By The former president of the MGM Grand casino in Las Vegas was sentenced to one year of probation Wednesday on a federal criminal charge related to his failure to report millions of dollars in wagers by an illegal bookmaker at his casino.
Scott Sibella, the ex-MGM executive, also was ordered to pay a $9,500 and another $100 special assessment by U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles, according to the Associated Press.
Sibella’s probationary sentence was in line with the sentence recommended by prosecutors and his defense lawyers.
“You will never see me in your court again,” the 61-year-old Nevada resident told Gee, the AP reported.
In a statement issued after the sentencing, Sibella said, “I’m relieved to have this matter concluded and accept the terms imposed today by the court.”
“As I have said throughout this investigation, I regret the pain this has caused my friends and family and am extremely grateful for those who chose to stand with me throughout these difficult times,” Sibella said. “The decision to plead to the single charge, for failing to file a suspicious activity report (SAR) at MGM Resorts in 2017, was not easily arrived at given the underlying facts and realities in this matter. I was charged from the very beginning for not filing a SAR, accepted a plea, and have taken full and complete responsibility for what I did.”
“I want to reiterate that by, anything alleged, I gained no benefit — neither personal, professional or financial,” he added.
Sibella’s defense attorney John Spilotro in a statement said, “Mr. Sibella has accepted responsibility for his conduct and is prepared to move forward with his life.”
“Contrary to published reports, Mr. Sibella never used a betting account and never made any illegal bets,” Spilotro said. “In addition, Mr. Sibella had no involvement in the bookmaking activities of Mathew Bowyer and nothing whatsoever to do with Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter of [Los Angeles Dodgers superstar] Shohei Ohtani.”
The Los Angeles U.S. Attorney’s Office on Wednesday said that Mizuhara had agreed to plead guilty to illegally transferring $17 million from Ohtani’s account without the player’s knowledge to cover gambling debts and other personal expenses.
Sibella pleaded guilty in January to one count of failure to file reports of suspicious transactions required to be made by casinos under the Bank Secrecy Act. MGM Resorts owns MGM Grand, and more than a dozen other Las Vegas properties, including The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
The sentencing comes more than a week after the Nevada Gaming Control Board filed a complaint against Sibella with the state Gaming Commission for conduct underlying the federal criminal case. The new civil complaint is seeking a a fine and action against Sibella’s gaming license.
Sibella, who was president of MGM Grand from August 2017 through February 2019, admitted knowing that a patron of his casino, former minor league baseball player Wayne Nix, ran an illegal bookmaking business, according to the Department of Justice.
“Despite this knowledge, Sibella allowed Nix to gamble at MGM Grand and affiliated properties with illicit proceeds generated from the illegal gambling business without notifying the casino’s compliance department,” the DOJ said in a press release in January.
“Not only did Sibella allow Nix to gamble at the casino, he also authorized Nix to receive complimentary benefits at the casino, including meals, room, board and golf trips with senior executives and other high net-worth customers of the casinos to further encourage Nix to patronize the casino and/or other affiliated properties,” the DOJ added in the statement.
By 2020, MGM Grand had accepted more than $4 million in cash that was illicit proceeds from Nix’s bookmaking business, the department said.
Nix pleaded guilty in April 2022 in Los Angeles federal court to one count of conspiring to operate an illegal sports gambling business and one count of filing a false tax return. He has yet to be sentenced for those crimes.
Sibella became president of Resorts World casino, which is owned by Genting Group, in 2019.
He “was terminated by Resorts World when it learned of the investigation of Mr. Sibella regarding conduct at his prior employer,” Sibella’s lawyers wrote in a court filing. “Mr. Sibella is currently unemployed.”
At the time of Sibella’s guilty plea, the DOJ also said it had resolved an investigation into alleged violations of money laundering laws and the Bank Secrecy Act at MGM Grand and The Cosmopolitan. The casinos agreed to settlements that required them to pay a combined $7.45 million, as well as to enhance their anti-money laundering compliance program.
“In their respective [non-prosecution agreements] MGM Grand and the Cosmopolitan each accepted
responsibility for laundering Nix’s illicit funds and failing to properly file suspicious activity reports (SARs) on Nix, who conducted numerous transactions involving millions of dollars at the casinos between 2017 and 2020,” the DOJ said at that time.
