Fired Las Vegas Sands official seeks defamation trial

Jacobs added the defamation allegation to his wrongful termination lawsuit in March after Adelson told The Wall Street Journal that Jacobs was "using outright lies and fabrications" to explain his departure from Sands China Ltd., the Macau subsidiary of Las Vegas Sands.

Jacobs oversaw the company’s three resorts in Macau from 2009 until last summer, when he was let go.

His Las Vegas attorneys, Don Campbell and J. Colby Williams, in court papers argued against dismissing the defamation claim, saying a jury must decide whether Adelson defamed Jacobs.

They contended Adelson’s comments to The Wall Street Journal were "malicious" and "purposefully intended to harm Jacobs’ reputation and good name," and likely were the result of Adelson’s "frustration" at failing to get the lawsuit dismissed in March.

"By publicly defaming Mr. Jacobs to a worldwide investment community, Adelson ran headlong into a legal minefield where his explosive defamatory remarks have exposed him and the companies he heads to further substantial liability," the lawyers wrote.

Allegations Jacobs raised in the lawsuit have caused the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice to open investigations of Las Vegas Sands for possible violation of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Campbell and Williams rebutted in court papers a Sands China attorney’s claim that Jacobs lied when he alleged the company had sent tens of millions of dollars by courier from Macau for use by Sands customers. In a footnote, they backed up the allegation by pointing to a May 2010 memo from David Law, Sands China’s collection manager, who discussed sending a $4.8 million company check by courier to Las Vegas. Law says in the memo that he preferred using a courier rather than flying himself to Las Vegas "as I need to declare the reasons I am in the U.S., which would be more risky."

Campbell and Williams said Adelson isn’t the first "celebrity/billionaire to have publicly branded an adversary as a liar for merely having the temerity to seek legal redress."

Jacobs has alleged in his lawsuit that Adelson wanted him to use "improper leverage" against senior Macau government officials to help Sands China secure rights to sell apartments at its Four Seasons Macau. He also said in court documents that Adelson wanted him to employ a Macau attorney who held a government position. Jacobs says he objected over concerns about violating the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars companies from bribing foreign officials.

Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Sands China have denied the allegations and said Jacobs was fired for working on unauthorized deals and violations of company policy. Adelson’s attorney, Steve Morris, could not be reached for comment.

Contact reporter Jeff German at jgerman@ reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135.