin in 2000. That only heightens the expectations.
Kanye West to buy right-wing social media network Parler
And when the man unveiling the casino happens to be Steve Wynn, the undisputed king of the Vegas strip these past 15 years, the universal assumption is that he will show the world something extraordinary - something that will redefine Sin City and the way everyone thinks of it.
Thus it was that all Vegas held its breath last week for the opening of the latest Wynn extravaganza, the almost absurdly opulent Wynn Las Vegas, whose curved glass-and-steel form has been slowly rising from the northern end of the strip for five years. Built for a staggering $2.7bn (£1.4bn), it is by far the most expensive casino that Vegas - or anywhere else - has seen. In a town where money talks louder than words, that alone has grabbed everyone's attention.
The crowds were lining up outside the main gates eight hours before the official opening at midnight on Wednesday, and they stayed in line half the night to catch a glimpse of the mosaic-inlaid marble floors, the riot of colour co-ordinated flowers in the atrium, the on-site Ferrari dealership, the gallery of designer stores, and the 18-storey man-made mountain and waterfall that provide the backdrops to the resort's luxury restaurants.
The local newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, gushed in admiration every day for a week. The front page of Thursday's edition carried a special advertising insert from the rival Palms resort, congratulating Wynn and his wife Elaine and explaining: "You Make Us All Look Good". Nobody in this town expects the Wynn to be anything other than a roaring success.
Two decades ago, conventional wisdom would have told an entrepreneur like Wynn that he would be insane to attempt a project on such a scale. In those days, Vegas made the bulk of its living from ordinary middle-class Americans looking for deals on accommodation and food so they could focus on the gambling. The town was still largely controlled by organised crime syndicates, and not only was Wall Street not involved, it didn't want anything to do with the place.
Wynn has been at the forefront of the movement to change all that, raking in corporate investment on a gargantuan scale and making the slot machines and blackjack tables almost incidental to the other pleasures on offer - the restaurants, shops and the gallery in which he keeps his multi-million-dollar collection of impressionist masters.
His first mega-resort, the Mirage, was almost universally predicted to fail when it opened in 1988 - for the then unheard-of cost of $600m. But it made money from the very first day, and Vegas has been on a non-stop building boom ever since. The southern end of the strip, in particular, is now clustered with mega-resorts - some exotic (the Luxor and the Excalibur) and some imitating the great cities of the world (New York-New York, Paris and the Venetian).
At one point in the 1990s, Vegas seemed to be on the way to becoming a Disneyland-style resort for families and children, with Wynn's Treasure Island casino, featuring pirate ships clashing on a lake outside, acting as the centrepiece.
The 11 September attacks and the dip in tourist traffic that followed put paid to this dubious idea, though, and soon the town was luring visitors back with the kinds of things it had always promised: raunch, transgression and sin without guilt. "What happens here, stays here", went a catchy advertising slogan from a couple of years back, accompanying the revival in billboards for sexy stage shows and strip joints.
Wynn's new vision is to shoot for the absolute top end of the market. He first experimented with that idea when he opened the $1.6bn mock-Italian Bellagio in 1998.
The experiment suffered an unfortunate hiatus two years later when Wynn allowed himself to stretch his assets too thin and lost his Mirage Resorts empire to a hostile takeover from Kirk Kerkorian of MGM.
Almost straight away, though, he snapped up the property that has now become Wynn Las Vegas and put together a consortium of investors - notably, the Japanese businessman Kozuo Okada - to build the first of what he intends to be a series of resorts on the site of the old Rat Pack haunt, the Desert Inn.
Why is this working? How come the tourists continue to flock to Vegas - a record 38 million of them last year, with even more forecast for 2005 - when casino gambling has been legalised in more states than not? The answer, which Wynn appears to have anticipated, is that Vegas remains the mecca for gamblers and self-indulgent all-night entertainment-seekers. And if it's going to be special in people's imaginations, it certainly doesn't do any harm to be special in reality, too.
"Wynn's entrepreneurial genius was to create a script in which middle-class everymen could feel themselves at the centre of some unprecedented spectacle - a far cry from the original grungy gambling halls on downtown Vegas's Fremont Street," says the author and journalist Marc Cooper, who chronicled the rise of the new Vegas in his book, The Last Honest Place in America.
Wynn has undergone quite a personal transformation, too. The son of an East Coast bingo-hall operator, he had his share of encounters with the Mob early in his career - he was barred from operating a casino in London in the 1980s because of his alleged ties to organised crime - but ended up as the man who made Vegas safe for Wall Street. He made a special point, in fact, of blowing up the old Mob-run hotels to make way for his own creations. He dynamited the Dunes to put up the Mirage, and reduced the Sands to rubble before replacing it with the Bellagio.
The Desert Inn was its own wonder palace when it opened in the 1950s - featuring thermostats in every room, then a novelty, as well as a figure-eight swimming pool and a fountain that shot water straight up in the air. If Vegas felt at all nostalgic about its history, then this would have been one place for keeps. But Wynn snapped it up for $270m - as a birthday present to his wife, he said - and promptly had it razed to the ground.
Wynn certainly does not want for flamboyance, indulging in round-the-world art-buying sprees when the spirit takes him and living high on the hog in his own fantasy world when he is in town. (He was, loosely, the inspiration for Andy Garcia's casino- owner character in the Steven Soderbergh remake of Ocean's Eleven, the Hollywood crime caper.)
But he also has a sharp business sense of what he can get out of Las Vegas without worrying too much about what he can give back in return. Because of his casino makeovers and the success they have reaped, Vegas has become more expensive, more crowded, more polluted and ever less able to build an urban infrastructure at the same pace as its spiralling growth in population.
The profits, however, have stayed largely with the casinos and the corporations behind them. In Vegas, house prices have now shot up beyond the reach of ordinary casino workers, while schools and hospitals are woefully under-resourced and social services are constantly being cut because of Nevada's struggles to balance its state budget.
For all the excitement over the new resort, then, one can legitimately wonder whether Las Vegas is really on a sustainable track.
John Smith, a political columnist and biographer of Steve Wynn, likened the modern metropolis to the time in Nevada when silver was discovered near Virginia City in the north of the state. "Then, just as now, the robber barons made all the money. Sure, people were given jobs, but not for their creature comforts," he said. "Nothing has really changed."
Wynn's multi-billion-dollar gamble on the new resort is not without risk. The last big Las Vegas casino project, the Aladdin, went spectacularly wrong, nearly bankrupting its UK backer, London Clubs International. Wynn appears to be counting largely on the Asian market - indeed, he is actively cultivating it, via a separate $700m investment in a casino in Macao, among other projects. And he will also have to hope Las Vegas's visitor numbers are not compromised by another geopolitical earthquake - or, indeed, an attack on Las Vegas.
