Adelson won't return to witness stand

9 May 2013

By Tim O'Reiley

LAS VEGAS -- Sheldon Adelson ended the suspense on Tuesday night by deciding to forgo another trip to the witness stand in the breach of contract case brought by former Las Vegas Sands Corp. consultant Richard Suen. For several days, company attorneys had hinted that the chairman and CEO might opt for another crack at persuading the jurors that Suen deserved nothing for his work in trying to win a Macau gaming license more than a decade ago. Suen, on the other hand, contends he had mapped out a winning strategy that is worth $328 million, based a $5 million success fee plus 2 percent of Sands’s net profits in Macau.

Adelson took the witness stand at the start of the case as a hostile witness called by Suen. At the time, he was also questioned by his own attorneys.

Even as jurors went home on Tuesday afternoon after hearing the final witness in the monthlong trial, Adelson still had not made up his mind about reappearing. He wanted to think about it overnight, according to Clark County District Judge Rob Bare, but the judge set a deadline of 8 p.m.

Shortly after that, the calls went to jurors from Bare’s staff that they could take the day off; they were, however, not told that Adelson was the reason for the uncertain schedule.

On Wednesday, attorneys hashed out more than four dozen jury instructions. The schedule calls for closing arguments to begin on Thursday, with the jury to begin deliberations on Friday.