Family Law

Las Vegas Power Couple Finalizes Divorce

By ckramer

Steve and Elaine Wynn, two stalwarts of the Las Vegas circles of power, officially finalized their second divorce from each other in early January, according to BusinessWeek, marking the end of eighteen years of wedlock.

Steve Wynn, the chief executive of casino operator Wynn Resorts Ltd., is worth several billion dollars, sufficient to qualify him for Fortune?s list of the 400 wealthiest Americans.

The Wynns were married the first time in 1963, after they met in college. They divorced in 1983, only to remarry five years later.

News of their latest separation has swirled around the Las Vegas community for months. The rumors started when Steve Wynn was spotted around town with a younger British woman. They continued as filings from their company prepared for the separation, and they finished when a Las Vegas family court judge finalized the divorce decree.

Court documents did not disclose the specific terms of the divorce, but indicate that the splitting of their property would follow a November settlement. The documents state that the reason for the divorce was that the two have personalities and dispositions so deep as to be irreconcilable, which render it impossible … to continue a normal marital relationship with each other.

According to Forbes, a series of Wynn’s company filings shed some light on the complexity of the divorce settlement before it was final. The specific terms have not yet been announced to the public. One SEC filing shows that Elaine, who has been a director at Wynn Resorts since 2002, received more than 11 million shares of stock as a part of the settlement. At their current price of around $70 apiece, those shares are worth almost $800 million.

The Wynns also sold $114 million in stock sales last August, and Forbes reports that Elaine would receive some, if not all of that figure. Forbes, which publishes lists of billionaires in the country, notes that the sum of these amounts would put her close to a billion dollars in net worth.

Elaine Wynn told the media that she will be shifting her focus away from casino and resort management and towards philanthropic work as an advocate for education causes.

She also stated that her relationship with her ex-husband was still good. ?Steve and I have been partners for over 40 years,? she told the Associated Press. ?I don’t think there will ever be a time when he’s not my partner in some fashion or other.?

Some credit Wynn with the expansion of the Las Vegas strip in the 1990s. He became known for his museum-quality art collection, and for lending an air of elegance to the Las Vegas resort experience. The company manages resorts and casinos in Las Vegas and Macau.

Wynn made headlines for a different reason in 2006. The storied art collector was discussing his painting Le Rêve, by Pablo Picasso, with a group of celebrity friends. At that point, he and a friend, the hedge-fund mogul and fellow collector Stephen Cohen, had agreed that Wynn would sell Cohen the painting for $139 million. As Wynn described the masterpiece to his visitors, he took a step backwards, swung his elbow, and punched a hole in it. The deal was off, and Wynn repaired the painting and kept it for himself.

Full post as published by The Divorce Blog on January 26, 2010 (boomark / email).