Wynn does, however, have two strong things going for him. One, he has now established a reputation for building first-rate casino resorts. They may be kitschy, but they are well-made, high-class kitsch. And second, he has long since appreciated a truth many Vegas punters would do well to remember: that in this town, the surest bet in a casino is to own the place.
2018mar wsj Steve Wynn Sheds Entire Stake in Casino Giant He Co-Founded
Sale is final step in exit after female employees made allegations of sexual misconduct against former CEO
By Chris Kirkham and Kate O’Keeffe
Updated March 22, 2018
Steve Wynn sold his entire stake in on Wednesday and Thursday, the company said, the final step in a dramatic exit after female employees made allegations of sexual misconduct against the casino giant’s co-founder.
The sale of $2.1 billion worth of stock over two days followed a series of moves he and the company made in recent weeks to allow Mr. Wynn to untangle himself from the casino corporation amid a series of investigations by state gambling regulators.
Until Wednesday, Mr. Wynn had been the company’s largest shareholder, owning about 12% of its stock.
That day Mr. Wynn sold 4,104,999 shares of common stock in open market transactions at $180 a share, Wynn Resorts said in a Thursday filing, for a combined $738.9 million. Wynn Resorts had said earlier on Wednesday that Mr. Wynn “intends to sell all or a portion” of his stock.
On Thursday evening the company said two existing institutional shareholders purchased Mr. Wynn’s remaining 8 million shares, for a combined $1.4 billion. A company spokesman didn’t respond to a request for comment on which investors bought the shares.
It was also unclear Thursday evening who the company’s largest shareholder is. As of Thursday morning, before Mr. Wynn sold off the remainder of his stake, his ex-wife, Elaine Wynn, would have been the largest shareholder with a 9.3% stake in the company, followed by Vanguard Group, which owned 8.5%.
The sales by Mr. Wynn had earlier been restricted by a complex shareholder agreement with two other parties.
Wynn Resorts also said Thursday that Hong Kong-listed casino operator has agreed to purchase 5.3 million shares of Wynn Resorts at $175 each, resulting in $927.5 million in gross proceeds for the U.S. company. The purchase of these new shares will give Galaxy a 4.9% stake in Wynn Resorts, which competes against Galaxy in the Chinese territory of Macau, which is the world’s largest gambling hub and Wynn’s most important market.
Grant Govertsen, an analyst at Macau-based Union Gaming, praised the move as strategic in a note. “We think the market was largely ignoring the significant risks to the licenses should the company continue to operate as is without a takeover or significant outside investment,” he wrote. Casino industry executives and analysts have discussed growing concerns about whether the Macau government will renew licenses for the territory’s six licensees when they begin expiring in 2020.
They have said that U.S. operators such as Wynn are more at risk than Chinese operators such as Galaxy.
Mr. Wynn founded Wynn Resorts in 2002 along with Ms. Wynn, and Japanese pachinko magnate Kazuo Okada. Having built a series of mega-resorts including the Mirage, Treasure Island and Bellagio in the late 1980s and 1990s, only to lose them in a sale to Kirk Kerkorian’s MGM Grand Inc. in 2000, he returned in 2005 with the opulent Wynn Las Vegas resort on the Strip.
The company later went on to build two resorts in Macau and is building a $2.4 billion casino in the Boston area.
All that remains of Mr. Wynn at the casino empire—aside from the fact that he is allowed to reside in a villa at the Las Vegas casino through May—is his signature splashed as a logo atop its casino resorts.
Mr. Wynn resigned last month as chairman and chief executive of Wynn Resorts following a January article in The Wall Street Journal that detailed allegations of a decades long pattern of his sexual misconduct against employees.
His position as a major shareholder in Wynn Resorts had left him and the company subject to additional scrutiny by regulators in Nevada and Massachusetts, who are investigating the claims.
Mr. Wynn has said it was “preposterous” that he would assault a woman; he hasn’t responded to other allegations. A lawyer for Mr. Wynn didn’t immediately provide comment Thursday beyond an earlier statement he had issued saying that Mr. Wynn would decline to cooperate with the Journal because he doesn’t believe the newspaper will treat him fairly.
Mr. Wynn sold his shares in the middle of their recent trading range. Wynn Resorts stock had risen to over $200 a share by late January before plunging after the Jan. 26 article in the Journal and hovering around the low $160s for much of February.
The shares regained ground in March following the company’s efforts to distance itself from Mr. Wynn and to resolve outstanding litigation. In 2002, underwriters priced Wynn Resorts’ initial public offering at $13 a share. The stock price peaked at just over $247 in March 2014.
Over the past month, the company and Mr. Wynn had worked to remove several roadblocks that prevented him from being able to sell his stock. A shareholder agreement dating to 2010 had prevented Mr. Wynn, Ms. Wynn and a former business partner, Corp., from selling without the permission of the other parties.
Wynn Resorts earlier this month agreed to pay $2.6 billion to settle litigation with Universal, which then agreed to drop its rights in the shareholder agreement. Last week, Mr. Wynn and Ms. Wynn agreed in a Nevada state court to dissolve their part of the shareholder agreement.
Another complication resolved Tuesday involved an agreement with the company’s bondholders. Under the previous terms of one set of notes, the company could have been forced to offer to buy back all of the bonds issued by its Wynn Las Vegas subsidiary if any investor were to gain a larger share in the company than Mr. and Ms. Wynn combined.
The company on Tuesday said it had reached a deal with bondholders to rewrite that provision in exchange for $25 million.
Even though Mr. Wynn no longer falls under the 5% shareholding threshold that requires him to hold a casino license in Nevada and Massachusetts, both regulators have discretion to continue investigating him. The Massachusetts regulator has said it is also examining as part of its investigation the actions of the Wynn Resorts board, along with other Wynn Resorts executives who were involved in getting the license approved.
Write to Chris Kirkham at chris.kirkham@wsj.com and Kate O’Keeffe at kathryn.okeeffe@wsj.com
Author Spotlight: A Conversation with Andrew Gumbel
Wednesday, October 14, 2020
From <https://thenewpress.com/blog/author-q/author-spotlight-conversation-with-andrew-gumbel>
https://www.c-span.org/video/?189365-1/steal-vote-dirty-elections
2015 | Wynn Reps knew of mob ties to Boston property...
Boston says Wynn Resorts reps knew of mob ties to land
From <https://lasvegassun.com/news/2015/jul/13/boston-says-wynn-reps-knew-mob-ties-land/>
In this Thursday, Jan. 15, 2015, photo, Steve Wynn, CEO of Wynn Resorts, delivers the keynote address at Colliers International Annual Seminar at the Boston Convention Center in Boston. Wynn delivered the keynote speech Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016, at a Las Vegas conference for printing technology company Electronics for Imaging.
