Las Vegas Sands Faces $375 Million lawsuit

Las Vegas Sands, controlled by billionaire Sheldon G. Adelson and his family, is facing a new, $375 million lawsuit over how the company won a lucrative gambling license in Macau.

A filing submitted to a court in the Chinese territory in January by Asian American Entertainment, an estranged former partner of Las Vegas Sands controlled by the Taiwanese businessman Shi Sheng Hao, who also goes by the name Marshall Hao, alleges breach of contract and seeks compensation of 3 billion patacas, or more than $375 million.

The suit accuses Las Vegas Sands of improperly breaking off a 2001 agreement to bid for a Macau casino license, according to a copy of the court filing. The Macau suit is the latest of several legal actions that have sought to challenge how Mr. Adelson’s company won the right 10 years ago to develop gambling resorts in Macau, which has since grown to become the world’s biggest casino market.

Ron Reese, a spokesman for Las Vegas Sands, declined to comment on Asian American’s suit, citing the company’s policy of not discussing legal matters.

Las Vegas Sands ultimately won a casino license in Macau in February 2002, in a partnership with a unit of the Hong Kong-based company Galaxy Entertainment that dissolved later that year when the two companies went their separate ways. Asian American had previously filed a breach of contract suit against Sands in 2007 in United States federal court in Nevada, but that case was dismissed by the court in 2010.

‘‘Mr. Hao is sorely disappointed with how Las Vegas Sands has broken its promises in Macau, and he is willing to fight for Asian American’s rights and do whatever it takes,’’ said Jorge Menezes, the Macau lawyer representing Asian American. He declined to comment on the details of the case.

Other foreign casino operators have faced controversy in Macau. Wynn Resorts is currently locked in a battle with Kazuo Okada, a Japanese billionaire who in January sued the firm for access to its books regarding a donation of 1 billion Hong Kong dollars ($130 million) to the University of Macau, as well as other transactions. Wynn Resorts responded with a suit of its own against Mr. Okada last month and forcibly redeemed his 20 percent stake in the company; Mr. Okada countersued on Monday.

The Asian American suit also comes as Las Vegas Sands is being investigated by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department over its compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The company announced the investigation in February 2011, which it said was most likely prompted by allegations contained in a wrongful termination lawsuit filed in Nevada in October 2010 by the former head of its Macau unit, Steven Jacobs. In that suit, Mr. Jacobs accused his former employer of asking him to use ‘‘improper ‘leverage’ against senior government officials of Macau.’’ Sands has rejected those allegations, and the matter remains in court.

Success in Macau has made Mr. Adelson, 78, one of the richest people in the world. He and his wife, Miriam, own 53.2 percent of Las Vegas Sands, the world’s biggest casino company by market value. Last week, Forbes estimated Mr. Adelson’s fortune at $24.9 billion, placing him at No.14 on the magazine’s list of the world’s billionaires.

Macau has been an important market for Las Vegas Sands. The company owns three casinos in Macau that accounted for $4.8 billion in revenue last year, or 51 percent of the company’s total sales. It is developing a fourth property in Macau at a cost of more than $4 billion that it plans to open in phases beginning next month. When completed, it will be the city’s largest casino hotel, with 6,000 hotel rooms including Sheraton, Conrad and Holiday Inn branded properties.

The new Macau lawsuit by Asian American traces part of the evolution of the region’s gambling industry more than a decade ago, following a 40-year monopoly controlled by the local casino magnate Stanley Ho.

The years leading up to Macau’s handover to China, in 1999, had seen organized crime warfare spill out into the streets, as rival triad gangs fought for control of the city’s private V.I.P. gambling rooms. Inviting the world’s biggest and best-known casino companies to build new hotels was seen locally and in Beijing as a way to help clean up Macau’s gambling industry.

In October 2001, Mr. Adelson’s company signed a letter of intent to team up with Asian American in bidding for a casino license. Mr. Hao of Asian American, who also holds United States citizenship, had recruited financial support from China Development Industrial Bank, a Taiwanese lender that had agreed to underwrite the joint bid.

Asian American submitted a formal offer to the government of Macau in December 2001 on behalf of itself and a subsidiary of Las Vegas Sands, according to the suit; it was one of 18 qualified bids the government received for the three casino licenses that were then up for grabs.

Asian American’s suit alleges that Venetian Venture Development, a subsidiary of Las Vegas Sands, violated the terms of their bidding agreement in early 2002 by going behind its back to seek a rival bidding partner. When results of the tender process were announced by the government on Feb. 8 of that year, Mr. Adelson’s firm had won — not in partnership with Asian American, but with Galaxy of Hong Kong.

In the initial suit filed in the United States in 2007, Las Vegas Sands had argued that Nevada had no jurisdiction over the case and that Asian American’s claims were void because of the statute of limitations. But on appeal, a higher court allowed some of Asian American’s claims to go ahead, sending the matter back to the lower court in 2009. The matter was ultimately thrown out by the lower court after Asian American failed to retain lawyers to press the case — effectively giving up.

It is unclear why the company has chosen to take up the case again now, in Macau.

This is not the first time that Mr. Adelson’s companies have found themselves in court over how the Macau license was won.