October 18, 2018
Investors in one of the world’s largest gaming companies, a bankrupt energy producer and a drug manufacturer have recently won significant procedural victories in matters in which Cohen Milstein holds court-appointed leadership positions. Here are brief summaries of the cases at issue.
In the In re Wynn Resorts, Ltd. Derivative Litigation, lead plaintiffs scored an important ruling against the Wynn Resorts Board of Directors (“Board”) and certain of its senior executives when the District Court of Clark County, Nevada, denied defendants’ motion to dismiss the case, allowing lead plaintiffs to pursue claims against the Board and executives for failing to prevent founder and director Steve Wynn’s pattern of sexual harassment when the Board had knowledge of his improper conduct, but decided to the look the other way.
Cohen Milstein is representing lead plaintiffs Thomas P. DiNapoli, Comptroller of the State of New York, as Administrative Head of the New York State and Local Retirement System Fund and Trustee of the New York State Common Retirement Fund, and a group of nine New York City public pension funds.
In denying the motion, the court found that it would have been futile for lead plaintiffs to make a pre-suit demand on the Board to pursue their claims because lead plaintiffs’ allegations raised a reasonable doubt as to whether a majority of the Board faced a substantial likelihood of liability for breaching their duty of loyalty to Wynn Resorts for “knowingly failing to take action in the face of credible and corroborated reports that Steve Wynn sexually harassed and abused Wynn Resorts employees” while they “profit[ed] on this information through insider trading that came at the Company’s and shareholders’ expense.”
Read Cohen Milstein Helps Investors in Three Cases Obtain Favorable Rulings.