By Philip Marcelo, Associated Press
Monday, July 13, 2015 | 4:40 p.m.
BOSTON — Recently discovered interviews with at least five people suggest Wynn Resorts knew a mob associate with felony convictions would profit from his stake in the waterfront land where the Las Vegas casino company plans to build a resort, the city says in recent court filings.
Boston, which is suing the state Gaming Commission over its decision to award Wynn a gambling license, says the witnesses told commission investigators that Wynn representatives were informed of or discussed Charles Lightbody's ownership stake before signing an option on roughly 30 acres on the Everett waterfront across from Boston.
The city argues that existence of the testimony casts further doubts over the commission's vetting of the Wynn application.
One interview centers on a conversation between Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria and Stephen Tocco, a former state secretary of economic affairs working as a political consultant for Wynn.
Tocco told gambling investigators he had mentioned to the mayor that a reporter was inquiring about the Everett land. He then reminded DeMaria that Wynn would not move forward with the deal if there was anyone with a criminal background involved. The mayor, in response, asked specifically if the reporter was asking about Lightbody, Tocco testified.
"A fair and reasonable inference to be drawn from Tocco's testimony is that Mayor DeMaria knew that Lightbody was an owner of the former Monsanto Chemical Site and a convicted felon, which he communicated directly to Tocco, a long-term, authorized representative of Wynn," the city argues in the legal brief.
But Tocco said Monday it's clear from his testimony he didn't pass on any mention of Lightbody to Wynn officials after his brief conversation with DeMaria because the name didn't ring any bells.
"I never heard of Lightbody and I certainly never had any discussions with Wynn or anybody else about Lightbody," he said. "I didn't pursue it because I didn't know who the names were, anyway. I wasn't involved in the land stuff."
Wynn spokesman Michael Weaver maintains the company first learned about Lightbody's ties to the property from the gaming commission investigation. The commission and DeMaria didn't comment Monday.
The interviews were included in roughly 1,000 pages of materials Boston filed late last week as the city argued for casting a wider net for gathering evidence in the civil lawsuit.
A state judge struck the filings from the court record Thursday because they had been submitted just hours before a hearing in the case. The city subsequently released the materials to the Associated Press.
Boston alleges commission investigators "consciously omitted" mention of interviewing Tocco and DeMaria in their extensive background check into the key players in the $1.7 billion resort casino project. The testimony also was not included in the administrative record the commission has compiled for the court in Boston's civil lawsuit, the city says.
DeMaria and Tocco's testimony was a focus of legal filings this month in the criminal case against Lightbody and two other former owners of the Everett land, Dustin DeNunzio and Anthony Gattineri.
The three face federal wire fraud charges. They're accused of trying to conceal the fact Lightbody would profit from the multimillion-dollar land deal in violation of the state's casino law, which prohibits criminals from profiting from gambling facilities.
Boston and two other area cities, Revere and Somerville, have sued the gaming commission following last year's decision to award Wynn a casino license over rival Mohegan Sun. The cities, in separate lawsuits, accuse the commission and Wynn of misconduct that severely compromised the competition for the state's most lucrative regional casino license.
Among Boston's numerous allegations is that the commission attempted to "salvage" Wynn's qualification in the license competition by "mischaracterizing" evidence its investigators uncovered regarding Wynn's knowledge of Lightbody's role.
In a related development, state Attorney General Maura Healey on Monday issued a letter to state transportation officials in which she urged them to delay any approvals for Wynn's project until an independent analysis on the casino's impacts to the notoriously traffic-clogged region could be done.
From <https://lasvegassun.com/news/2015/jul/13/boston-says-wynn-reps-knew-mob-ties-land/>
Sammy the Bull on Steve Wynn Asking Him to Lie About Trump's Mob Connections (Part 7)
Sammy "The Bull" Gravano revealed that he was once approached by agents working for casino magnate Steve Wynn to shed light on any illegal activities involving Donald Trump. Wynn, who was in competition with Trump over casino licenses in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, was attempting to hinder Trump's chances with the gaming commission. Gravano, who had previously tried and failed to draw Trump into his sphere of influence, told the agents that Trump had no mafia ties. He propositions the agents, saying that if he were to provide damaging information on Trump, he would want a stake in Wynn's casino. They made no offer to him and Gravano chose not to engage with them any further.
Transcript
From <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_FEAG25v4Y>
EXCLUSIVE: Sammy the Bull on Threatening to Kill Israeli Mafia Elon Zaga's Associates
VladTV
Staff Writer
Dec 19, 2023 3:30 PM
Watch the full interview now as a VladTV Youtube Member: Click Here
Part 7: Sammy the Bull on Steve Wynn Asking Him to Lie About Trump's Mob Connections
Part 5: Sammy the Bull: My Son's Crew Threatened & Robbed Drug Dealers Using My Name
Part 1: Sammy the Bull on How His Cover was Blown in Witness Protection After Prison
--------
Sammy ‘The Bull’ Gravano revealed his involvement with the Israeli mafia. Revealing his encounter with an Israeli gangster, Elon Zaga, who ran the ecstasy business in New York, Gravano explained how a fight involving his son and two of Zaga's drug dealers led to a serious confrontation. Gravano also shared how he found out that drugs were being dealt at his wife’s restaurant under the protection of the Israeli mafia, a discovery that led to Gravano expelling the dealers. Ironically, an informant recorded these events and tied Gravano to the ongoing cases. Additionally, Gravano divulged his unsuccessful attempts to connect with Donald Trump through intermediaries as well as declining a proposition by Steve Wynn’s agents to discredit Trump on the basis of mafia affiliations.
Donald Trump Thanking Ex-Hitman 'Sammy the Bull' Raises Eyebrows
Jan 13, 2024 at 4:42 PM EST
Weekend Reporter
From <https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-thanking-ex-hitman-sammy-bull-raises-eyebrows-1860506>
From <https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-thanking-ex-hitman-sammy-bull-raises-eyebrows-1860506>
Former President Donald Trump thanked ex-hitman Salvatore Gravano on Saturday for speaking highly of him, which has raised eyebrows on social media.
Gravano, also known as "Sammy the Bull," was an underboss for the Gambino crime family in New York City and worked with the United States government as an informant to take down mob boss John Gotti in the early 1990s. Gravano, who confessed to his involvement in 19 murders, was released from prison in 2017 after being sentenced to 20 years for running an ecstasy ring in Arizona.
