Gamal Aziz
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Gamal Aziz, also known as Gamal Abdelaziz (
Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
: جمال عزيز, born ), is an
Egyptian-American Egyptian Americans () are Americans of partial or full Egyptian ancestry. The 2016 US Census estimated the number of people with Egyptian ancestry at 256,000, most of whom are from Egypt's Christian Orthodox Coptic minority. Egyptian Americans m ...
businessman. Aziz is the former president of
Wynn Macau Wynn Macau ( zh, c=永利澳門) is a luxury hotel and casino resort in the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China with two towers containing a total of 1,008 rooms and suites, approximately of casino space, over ...
Limited and chief operating officer of Wynn Resorts Development. He was also the former president and COO of
MGM Resorts International MGM Resorts International is an American Multinational corporation, multinational hospitality, sports and entertainment company. It operates resorts in Las Vegas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Maryland, Ohio, New Jersey, Macau, Shanghai, ...
. Aziz was one of the individuals accused in the 2019 college admissions Varsity Blues case."Affidavit in Support of Criminal Complaint,"
U.S. Justice Department The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...
, March 11, 2019.
In May 2023, the First Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling clearing Aziz of all charges.


Career

Aziz was born in Egypt, grew up in
Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...
,
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
, and resides in
Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...
,
Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...
."Affidavit in Support of Criminal Complaint,"
U.S. Justice Department The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...
, March 11, 2019.
He earned a bachelor's degree in business at the
University of Cairo Cairo University () is Egypt's premier public university. Its main campus is in Giza, immediately across the Nile from Cairo. It was founded on 21 December 1908;"Brief history and development of Cairo University." Cairo University Faculty of En ...
. He held senior executive positions at
Caesars Palace Caesars Palace is a luxury hotel and casino in Paradise, Nevada, United States. The hotel is situated on the west side of the Las Vegas Strip between Bellagio and The Mirage. It is one of Las Vegas's largest and best known landmarks. Caesar ...
in
Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...
, the
Plaza Hotel The Plaza Hotel (also known as The Plaza) is a luxury hotel and condominium apartment building in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is located on the western side of Grand Army Plaza, after which it is named, just west of Fifth Avenue, ...
in New York City, the
Westin Hotel Westin Hotels & Resorts is an American upscale hotel chain owned by Marriott International. , the Westin Brand has 226 properties with 82,608 rooms in multiple countries in addition to 58 hotels with 15,741 rooms in the pipeline. History Wes ...
in Washington, D.C., and the St. Francis in San Francisco. Aziz helped
Steve Wynn Stephen Alan Wynn ( Weinberg; born January 27, 1942) is an American real estate developer and art collector. He was known for his involvement in the luxury casino and hotel industry, prior to being forced to step down in 2018. Early in his care ...
open the Bellagio, the most expensive US hotel ever built, as that hotel's senior vice president, a post he held from 1998 to 2000. He oversaw the food and beverage division. Aziz was next president and chief operating officer of the 5,000-room, 10,000-employee resort MGM Grand, the largest hotel by rooms in the US, joining it in 2001. He was then president and chief operating officer of
MGM Resorts International MGM Resorts International is an American Multinational corporation, multinational hospitality, sports and entertainment company. It operates resorts in Las Vegas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Maryland, Ohio, New Jersey, Macau, Shanghai, ...
, and then MGM Hospitality in September 2010. In that position he helped finalize 27 hotel projects in leisure markets around the world. In January 2013 Aziz was appointed president and chief operating officer of
Wynn Resorts Wynn Resorts, Limited is an American publicly traded corporation based in Paradise, Nevada, that is a developer and operator of high-end hotels and casinos. It was founded in 2002 by former Mirage Resorts Chairman and CEO Steve Wynn and is now r ...
Development LLC, overseeing expansion opportunities. He next became president of
Wynn Macau Wynn Macau ( zh, c=永利澳門) is a luxury hotel and casino resort in the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China with two towers containing a total of 1,008 rooms and suites, approximately of casino space, over ...
, Ltd., reporting directly to Wynn. In December 2015 Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL), a hotel and hospitality school, appointed him to its international advisory board. He resigned in September 2016 as president and as a board member of
Wynn Macau Wynn Macau ( zh, c=永利澳門) is a luxury hotel and casino resort in the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China with two towers containing a total of 1,008 rooms and suites, approximately of casino space, over ...
. Aziz has been CEO of Legacy Hospitality Group since January 2017, according to his
LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented Social networking service, social network. It was launched on May 5, 2003 by Reid Hoffman and Eric Ly. Since December 2016, LinkedIn has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft. ...
page. In March 2019, Aziz and others were named in a criminal complaint filed by the
U.S. Justice Department The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...
, and charged with conspiracy to commit
mail fraud Mail fraud and wire fraud are terms used in the United States to describe the use of a physical (e.g., the U.S. Postal Service) or electronic (e.g., a phone, a telegram, a fax, or the Internet) mail system to defraud another, and are U.S. fede ...
and
honest services mail fraud Honest services fraud is a crime defined in (the federal mail and wire fraud statute), added by the United States Congress in 1988. The idea of this law was to criminalize not only schemes to defraud victims of money and property, but also sc ...
, as part of the 2019 college admissions Varsity Blues case. In May 2023, the First Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling clearing Aziz of all charges. A three-panel judge issued the reversal after finding that a lower court had made missteps during Aziz’s trial. The
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
reported that the 3-0 decision was a result of the charges against Aziz being “based on misapplications of the law, unsupported by the evidence presented at trial, or tainted by the introduction of evidence about other Singer clients whom Abdelaziz… had nothing to do with.” Circuit Judge Sandra Lynch commented that the way the evidence was presented created “an unacceptable risk that the jury convicted Abdelaziz and Wilson based on others’ conduct rather than their own.” As a result of the ruling, Aziz would also become the only accused parent in the college admissions scandal to avoid punishment.


References


External links


"Gamal Aziz"
''Elite Traveler''.
"Executive Interview: Gamal Aziz, President and CEO of MGM Hospitality"
''Pursue The Passion'', September 13, 2007. {{DEFAULTSORT:Aziz, Gamal 1950s births Year of birth uncertain Living people American casino industry businesspeople American corporate directors Cairo University alumni People convicted of fraud Businesspeople from Cairo Businesspeople from Las Vegas Egyptian emigrants to the United States