Back in the spotlight
A complaint filed in Nevada by high-stakes gambler Robert J. Cipriani and Las Vegas businessman James Russell has accused Resorts World of facilitating large-scale organized crime and money laundering.
a multi-year racketeering scheme
The new federal RICO lawsuit alleges ex-Resorts World executives participated in a multi-year racketeering scheme that enabled “illegal gambling, money laundering and retaliation against a cooperating federal witness.”
Longtime FBI cooperator Cipriani, the 95-page complaint disclosed, previously gave federal and state authorities information about illegal bookmakers and suspected money laundering involving Nevada casinos.
Those disclosures, according to the filing, contributed to multiple investigations and regulatory penalties that “continue to reverberate through Nevada.”
The suit outlines extensive alleged RICO violations by casino executives and related figures, naming ex-Resorts World president Scott Sibella and Vegas attorney David Chesnoff among the defendants.
Not good enough
The Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) fined Resorts World and its parent company Genting Berhad $10.5m earlier this year, claiming that with Sibella as CEO, Resorts World cultivated a culture in which patrons tied to illegal bookmaking, illicit gambling firms, and organized crime were “welcomed” and encouraged to gamble at the Strip casino.
While the new complaint acknowledged Genting fired Sibella in 2024 along with other execs, it contends Resorts World’s reforms failed to address the casino’s “inherent and structural compliance deficiencies.”
The RICO suit subsequently alleges Sibella and Chesnoff participated in what plaintiffs describe as an association-in-fact enterprise that ran the Strip casino with “systemic disregard for federal and state gaming laws.”
Cipriani and Russell name in multiple sections of their complaint Sibella and Chesnoff as participants in “predicate acts involving money laundering, willful failure to file required Suspicious Activity Reports, and witness tampering” from 2021 to 2023.
Tit for tat
Central to the plaintiffs’ complaint is the claim that Resorts World executives retaliated against Cipriani, who tried and failed to sue Resorts World last year, for giving the feds and state authorities information.
Cipriani and Russell’s filing also references a 2021 case in which Sibella, Chesnoff and others allegedly fabricated a criminal case in order “to silence a key witness and obstruct ongoing federal inquiries into illegal gambling networks operating in Nevada and California.”
The RICO suit also references Sibella’s 2024 federal guilty plea during his former role at MGM Grand, calling it part of the ex-CEO’s “broader pattern of conduct.”
