Las Vegas- The brother of casino giant Steve Wynn is under investigation on child pornography charges. A search warrant was served at Kenny Wynn’s house. Wynn, who’s currently living in Utah, has not been charged with anything and hasn’t been arrested, but sources say he is one of several targets of an ongoing investigation. Wynn, like his brother, has been heavily involved in the casino industry.
He’s worked at the Golden Nugget downtown, at the Mirage, and recently at Wynn Las Vegas, the new resort going up on the strip. And this isn’t the first time Kenny Wynn has been in trouble with the law. In 1993, Kenny Wynn appeared before the Nevada Gaming Commission on drug abuse charges. Wynn had his gaming license suspended for a year and was ordered to pay a ten thousand dollar fine. “I realize I’ve violated the sanctity of the privilege granted to a license.”
Sources say just a few weeks ago, law enforcement agents served a search warrant at Wynn’s house in Las Vegas, located just off the TPC Summerlin golf course. The sources say they seized his computers and hard drives. Sources also say Wynn was caught in the same net that caught Las Vegas resident Harold Shaw. Shaw is accused of sexually assaulting a young girl and videotaping it. Shaw, and now apparently Kenny Wynn, were caught during Operation Predator, an ongoing cyber crimes investigation led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The operation is designed to catch adults involved in sexual crimes with children.
Kenny Wynn has been heavily involved in his brother’s gaming empire. After working with him on the Mirage, Kenny has been doing design work on Wynn Las Vegas, the 2.4 billion project on the strip, set to open next year. But Kenny Wynn suddenly resigned last week. Little reason was given for his departure.
All law enforcement agents are saying is that an investigation is underway. Tom Keller, a retired Metro cyber crimes investigator, described how agents might track website porn back to a customer, “In those warrants, we find transaction records. Has your name on it or that a credit card belonging to — Tom Keller, George Knapp — purchased this item.”
With that information they can then capture a phone line or an Internet address of the person. Keller says that once a site is found, it’s not hard to track the product back to the buyer. “Most transactions on the Internet are by credit card,” says Keller. “It tracks back to the suspects bank account, someone using the persons credit card bought that child porn with the address, records will show how you connected.” Law enforcement sources say that Wynn’s name and records of child porn transactions were found and were traced back to his own computers. The federal warrant that authorized lawmen to go after Kenny Wynn’s computers remains sealed.
Including Wynn, at least six Las Vegas residents were served with search warrants in this case. Law enforcement sources say that Wynn’s name was found on an Internet child porn supermarket and that they found evidence of quote ‘transactions linked to Wynn.’