On Truth Social on Saturday, Trump, the current frontrunner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, shared an interview of Gravano originally posted last week by YouTuber Dj Vlad in which the former mobster called Trump "a legitimate guy."
"Thank you to Sammy the Bull. I hope Judges Engoron & Kaplan see this. We need fairness, strength and honesty in our New York Courts. We don't have it now!" Trump wrote.
In the interview clip, Gravano said he failed at getting Trump to work with him because he always had ex-FBI agents around him and that Trump simply didn't want to get involved with the mob.
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"I tried a couple times to press him and make arrangements where I could work with him and I did that with other big contractors. I had the power of the unions...But I couldn't get to him. He wouldn't bite. He just wouldn't bite. He didn't wanna do anything like that," Gravano said.
He continued: "One of my guys said, 'We'll go up to the office.' I said, 'We'll up to the office, everybody around him is an ex-FBI agent. We'll go up to the office, we'll get cuffed and we'll go right to prison.' So, forget about Trump. He's a legitimate guy. He don't wanna do it. Forget about Trump."
Newsweek reached out to Trump's campaign spokesperson via email for comment.
Some on social media criticized Trump for using Gravano as a "character witness" and questioned why he would mention Judges Arthur Engoron and Lewis Kaplan in his Truth Social post.
Former mobster Salvatore Gravano, also known as "Sammy the Bull," is seen at a hearing in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Former President Donald Trump is seen at his civil fraud trial on Thursday in New York City. Trump thanked Gravano on Saturday for speaking highly of him, which has raised eyebrows on social media.Jeffrey Markowitz/Sygma/Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of MeidasTouch and vocal Trump critic, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday, "Trump thanks Gambino Crime Family mobster, rat, and serial liar Sammy 'the Bull' Gravano, who confessed to 19 murders and countless kidnappings, armed robberies, burglaries & 1000s of other felonies, for vouching for him. Trump's new character witness."
"Sammy the Bull Gravano was a mob hitman who confessed to 19 murders. This is a not so veiled threat to two judges hearing cases against him right now. When will they stop treating him differently than other defendants and lock him up!" Karen Agnifilo, ex-New York City prosecutor and co-host of LegalAF on MeidasTouch, wrote.
X user @Caerage commented: "So, we have reached the part of this bizarre timeline we are living in where the frontrunner for the GOP nomination, a disgraced former president facing 91 felonies, who attempted a coup, and who committed massive business fraud--is citing Sammy the Bull as a character witness."
Engoron and Kaplan are both involved in civil lawsuits that Trump is currently up against.
Engoron just presided over a trial to determine how much Trump will pay in damages after he found that the former president submitted "fraudulent valuations" for assets that were then used by himself, his two eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and his real estate company, The Trump Organization, to secure better loans and insurance terms. The lawsuit that led to the civil fraud trial was filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James in 2022.
Meanwhile, Kaplan is set to preside over a trial later this month that will determine how much Trump will have to pay columnist E. Jean Carroll for defaming her in 2019 by claiming she was lying when she alleged that Trump had raped her in a New York City department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.
The former president has denied any wrongdoing in both civil lawsuits.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-thanking-ex-hitman-sammy-bull-raises-eyebrows-1860506
Trump Touts Ex-Mobster ‘Sammy The Bull’ As Moral Character Witness
Former President Donald Trumpthanked Salvatore “Sammy The Bull” Gravano over social media for an interview in which the notorious former Mafia underboss seemingly vouched for Trump’s moral character.
Gravano never managed to rope Trump into his illegal schemes, he said in an undated interview Trump posted to his platform Truth Social.
As a 1980s real estate mogul, Trump surrounded himself with former FBI officers for security, according to the ex-mobster.
“I tried a couple times to press him, and make arrangements where I could work with him. I did that with other big contractors. I had the power of the unions. I could do all kinds of little things, but I couldn’t get to him. He wouldn’t bite,” Gravano said in the clip.
A headline over the clip read: “THIS IS WHY WASHINGTON HATES HIM.”
“Thank you to Sammy the Bull,” Trump wrote Friday, after a week of dealing with his myriad legal problems in the run-up to Iowa’s Republican caucuses.
Referencing his New York lawsuits, Trump added: “I hope Judges Engoron & Kaplan see this. We need fairness, strength and honesty in our New York Courts. We don’t have it now!”
Judge Arthur Engoron is in charge of Trump’s civil real estate fraud case. Judge Lewis Kaplan oversees writer E. Jean Carroll’s latest defamation suit against Trump, which is set to go to trial next week.
Gravano infamously turned on his boss — the original “Teflon Don,” John Gotti — to become a witness for the government in the early 1990s, helping put Gotti behind bars until his death. Trump earned the same nickname during his political career for repeatedly managing to survive scandal after scandal that would likely sink other elected officials.
After serving his time in prison, Gravano has appeared in documentaries about the Mafia and launched his own true crime podcast, where he also talked about the former president.
“Trump ran around in some different circles all over the place,” Gravano said in an episode last year.
“He was very wealthy. Came from a very wealthy family. Not self-made. His father was a heavyweight construction guy with a ton of fucking money, and a ton of connections with the government. And you start getting people that connected — fucking with them is not a smart move. Trying to shake them down is not a smart move.”
From his new home in Phoenix, Arizona, Gravano has publicly admitted to being involved in 19 homicides, including “a few” in which he personally killed someone — explaining in a November interview with AZ Family, a local news station: “When I’m ordered to kill, I kill.”
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6335656140112
Tuesday, December 05, 2023at 1:07:11p PST
On Monday, Rep. James Comer pretended to have explosive evidence of President Joe Biden’s purported criminal enterprise. He didn’t, of course. But on Tuesday, Newsmax rallied behind Comer’s dud by interviewing the aging former “underboss” of the Gambino organized crime family, Sammy “The Bull” Gravano.
Yes, that last sentence is 100% factual.
So what did the 78-year-old Bull, who is best known for turning state's evidence and confessing to his involvement in 19 murders, have to say?
“And when you say [Biden is] not part of the Mafia or organized crime, I don't know—it's more organized, you couldn't get, if this is an organized crime. And like I said in previous interviews, we were like choirboys compared to what they're doing now. So if you say it's not organized crime, I don't agree with that. There's no parallel. They're doing 10 times more. Listen, I never sold out the country. We may have raised prices in different markets and we got a piece of it, but we never turned around and sold out the whole country.”
In Newsmax’s defense, their reliance on a notorious scumbag as an expert came just a few days after Fox News had the very same scumbag on to talk with Jesse Watters about the Biden family.
The Republican investigation into Biden and his family’s finances has reached a new low, and conservative media is following it down the drain.
