Cvent

Wells Fargo announced Tuesday plans to cancel its four-day business meeting in Las Vegas. According to AP reports, the San Francisco bank had booked 12 nights at two of the most expensive hotels in the city—Wynn Las Vegas and Encore Las Vegas—for an employee sales recognition conference.

News of the Las Vegas event stirred up controversy in the press, which raised questions of how the bank's $25 billion in bailout money from the U.S. Treasury was being spent. Wells Fargo responded in a statement that the mortgage event in Las Vegas had been scaled back, but in light of the current environment, it ultimately decided to cancel the entire event.

In response to how the bank is using the bailout money, Wells Fargo said, "We've used the government's investment to lend to creditworthy customers and to help homeowners avoid foreclosure." It does not have any more recognition events planned this year.

Wells Fargo is not the first organization to cancel an event after media scrutiny. In October, insurance giant American International Group (AIG) made headlines by canceling a corporate retreat to the Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay resort in California, along with over 160 other planned conferences and events.

Also on Tuesday, Wynn Resorts announced efficiency initiatives for its Wynn Las Vegas hotel. These initiatives include reductions in pay for all salaried employees in Las Vegas, reduced work weeks for full-time hourly employees, the elimination of 2009 bonus accruals and a suspension of employee match to 401K contributions.