This is the conclusion of a two-part series on how Wynn Resorts, one of the world’s biggest casino operators, pursued a deal to acquire land in Macau’s Cotai Strip from a pair of Chinese businessmen.
Steve Wynn has said it was a simple real estate deal: In 2005, when Wynn Resorts wanted to build a second casino in Macau, China's fast-growing gambling hub, the government told him the land had already been committed to someone — a man named Ho Ho. In order to get access to the land, Wynn Resorts paid a company linked to Ho Ho $50 million.
But the deal — which resulted in the Wynn Palace, the “single most important project” in the company’s history — prompted questions from the very start, namely because, as Part One of this series showed, Ho Ho was virtually unknown. He did not have documented rights to the land and his associates, including a man named Ho Hoi, had minimal paper trails and no known experience in casinos or hospitality. In fact, none of the peo
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Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. Trade Representative under Donald Trump, reflects on his decision to launch the trade war with China and begin the process of "strategic decoupling" — a process he says the U.S. must see through to the end.