Former mobster Sammy 'The Bull' Gravano released from prison
September 22, 2017
From <https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1BX2QQ/>
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1BX2QQ/
FILE PHOTO: Former Mafia turncoat and hitman Salvatore "Sammy the Bull'' Gravano is seen in this March 6, 2000 file photo during his hearing in Phoenix, Arizona. REUTERS Acquire Licensing Rights
(Reuters) - Former mob underboss Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, who admitted to involvement in 19 murders and testified against Gambino crime family head John Gotti, has been released from prison after serving more than 17 years, his attorney said on Friday.
Gravano, 72, was freed from federal custody on Monday after completing his sentence for running a drug ring, his New York-based lawyer Thomas Farinella said by phone.
Farinella declined to say which facility released his client or where Gravano would live.
"Right now, he's just enjoying the fact that he's free after 17 and a half years," Farinella said, adding he was spending time with family.
U.S. Bureau of Prisons officials could not be reached to provide information on where Gravano was held most recently.
In the 1990s, Gravano, then a mob underboss in New York, became the highest-level U.S. mob figure ever to testify against an associate when he helped bring down Gotti.
Gotti had the nickname "Teflon Don" for his ability to evade conviction before he was found guilty in 1992 of murder, racketeering, extortion and tax evasion. He died of cancer in 2002 while serving a life sentence.
Gravano, under the deal he made for testifying against Gotti, admitted to a role in the killings of 19 people, including his wife's brother. He pleaded guilty to racketeering and served five years in prison, according to media reports from the time.
After spending time in the federal witness protection program, Gravano began peddling the drug ecstasy in Arizona, according to court documents.
He pleaded guilty in 2001 to a federal crime of conspiracy to distribute ecstasy.
He also pleaded guilty that year to related state charges in Arizona. Those included conspiracy, dangerous drug violation and participating in a criminal syndicate, according to court records for Maricopa County.
His federal and state sentences ran concurrently, said Arizona Department of Corrections spokesman Andrew Wilder.
Gravano has been ordered to live under supervised release for life, according to a federal court filing. It was unclear if he would again be in the witness protection program.
Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Cynthia Osterman
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1BX2QQ/
Wikipedia - Apollo Management
Wikipeida Apollo Global Management
Not to be confused with Apollo Hospitals.
Headquarters at the Solow Building in New York City
Company type
Russell 1000 Index component
US0376123065
US03768E1055
Industry
Founded
1990; 34 years ago
Founders
Headquarters
,
Key people
Products
Private equity funds, credit funds, real estate funds, alternative investment, leveraged buyouts, growth capital, venture capital
Revenue
US$32.64 billion (2023)
US$5.586 billion (2023)
US$6.509 billion (2023)
US$650.8 billion (2023)
US$313.5 billion (2023)
US$25.23 billion (2023)
Number of employees
2,903 (2023)
Website
Footnotes / references
Apollo Global Management, Inc.
Apollo Global Management, Inc. is an American asset management firm that primarily invests in alternative assets.[2] It provides investment management and invests in credit, private equity, and real assets.[3][4][1] As of 2022, the company had $548 billion of assets under management, including $392 billion invested in credit, including mezzanine capital, hedge funds, non-performing loans, and collateralized loan obligations, $99 billion invested in private equity, and $46.2 billion invested in real assets, which includes real estate and infrastructure. The company invests money on behalf of pension funds, financial endowments, and sovereign wealth funds, as well as other institutional and individual investors.[1]
Apollo was formed in 1990 by Leon Black, Josh Harris, and Marc Rowan, former investment bankers at the defunct Drexel Burnham Lambert. The company is headquartered in the Solow Building in New York City,[1] with offices across North America, Europe, and Asia.[5] Among the most notable companies in which funds managed by the company have invested are ADT Inc., CareerBuilder, Cox Media Group, Intrado, Legendary Entertainment, Rackspace Technology, Redbox, Shutterfly, Sirius Satellite Radio, Qdoba, Smart & Final, University of Phoenix, and Yahoo Inc.
In addition to its private funds, Apollo operates Apollo Investment Corporation (AIC), a US-domiciled publicly traded, private-equity, closed-end fund and Business Development Company. AIC provides mezzanine debt, senior secured loans, and equity investments to middle-market companies, including public companies, although it historically has not invested in companies controlled by Apollo's private-equity funds.[6][7]
History
(origins of modern private equity)
(leveraged buyout boom)
(leveraged buyout and the venture capital bubble)
(dot-com bubble to the credit crunch)
(expansion)
Apollo, originally referred to as Apollo Advisors, was founded after the collapse of Drexel Burnham Lambert in 1990 by Leon Black, the former head of Drexel's mergers and acquisitions department, along with Josh Harris and Marc Rowan.[8] Tony Ressler, another former senior Drexel executive, was also among the firm's original members.[9][10][11][12]
Within six months after the collapse of Drexel, Apollo launched Apollo Investment Fund L.P., the first of its private-equity investment funds, formed to make investments in distressed companies. Apollo raised around $400 million of investor commitments based on Leon Black's reputation as a prominent lieutenant of Michael Milken and a key player in the buyout boom of the 1980s.[9]
Lion Advisors (or Lion Capital) was founded in 1990 to provide investment services to Credit Lyonnais and foreign institutions, seeking to profit from depressed prices in the high-yield market.[13] In 1992, Lion entered into a more formal arrangement to manage the $3 billion high-yield portfolio for Credit Lyonnais which together with a consortium of other international investors provided the capital for Lion's investment activities. Lion Advisors was replaced by Ares Management.[citation needed]
1990s
At the time of Apollo's founding, little financing was available for new leveraged buyouts and Apollo turned, instead, to a strategy of distressed-to-control takeovers.[14][15] Apollo purchased distressed securities, which could be converted into a controlling interest in the equity of the company through a bankruptcy reorganization or other restructuring. Apollo used distressed debt as an entry point, enabling the firm to invest in such firms as Vail Resorts,[16] Walter Industries,[17][18] Culligan, and Samsonite.[19]
Apollo acquired interests in companies that Drexel had helped finance by purchasing high-yield bonds from failed savings and loans and insurance companies. Apollo acquired several large portfolios of assets from the U.S. government's Resolution Trust Corporation.[20] One of Apollo's earliest and most successful deals involved the acquisition of Executive Life Insurance Company's bond portfolio. Using this vehicle, Apollo purchased the Executive Life portfolio, profiting when the value of high-yield bonds recovered, but also resulting in a variety of state regulatory issues for Apollo and Credit Lyonnais over the purchase.[21]
AREA Property Partners logo
In 1993, Apollo Real Estate Advisers was founded in collaboration with William Mack to seek opportunities in the U.S. property markets.[22]
In April 1993, Apollo Real Estate Investment Fund, L.P., the first in a family of real estate "opportunity funds", was closed with $500 million of investor commitments. In 2000, Apollo exited the partnership, which continued to operate as Apollo Real Estate Advisers until changing its name to AREA Property Partners effective January 15, 2009. That firm was then owned and controlled by its remaining principals, including William Mack, Lee Neibart, William Benjamin, John Jacobsson, Stuart Koenig, and Richard Mack.[23]
In 1995, Apollo raised its third private-equity fund, Apollo Investment Fund III, with $1.5 billion of investor commitments from investors that included CalPERS and the General Motors pension fund.[24] Fund III was only an average performer for private-equity funds of its vintage. Among the investments made in Fund III (invested through 1998) were: Alliance Imaging, Allied Waste Industries, Breuners Home Furnishings, Levitz Furniture,[25] Communications Corporation of America, Dominick's, Ralphs (acquired Apollo's Food-4-Less), Move.com, NRT Incorporated,[26] Pillowtex Corporation,[27] Telemundo,[28] and WMC Mortgage Corporation.[29]
Also in 1995, Apollo's founding partner Craig Cogut left the firm to found Pegasus Capital Advisors. Since its inception, Pegasus has raised $1.8 billion in four private-equity funds focused on investments in middle-market companies in financial distress.
