Scott Sibella, President of Resorts World Las Vegas, speaks during the grand opening of Resorts World Las Vegas on June 24, 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Ethan Miller | Getty Images
The former president of the MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday afternoon in a federal criminal case for failing to report millions of dollars in bets placed at his casino by an illegal bookmaker.
Scott Sibella, the former MGM executive, pleaded guilty in January to one count of failing to file suspicious transaction reports required of casinos under the Bank Secrecy Act. MGM Resorts owns the MGM Grand and more than a dozen other Las Vegas properties, including The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
Sibella’s lawyers and prosecutors have asked for a suspended sentence for him.
Sibella, who was president of MGM Grand from August 2017 to February 2019, admitted knowing that a patron of his casino, former minor league baseball player Wayne Nix, was running an illegal bookmaking business, according to the Justice Department.
“Despite this knowledge, Sibella allowed Nix to gamble at the MGM Grand and affiliated properties using illegal proceeds from the illegal gambling business without notifying the casino’s compliance department,” the DOJ said in a press release in January.
“Sibella not only allowed Nix to play at the casino, but also authorized Nix to receive complimentary benefits at the casino, including meals, lodging, meals and golf trips with senior executives and other high-net-worth customers of the casino, further encouraging him.” Nothing to patronize the casino and/or other affiliated properties,” the DOJ added in the statement.
Through 2020, MGM Grand had accepted more than $4 million in cash that was illicit proceeds from Nix’s bookmaking business, the department said.
Nix pleaded guilty in April 2022 in federal court in Los Angeles to one count of conspiracy to operate an illegal sports gambling business and one count of filing a false tax return. He has not yet been convicted of these crimes.
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Sibella is president of Resorts World Casino, which is owned by Genting Groupin 2019. He left that position last September, months before his guilty plea.
At the time of Sibella’s guilty plea, the Justice Department also said it had completed an investigation into alleged violations of money laundering laws and the Bank Secrecy Act at MGM Grand and The Cosmopolitan. The casinos agreed to settlements that required them to pay a total of $7.45 million and improve their anti-money laundering compliance program.
“In their respective [non-prosecution agreements] MGM Grand and the Cosmopolitan each accepted
“Responsibility for laundering Nix’s illicit funds and failing to properly file Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) lies with Nix, who conducted numerous transactions worth millions of dollars at the casinos between 2017 and 2020,” the DOJ said at the time.
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2024-05-08 18:52:04
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