Inside the Investigation of Leading Republican Money Man Sheldon Adelson

It now looks like yet another leading donor to the Republican Party is under investigation for corruption. What a surprise!

It would appear that, according to this article from ProPublica, www.propublica.org... Sheldon Adelson has been involved in some dealings that may violate the FCPA. (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act) Needless to say, he adamantly denies it.

These allegations stem from Sheldon Adelson's business dealings in Macau, a small island region off the southeast coast of China where gambling is the primary business much like Las Vegas is the the U.S.A., only much, much bigger. Actually, Macau is now known as the gambling capital of the world.

According to the article, Adelson made payments to a Macau legislator by the name of Leonel Alves, who's firm was serving as outside counsel to the Las Vegas Sands.

Alves holds three public positions. He sits on the local legislature. He belongs to a 10-member council that advises Macau's chief executive, the most powerful local administrator. And he's a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a group that advises China's central government.

The problem is that the payments in question were considered to be far in excess of the normal going rates for the services being rendered, even in the judgement of Adelson's own corporate lawyers. According to emails recovered, they expressed deep concerns with the payments and even warned that they could be in violation of the FCPA.

The then-general counsel of Las Vegas Sands warned that large portions of the invoices submitted by Alves in 2009 were triple what had been initially agreed and far more than could be justified by the legal work performed.

"I understand that what they are seeking is approx $700k," the general counsel wrote to the company's Macau executives in an email in late 2009. "If correct, that will require a lot of explaining given what our other firms are charging and given the FCPA," the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Adelson, described by Forbes Magazine as the largest foreign investor in China, ultimately ordered executives to pay Alves the full amount he had requested, according to an email that quotes his instructions.

As it turns out Adelson is a lot like G.W. Bush, in that he has very little patience for those who disagree with him as is evident by the fact that those who did, no longer work for him.

Several Las Vegas Sands executives resigned or were fired after expressing concerns about Alves' billings. These include Las Vegas Sands' general counsel and two top executives at Sands China, its Macau subsidiary.

William Weidner, president of Las Vegas Sands from 1995 to 2009, said he understood from the beginning that opening casinos in Macau meant dealing with "junkets" — companies that arrange gambling trips for high rollers.

Gambling is illegal in mainland China, as is the transfer of large sums of money to Macau. The junkets solve those problems, providing billions of dollars in credit to gamblers. When necessary, they collect gambling debts, a critical function since China's courts are not permitted to force losers to pay up.

Weidner said junkets are a natural result of China's controls on the movement of money out of the country, channeling as much as $3 billion a month from the mainland to Macau.

"To Westerners, the junkets mean money laundering equated with organized crime or drugs," he said. "In China where money is controlled, it's part of doing business."

Weidner resigned from the company after a bitter dispute with Adelson.

Anyway, it's a very good read for anyone interested and it's currently being reported by almost every reputable news organization out there. Here's just a few examples;

www.lasvegassun.com...
www.huffingtonpost.com...
100r.org...
blogs.wsj.com...
www.pbs.org...

I also saw the story on MSNBC last night, actually it was a segment on the Rachel Maddow show and a damn good one at that.

And he may not be alone! I'm talking about other republican donors also under investigation for FCPA violations.



It makes me sick to think that these corrupt bastards are attempting to buy the presidency, not to mention the justice dept.. It's no wonder that Adelson recently stated that he could donate unlimited amounts to see Obama defeated. He used to say that he could donate up to 100 million dollars, but now it's "unlimited?" Makes you wonder, just how much is a justice dept. worth when you're in "big trouble?" Could the answer be; "Unlimited?"

One flag ? One reply?
Thank you OP. It's telling how often threads like this go unnoticed.
Sheldon Adelson is buying elections and favors, but because he's a republican
most of ATS doesn't have a problem with it.
If you do a search for Lefty boogie man George Soros,
there is thread after thread telling you how he had tried to
overthrow the government when Bush was in.
(maybe that would have helped)

Let's look at numbers shall we?
8 years of contributions for Soros vs 1 year for Adelson.
Soros a little over $20 million in 8 years.
The month of June 2012 for Adelson... $25 million.
Adelson has promised $100 million this year to defeat Obama.
As a matter of fact 60+% of the GOP's funds this year will come from
17 billionaires. Ahhh, post Citizens United (Karl Rove's) America.

www.salon.com...