In 1997, Ares Management was founded by Antony Ressler and John H. Kissick, both partners at Apollo, as well as Bennett Rosenthal, who joined the group from the global leveraged finance group at Merrill Lynch, to manage a $1.2 billion market value collateralized debt obligation vehicle.[30] Ares I and II which were raised were structured as market value CLOs. Ares III-Ares X were structured as cash flow CLOs. In 2002, Ares completed a corporate spin-off from Apollo management. Although technically the founders of Ares had completed a spinout with the formation of the firm in 1997, they had maintained a close relationship with Apollo over its first five years and operated as the West Coast affiliate of Apollo. Shortly thereafter, Ares completed fundraising for Ares Corporate Opportunities Fund, a special-situations investment fund with $750 million of capital under management.[30][31]
In 1998, during the dot-com bubble, Apollo raised Apollo Investment Fund IV with $3.6 billion of investor commitments. As of April 8, 2008, the fund had generated a 10% IRR net of fees.[32] Among the investments made in Fund IV (invested through 2001) were: Allied Waste Industries,[33] AMC Entertainment,[34] Berlitz International,[35] Clark Retail Enterprises,[36] Corporate Express (Buhrmann), Encompass Services Corporation, National Financial Partners,[37] Pacer International,[38] Rent-A-Center, Resolution Performance Products, Resolution Specialty Materials, Sirius Satellite Radio,[39] SkyTerra Communications, United Rentals, and Wyndham Worldwide.[40]
2000–2005
Apollo's headquarters in the Solow Building at 9 West 57th Street in New York City, formerly occupied by Tyco
Apollo invested in AMC Theatres in 2001 and acquired the entire company in 2004.
In April 2001, Apollo raised Apollo Investment Fund V with $3.7 billion of investor commitments. As of April 8, 2008, the fund had generated a 54% IRR net of fees.[32] Among the investments made in Fund V (invested through 2006) were Affinion Group, AMC Entertainment, Berry Plastics, Cablecom, Compass Minerals, General Nutrition Centers (GNC), Goodman Global, Hexion Specialty Chemicals (Borden), Intelsat, Linens 'n Things, Metals USA, Nalco Investment Holdings, Sourcecorp, Spectrasite Communications, and Unity Media. Although the founders of Ares had completed a corporate spin-off with the formation of the firm in 1997, they had initially maintained a close relationship with Apollo and operated as the West Coast affiliate of Apollo.[41][citation needed]
In 2002, when Ares raised its first corporate opportunities fund, the firm announced that it would separate from its former parent company. The timing of this separation also coincided with Apollo's legal difficulties with the State of California over its purchase of Executive Life Insurance Company in 1991.[42] The same year, Attorney General of California Bill Lockyer accused Leon and an investor group led by French bank Credit Lyonnais of violating California law by having a foreign government-owned bank acquire the assets and bond portfolio of Executive Life Insurance.[43]
In April 2004, Apollo raised $930 million through an initial public offering for a listed business development company, Apollo Investment Corporation.[44][6][7] In September 2004, investment funds managed by Apollo and Sterling Partners acquired Connections Academy. It was sold in 2011 for $400 million.[45]
2005–2010
In 2005, Apollo formed Hexion Specialty Chemicals through the merger of Borden, Inc., Resolution Performance Products LLC, and Resolution Specialty Materials, LLC, and the acquisition of Bakelite AG. Hexion announced in July 2007 that it was acquiring Huntsman Corporation, a major specialty-chemicals company, in a $6.5 billion leveraged buyout. Hexion announced in June 2008 it would refuse to close the deal, prompting a series of legal actions. The transaction was terminated in December after a settlement between Hexion and Huntsman, wherein they were required to pay Huntsman $1 billion to drop fraud charges.[46][47]
Caesars Palace, acquired as part of Apollo's LBO of Harrah's Entertainment
Between 2005 and 2007, the private equity market was booming.[48] Among Apollo's most notable investments during this period were Harrah's Entertainment, Norwegian Cruise Line, Claire's Stores, and Realogy.[49]
In 2006, Apollo acquired Rexnord Corporation for $1.825 billion,[50][51] Berry Plastics for $2.25 billion,[52] Momentive Performance Materials for approximately $3.8 billion,[53] and TNT N.V. for $1.9 billion.[54]
AP Alternative Assets logo
In August 2006, Apollo launched a $2 billion vehicle in Europe, AP Alternative Assets.[7] It was a Guernsey-domiciled publicly traded, private-equity closed-end, limited partnership, managed by Apollo Alternative Assets, an affiliate of Apollo Management.[55] Apollo initially attempted to raise $2.5 billion for the public vehicle, but fell short when it offered the shares in June 2006, raising only $1.5 billion.[56] Apollo raised an additional $500 million via private placements in the weeks following that sale. AAA was formed to invest alongside Apollo's main private-equity funds and hedge funds.[6][7] AAA's investment portfolio was made up of a mix of private-equity and capital-markets investments. It was liquidated in 2020.[57]
In October 2006, Apollo announced a $990 million leveraged buyout of Jacuzzi Brands, a manufacturer of whirlpool baths.[58] In 2006, Apollo acquired International Paper's coated paper and supercalendered paper business for $1.4 billion, renaming the business Verso Paper. Verso is the second-largest producer of the North American magazine publishing and catalog/commercial print markets. In May 2008, Verso became a public company via an IPO.[59][60]
In February 2007, Apollo acquired Oceania Cruises for $850 million and provided additional capital to fund the expansion of the company with the purchase of two new cruise ships.[61]!
