Steve Wynn accused of sexual misconduct in WSJ report

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Casino Owner Wynn
Casino Owner Wynn

Steve Wynn has stepped down as the CEO of Wynn Resorts after allegations of sexual misconduct piled pressure on the billionaire casino mogul and sent the company's stock tumbling.

Wynn Resorts, Limited is an American publicly traded corporation based in Paradise, Nevada that is a developer and operator of high end hotels and casinos. It was founded in 2002 by former Mirage Resorts Chairman and CEO Steve Wynn, and is now run by CEO Matthew Maddox. As of 2020, the company has developed six properties.
Upon increasing his stake in the company that owns the Golden Nugget, Wynn becomes the majority shareholder and is confirmed as the youngest casino owner in Las Vegas. 1980 + The Golden Nugget.

'It is with a collective heavy heart, that the board of directors of Wynn Resorts today accepted the resignation of our founder, CEO and friend Steve Wynn,' one of the directors, Boone Wayson, said in a company statement late Tuesday.

Wynn, 76, has denied the accusations of misconduct, which gained widespread attention in late January after an investigative report by The Wall Street Journal detailed numerous allegations against him, citing dozens of sources.

'In the last couple of weeks, I have found myself the focus of an avalanche of negative publicity,' Wynn said in a statement. 'As I have reflected upon the environment this has created — one in which a rush to judgment takes precedence over everything else, including the facts — I have reached the conclusion I cannot continue to be effective in my current roles.'

Steve Wynn net worth: Steve Wynn is an American casino resort/real-estate developer and art collector who has a net worth of $3.1 billion.Wynn's personal and commercial contributions to both the. The sexual misconduct scandal surrounding casino mogul Steve Wynn keeps getting weirder. A self-described pal of Wynn is now claiming that Jorgen Nielsen, a former hairdresser with Wynn Las Vegas.

Wynn Resorts(WYNN) said it has appointed Matt Maddox, who currently serves as the company's president, as its new CEO effective immediately. Wayson will take over as chairman.

Losing Wynn is a heavy blow for the global gambling empire he built and that bears his name.

He said he was stepping down from 'a company I founded and that I love.'

Analysts have expressed concern about how Wynn's businesses in Las Vegas and the Chinese territory of Macau would operate without him at the helm.

'Mr. Wynn is the Wynn,' analysts at investment firm Bernstein wrote in a note to clients last week. 'Without him, the Wynn Resorts ... is a different operation.'

But the allegations against him made his position increasingly untenable.

He already resigned as finance chairman for the Republican National Committee shortly after the Journal story came out. And the Wynn Resorts board formed a special committee to investigate the allegations.

The accusations against him have also drawn scrutiny from gambling regulators in Nevada, Massachusetts andMacau.

The Chinese territory is particularly significant for Wynn Resorts, accounting for the large majority of its revenue and profits.

Investors have become increasingly concerned about the situation, driving down the company's stock. Wynn Resorts shares have plunged more than 18% since news of the allegations broke.

The stock was down about 1.5% in pre-market trading early Wednesday, according to data from FactSet.

The company said details of Wynn's 'separation agreement' would be announced once it has been finalized.

The casino business has already made him an incredibly rich man. Forbes puts his current net worth at $3.3 billion.

His wealth includes an 11.8% stake in Wynn Resorts, making him its biggest single shareholder. That means that even after his departure, he could carry a lot of influence at the company.

The tycoon is also handsomely paid for his work as CEO. His total compensation for 2016 came to $28.2 million. And over the past five years of reported income, his total compensation came to $111.6 million.

Wynn has been a major figure in the gambling world for decades.

The mogul is credited with being the person who transformed Las Vegas casinos from gambling dens into entertainment hubs where guests could watch spectacular shows and eat in high-end restaurants.

Wynn first entered the world of gambling when he took over his father's bingo parlors in Maryland. He moved to Las Vegas in 1967 with a stake in the Frontier Hotel, followed by a short stint as the owner of a wine and liquor distributor, Wynn said in a 2014 interview with the Hoover Institution's Peter Robinson.

Biggest Casino Owner In Vegas

Things picked up when Wynn scored a lucrative land deal via business mogul Howard Hughes. He parlayed that money into an investment in the Golden Nugget Casino.

Wynn's success in transforming the Golden Nugget into an elegant destination led to a string of new projects, each one increasingly opulent.

The Mirage, Wynn's first major casino on the Vegas Strip, opened in 1989. He then opened Treasure Island in 1993, and the Bellagio in 1998.

In 2006, he opened his first casino in Macau, where gambling revenues now dwarf those of Las Vegas. An even bigger one, Wynn Palace, followed 10 years later.

-- Julia Horowitz contributed to this report.

CNNMoney (Hong Kong) First published February 6, 2018: 9:43 PM ET

Casino owner Wynn Resorts is one of the worst-performing stocks of the year. But founder and CEO Steve Wynn just gave investors a huge vote of confidence by raising his wager on the struggling company.

Wynn Resorts announced late Tuesday that Steve Wynn had purchased more than 1 million shares between December 4 and December 8.

Wynn now owns more than 11 million shares of the company that bears his name. Shares of Wynn Resorts(WYNN) surged more than 15% in early trading Wednesday on the news.

Steve Wynn remains the firm's largest individual shareholder and third-biggest overall, behind money managers Northern Cross and Southeastern Asset Management.

The Wynn Casino Owner

Insider buying -- especially by a CEO -- is usually considered an unabashedly bullish sign. While corporations have been on a stock buyback binge lately, individual executives are typically less willing to put their own money at risk.

In fact, research firm TrimTabs just reported that insiders sold $7.6 billion in stock in November. That's the second-highest monthly total of the year. And it comes after the explosive market rally in October.

So that makes Steve Wynn's purchases even more noteworthy.

And Wynn Resorts could use a win, so to speak.

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It's been a tough year for the company -- mainly due to a huge plunge in gambling revenue and profits in Macau after the Chinese government cracked down on corruption there.

Wynn Resorts operates in Macau -- a special administrative region in China (similar to Hong Kong) where gambling is legal. The company also has several casinos in Las Vegas.

It has plans to open a new casino in Macau -- the Wynn Palace -- next June. Another casino -- the Wynn Diamond -- is also in the works.

Shares of Wynn Resorts and Wynn Macau(WYNMF), a separate company trading in Hong Kong that Wynn Resorts owns 72% of, have both lost more than half their value in 2015.

And that's after the big pop they both enjoyed Wednesday. The American-listed shares of Wynn Macau were up 10% Wednesday.

Wynn Resorts has done much worse than its Sin City rivals this year. Shares of Las Vegas Sands(LVS), which also has properties in Macau, is down 'just' 24%. And MGM Resorts(MGM) is actually up 5% -- despite having exposure to Macau as well.

Another publicly traded Macau casino owner based in Hong Kong, Melco Crown Entertainment, is down 36% this year.

Casino Owner Wynn

So is Steve Wynn signaling that the worst is over in Macau? Perhaps.

The company didn't give any explanati