Last update - 00:00 28/02/2008
Adelson faces T.A. court over charges he skimped on casino deal payment
By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent
Businessman Sheldon Adelson on Thursday arrived at the Tel Aviv Labor Court to testify over allegations he did not pay due compensation to his Israeli representative for a deal on a casino in Macau, China.
Adelson, considered the richest Jew in the world, will take the stand before Judge Ilan Itach to give evidence in a suit against him by Moshe Hananel, a businessman and his former representative in Israel.
Hananel is demanding that Adelson and Interface Partners International (which he owns) pay him what he was promised in his contract plus commission from Adelson's business at the Venetian, his newest casino.
Hananel, who is being represented by Dudi Peretz and Adi Figel, claims in the suit submitted in 2002 that he was the first person to tell Adelson about the business possibilities of setting up a casino in Macau; that he provided background and research materials; and urged him to go there in August 1999 to have a first-hand look at the business opportunities. Macau, a former Portuguese colony, was handed over to China in late 1999 together with Hong Kong.
Adelson, according to Hananel's suit, returned from Macau and said "because of his age and his readiness to invest only in places where the American or the Israeli flag flies, he had no intention of realizing the initiative."
Hananel adds in the suit that he "assumed that Adelson had rejected the initiative," but it transpired, Adelson returned to Macau in March 2000 and shortly thereafter fired him.
Adelson, represented by Dori Klagsbald and Amir Shraga, denies the charges. No money, he says, is due to Hananel, and he describes the suit "a false claim whose only purpose is to exert invalid pressure."
Besides Moshe Hananel's suit, there are another four against Adelson for hundreds of millions of dollars that were submitted to American courts about the concession granted to companies he owns for the operation of a hotel and casino in Macau.
The suits were filed a few years ago by Chinese and American businessmen and by a New York investment house and a Taiwan bank.
All parties claim Adelson promised to compensate them for assistance they had given him to gain the Macau franchise.
Adelson, his assistants and companies deny the claims.
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