Wynn Resorts' Embattled GC Leaves With $1.8 Million in Cash and Millions More in Stock
Kim Sinatra, who got swept up in the #MeToo controversy swirling around former company CEO Steve Wynn, left her job this summer—but not without being paid handsomely, according to a new SEC filing.
August 10, 2018 at 03:48 PM
3 minute read
The original version of this story was published on Corporate Counsel
Former Wynn Resorts executive vice president and general counsel Kim Sinatra will receive a $1.8 million cash settlement from the company plus millions of dollars worth of vested stock and options, according to a quarterly financial filing Wednesday.
Sinatra's five-page termination deal, signed on Aug. 3, was part of Wynn Resorts' latest 10-Q report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Also part of the report was a 26-page employment agreement with Ellen Whittemore, a Las Vegas gaming lawyer with Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, who is replacing Sinatra. Neither Sinatra nor Whittemore immediately returned messages Thursday.
Sinatra was the fifth-highest paid female general counsel in ALM's recently released GC Compensation Survey. According to the survey, in 2017 she made a $1 million base salary and $1.2 million more in nonequity bonus incentives. She had the highest base salary of any female GC in the report.
In addition, she brought home some $10 million more from company stock sales in 2017.
And there's more stock to sell. Under her termination agreement, 39,286 unvested restricted shares and 25,000 unvested stock options previously granted to Sinatra vested on Aug. 3; and a transfer restriction on other vested shares, granted in January 2016, was removed.
Wynn Resorts' shares opened at nearly $151 on Thursday—giving her more than another $10 million in stock.
Whittemore's four-year contract appears less lucrative. The filing said she will receive $600,000 in base salary, plus a potential bonus of up to 100 percent of her salary. She also received 7,500 shares of restricted stock.
The new GC will have her hands full. Wynn Resorts has been ensnared in lawsuits and investigations swirling around its co-founders, former CEO Steve Wynn and his ex-wife Elaine Wynn, who were battling for control of the Las Vegas-based gaming and hospitality company.
When his ex-wife accused Wynn of years of sexually harassing female employees and of negotiating a secret settlement with one, more claims about alleged misconduct surfaced, and Wynn was ousted.
Sinatra was caught up in the drama, too, when Elaine Wynn claimed the general counsel knew about the secret deal, and shareholders filed a derivative suit claiming Sinatra participated in covering up the $7.5 million settlement. The former GC has denied the allegation.
In January the board of directors opened a special investigation into the harassment claims against Wynn. The board received, but did not release, the results of that investigation on Aug. 3.
Meanwhile the 10-Q filing said gaming regulators in Nevada and Massachusetts are also “reviewing these matters, including suitability with respect to the company and its related licensees.” It said the company is cooperating with the regulatory reviews.
Another section of the 10-Q report shows that the company made peace with Elaine Wynn by entering a cooperation agreement on Aug. 3. In a key element of the deal, Wynn Resorts agreed to expand the board's size and to add Philip Satre as a director and vice chairman of the board.
Satre, president of the National Center for Responsible Gaming and former chairman and CEO of Harrah's Entertainment Inc., will become chairman of the Wynn Resorts board in December.
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