In February 2007, Apollo announced the acquisition of the Smart & Final chain of warehouse-style food and supply stores. In June 2007, Smart & Final completed the acquisition of the Henry's Marketplace chain of "farmers market" style food retailers from Wild Oats Markets as part of that company's acquisition by Whole Foods Market. In 2011, the Henry's chain was merged with Sprouts Farmers Market, which, like the Henry's markets, had been founded by Henry Boney.[62][63][64][65]
In March 2007, Apollo announced the $3.1 billion leveraged buyouts of costume jewelry retailer Claire's Stores. In 2008, Claire's experienced financial difficulty amid the slump in consumer spending.[66][67]
In April 2007, Apollo acquired Noranda Aluminum, the US aluminum business of Xstrata for $1.15 billion. Noranda Aluminum includes a primary smelter and three rolling mills in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Arkansas along with other operations.[68]
In April 2007, Apollo acquired Realogy, a franchisor that owns Coldwell Banker, Century 21, and Sotheby's International Realty, for $8.5 billion. As the United States housing market correction accelerated in 2008, Realogy faced financial pressures due to its debt load. In November 2008, Realogy launched an exchange offer for a portion of its debt to provide additional flexibility, prompting a lawsuit from Carl Icahn.[69][70][71][72] In 2013, Apollo sold out of this investment, making a profit of $1.3 billion.[73]
In May 2007, Apollo acquired Countrywide plc, a provider of residential property-related services in the UK, formerly known as Hambro Countrywide (1988) and Countrywide Assured Group (1998) for $1.05 billion (not related to Countrywide Financial).[74]
In November 2007, the company sold 9% of itself to the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.[56][7][75]
In January 2008, Apollo and TPG Capital acquired Harrah's Entertainment for $27.4 billion, including the assumption of existing debt.[76][77]
In January 2008, Apollo invested $1 billion in Norwegian Cruise Line to support a recapitalization of the company's balance sheet.[78] In December 2018, Apollo cashed out of this investment.[79]
In February 2008, Apollo acquired Regent Seven Seas Cruises from Carlson Companies for $1 billion. Following the purchase, Apollo ordered a new ship for Regent.[80]
In April 2008, Apollo, TPG Capital, and The Blackstone Group acquired $12.5 billion of bank loans from Citigroup. The portfolio comprised primarily senior secured loans that had been made to finance leveraged-buyout transactions at the peak of the market. Citigroup had been unable to syndicate the loans before the onset of the credit crunch. The loans were reported to have been sold in the "mid-80 cents on the dollar" relative to face value. In late 2008, Apollo received margin calls associated with the financing of its purchase of certain loan portfolios as the values of the loans decreased.[81][82]
In April 2008, Apollo filed a Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in preparation for an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange.[32]
In May 2008, Apollo invested in Vantium, a company that buys residential mortgage assets as part of a strategy to profit from the United States housing market correction.[83]
In July 2008, the company closed a $758 million value-add fund.[84]
Also in 2008, Apollo opened an office in India, its first office in Asia.[85]
Apollo lost its investment in retailer Linens 'n Things with the company's 2008 bankruptcy.[86]
During the financial crisis of 2007–2008, several of Apollo's investments came under pressure. Apollo's 2005 investment in the struggling US retailer Linens 'n Things suffered from a significant debt burden and softening consumer demand. In May 2008, Linens filed for bankruptcy protection, costing Apollo all of its $365 million investment in the company.[86][87] In 2009, the company was sued by a noteholder claiming mismanagement.[88]
Apollo exercised its "PIK toggle" option at Claire's to shut off cash interest payments to its bondholders and instead issue more debt, to provide the company with additional financial flexibility.[89][90]
In December 2008, Apollo completed fundraising for its latest fund, Apollo Investment Fund VII, with roughly $14.7 billion of investor commitments.[91] Apollo had been targeting $15 billion, but had been in fundraising for more than 16 months, with the bulk of the capital raised in 2007.[92]
In November 2009, Liberty Global acquired Unity Media GMBH; funds managed by Apollo owned a 31% interest.[93]
In December 2009, Apollo announced the acquisition of Cedar Fair Entertainment Company for $635 million and assumed debt valuing the company at $2.4 billion.[94][95] In April 2010, the deal was terminated due to poor shareholder response.[96][97]
2011–2017
In January 2011, Apollo acquired 51% of Alcan Engineered Products from Rio Tinto Group.[98]
On March 29, 2011, Apollo became a public company via an IPO.[99][100][101]
In June 2011, Apollo acquired CKx.[102]
In March 2012, Apollo acquired the unprofitable Great Wolf Resorts for $703 million.[103][104][105]
In November 2012, Apollo acquired McGraw-Hill Education for $2.5 billion.[106][107]
In 2013, Apollo acquired Pitney Bowes Management Services (PBMS) for $400 million. From PBMS, Apollo formed Novitex Enterprise Solutions. Novitex is a document-outsourcing provider that manages business-critical services for over 500 companies across 10 industries.[108] In 2017, it was merged into Exela Technologies.[109]
On March 11, 2013, Apollo Global Management made the only bid for the snacks business of Hostess Brands, including Twinkies, for $410 million.[110]
In December 2013, Apollo bought a portfolio of Irish home loans from Lloyds Bank for €307 million, less than half their face value. The shares were bought by an Apollo Global Management subsidiary, Tanager Limited.[111]
In January 2014, Apollo acquired Chuck E. Cheese's for about $1 billion.[112][113] Apollo owned the company until 2020, when it was purchased by Monarch Alternative Capital.
