• 24-JUL-2015

U.S. Attorney filing clears Wynn Resorts in land purchase, citing “a rumor spewed and spun by the City of Boston”

LAS VEGAS (July 24, 2015)—United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz has filed a response that concluded recent allegations made by the City of Boston against Wynn Resorts are groundless and cites the City of Boston for spreading rumors and using the judicial system to gather headlines in the press.

The pleading, signed by Assistant United States Attorney Kristina Barclay, was in response to a request for discovery related to allegations made by the City of Boston that certain individuals working for Wynn Resorts had illegal access to files in a secure wiretap room located in the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office in 2013. The motion was filed by three individuals who were associated with the land prior to Wynn’s purchase and who used the City of Boston’s claims against Wynn as the basis for their argument.

“Without a shred of evidence, and despite having been warned that the “alleged incident” never happened, the defendants seized on a rumor spewed and spun by the City of Boston in a vicious civil lawsuit against the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (the MGC) and filed a Brady motion questioning the integrity of this criminal prosecution,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Barclay in the opening paragraph of the response.

Affidavits from two former Massachusetts State Troopers who were accused by the City of Boston of illegally reviewing files were also released by U.S. Attorney Ortiz. The troopers testified that they did not review wiretap tapes or any files related to Wynn’s land purchase at the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office in 2013, despite widespread media reports and claims from the City of Boston that said otherwise.

U.S. Attorney Ortiz, in the filing, indicates that the City of Boston was behind the release of documents to the media.

“The government further notes that the only real effect of the defendants’ frivolous Motion was to publically disclose grand jury transcripts produced pursuant to the Protective Order, which materials made their way to the City of Boston and the media within hours of the filing of the Motion,” said U.S. Attorney Ortiz in the response. “Notably, those materials made their way into the record in the City of Boston’s civil lawsuit within twenty-four hours, and were thereafter released to the media by the City’s attorney.”

The U.S. Attorney’s conclusions are consistent with Wynn’s assertions that Boston’s allegations were baseless and driven by non-legal motives.

“We are not surprised that the statements made by the City of Boston about our company have been proven false, as we have always maintained,” said Michael Weaver, Senior Vice President of Communications for Wynn. “We hope the City will cease these efforts to stain our reputation.”