In October 2014, Apollo merged its Endemol television studio with 21st Century Fox's Shine Group. The merged company became Endemol Shine Group, with AGM and Fox each owning half of the studio.[114]
In May 2015, Centerbridge Partners acquired Great Wolf Resorts from Apollo for $1.35 billion.[115][116]
In June 2015, Apollo agreed to acquire OM Group for $1.03 billion.[117]
Also in June 2015, Apollo won the bidding during an auction for Saint-Gobain's Verallia glass bottle-manufacturing unit for €2.95 billion.[118]
In February 2016, Apollo agreed to acquire The ADT Corporation for $6.9 billion.[119]
In April 2016, Apollo executive Stephanie Drescher donated $1000 to the presidential campaign of John Kasich, then Ohio governor. As governor, Kasich appointed a member to the Ohio state pension board. This donation violated an SEC pay-to-play pension rule. In 2019, the SEC chose not to enforce the rule.[12]
In June 2016, funds managed by Apollo Global Management acquired Diamond Resorts International.[120] It was sold to Hilton Worldwide in August 2021.[121][122]
In November 2016, investment funds managed by Apollo acquired Rackspace.[123][124]
In 2016, investment funds managed by Apollo acquired Constellis for $1 billion. Constellis is a private military contractor that was created as a result of a merger between rival contractors Triple Canopy and Academi in 2014. Academi, founded by Erik Prince and formerly known as Blackwater USA, is best known for its role in the Nisour Square massacre, where Blackwater guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians and injured 20.[125][126][127][128]
In February 2017, Apollo Education Group, the parent company of the University of Phoenix, was acquired by investment funds managed by Apollo and the Vistria Group, for $1.14 billion.[129][130][131][132]
In June 2017, investment funds managed by Apollo acquired 80.1% of Philips Lumileds division for $1.5 billion.[133][134]
In October 2017, Apollo acquired West Corp for about $2 billion.[135][136]
In November 2017, Apollo lent $184 million to Kushner Companies to refinance the mortgage on a Chicago skyscraper.[137][138]
2018–2019
In March 2018, Apollo acquired the Mexican-style restaurant chain Qdoba from Jack in the Box.[139][140]
In June 2018, funds managed by Apollo and Värde Partners acquired a majority of OneMain Financial.[141] Also in June 2018, Apollo acquired healthcare provider LifePoint Health for $5.6 billion. Following the acquisition, LifePoint merged with Apollo's RCCH HealthCare Partners.[142][143]
In October 2018, funds managed by Apollo Global Management acquired a portfolio of $1 billion in energy investments from GE Capital's Energy Financial Services unit.[144][145]
In February 2019, AGM was in talks to buy Nexstar Media Group for over $1 billion.[146] However, on February 14, 2019, Cox Media Group announced that it was selling its 14 television stations to Apollo.[147] In March 2019 filings with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Apollo disclosed that, through the newly formed Terrier Media, the Cox stations would be acquired for $3.1 billion (to be reduced by the value of a minority equity stake in Terrier that will be retained by Cox Enterprises); Terrier will also concurrently acquire Northwest Broadcasting, giving the company 25 television stations.[148] On June 26, 2019, Cox announced that its 60 radio stations, as well as its national advertising business CoxReps, and local OTT advertising agency Gamut, would also be acquired by the new company, which concurrently announced that it would retain the Cox Media Group name instead of Terrier Media.[149] On February 10, 2020, Cox Enterprises bought back the Ohio newspapers it sold to AGM. The FCC required Apollo to reduce the daily newspapers to three days or sell them.[150]
In February 2019, Apollo acquired Aspen Insurance for $2.6 billion.[151]
On April 16, 2019, Apollo announced that it would once again acquire Smart & Final for $1.1 billion.[152]
On June 10, 2019, Apollo announced that it would acquire Shutterfly for $2.7 billion, as well as its competitor Snapfish in a separate transaction valued at around $300 million, with District Photo as a minority stakeholder.[153]
In August 2019, Apollo agreed to provide around $1.8 billion of debt financing to support New Media Investment Group's acquisition of Gannett.[154] On October 23, 2019, AGM announced it signed agreements to take a 48.6% stake in Italian gambling group Gamenet SPA.[155][156]
In November 2019, investment funds managed by Apollo acquired Florida-based Tech Data Corp. for $5.4 billion from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.[157][158]
In December 2019, investment funds managed by Apollo acquired Northwest Broadcasting and Cox Media Group for $3 billion, acquiring Northwest's 12 television stations, Cox's 13 television stations, 54 radio stations, three newspapers, national television advertising business – CoxReps, and local OTT advertising business – Gamut. Smart Media.[159][160][161][162]
2020–present
In February 2020, investment funds managed by Apollo acquired Covis from Cerberus Capital Management.[163]
In April 2020, AGM announced that it would invest $300 million in Cimpress, an Irish-domiciled printing group that owns Vistaprint.[164]
In May 2020, Apollo purchased $1.75 billion of preferred stock in Albertsons Companies.[165][166]
In July 2020, Apollo launched a $12 billion platform to make big loans.[167] The same month, Apollo and The Walt Disney Company sold Endemol Shine Group to the French studio Banijay Group.[168][169]
In September 2020, Apollo entered into a $5.5 billion real-estate investment partnership with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC).[170]
In March 2021, Apollo Investment Corporation closed a $110 million mezzanine credit facility between LendingPoint and MidCap Financial Trust.[171]
In March 2021, Leon Black resigned as CEO and chairman after revelations that he paid Jeffrey Epstein $158 million for personal tax-related advice between 2012 and 2017. He was replaced as CEO by Marc Rowan.[172][173][174]
In April 2021, Apollo launched Apollo Origination Partnership, a $1.8 billion direct-lending fund seeking unleveraged returns of 8-10% and 12-14% leveraged returns.[175] The same month, funds managed by Apollo acquired The Michaels Companies, parent of Michaels.[176][177]
In May 2021, Apollo's Gamenet acquired the Italian gaming businesses of International Game Technology for €950 million.[178][179]
In July 2021, funds managed by Apollo acquired EmployBridge, a large industrial-staffing company that has been cited for dozens of safety violations and wage infractions.[180][181]
On July 22, 2021, it was announced that Legendary Entertainment was looking for a merger instead of a SPAC.[182] On January 31, 2022, a minority stake in Legendary was sold to Apollo Global Management, with Wanda Group still remaining the majority owner.[183]
In August 2021, Apollo announced the acquisition of the incumbent local exchange carrier operations in 20 states from Lumen Technologies for $7.5 billion, including $1.4 billion of assumed debt.[184][185] The same month, Apollo launched a $500 million fund to invest in SPACs.[186]
In September 2021, investment funds managed by Apollo acquired 90% of Yahoo!.[187][188]
In January 2022, Apollo acquired Athene, a retirement services business.[189][190][191][192][193] The same month, co-founder Josh Harris left the company to focus on other business ventures.[194]
In May 2022, Apollo acquired the US asset management business of Griffin Capital.[195][196]
In July 2022, investment funds managed by Apollo acquired Tenneco for $7.1 billion.[197]
In 2022, investment funds managed by Apollo acquired Chicago-based grocer Tony's Fresh Market,[198] California-based grocer Cardenas,[199] and Miller Homes from Bridgepoint Group.[200]
In 2023, Apollo announced it would acquire American industrial company Arconic.[201]
In October 2023, Apollo acquired London-based restaurant group The Restaurant Group for £506 million ($623 million).[202]
From <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Global_Management>