REPORT: Biggest Donor To Romney And GOP (Sheldon Adelson) Did Business With Chinese Mob

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

Source: Think Progress

Things are getting awkward for Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate who pledged to spend a “limitless” amount of money to get Mitt Romney elected. Adelson’s latest woes stem from business practices surrounding his lucrative casino in Macau, the only Chinese city with legalized gambling.

The Macau operation has long been under scrutiny but a new in-depth investigation from ProPublica and PBS focused on allegations of improper, and perhaps in some cases illegal, business dealings by Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands company in China. While focusing on the possibility that Sands violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act with a $700,000 payment to a Chinese associate, PBS also released documents that bolstered accusations of business ties between Adelson’s shop and Chinese organized crime figures.

PBS reports that Sands was clear that, in order to drive business from mainland China to their Macau casino, they would need to use “junkets” — trips arranged by private companies to ferry high-stakes gamblers to Macau:

Among the junket companies under scrutiny is a concern that records show was financed by Cheung Chi Tai, a Hong Kong businessman.

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/07/16/525131/adelson-romney-chinese-mob/?mobile=nc

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[mucifer]

1. I think if they do enough digging they will find these types of donors for dems too.

[nashville_brook]

3. eh, i'd be very surprised if that were the case

http://projects.propublica.org/pactrack/contributions/tree

[Kablooie]

11. Jeffrey Katzenburg is a big Obama donor and he used to count cards in blackjack.

He got banned from Las Vegas when he was young.

That's about as close to a shady gambling mogul that Obama donors will come.

[krawhitham]

16. Because counting cards is just like being a Chinese Mob member

[DCBob]

2. Really speaks volumes the GOP's biggest backer made his billions from gambling.

Republicans must be so proud.

[maddezmom]

4. and perhaps prostitution

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2012/06/28/ex_sands_exec_alleges_prostitution_in_macau_sites/

[DCBob]

5. No doubt.

Ive actually been to the Venetian in Macau. The girls are everywhere and they freely walk the casino and everyone knows what they are doing.

[Canuckistanian]

6. Thank you, Citizens United

You've made it possible for scum like Adelson to buy politicians with foreign criminal money.

I can't think a more corrupt time in American history.

[tclambert]

7. But did he donate enough to get Romney to pick him for VP?

He might accept, in order to keep a close eye on his investments.

[riverbendviewgal]

8. Rachel Maddow last night

compared Adelson's 100 million contribution with a family making 100k.....His 100 million contribution to the election is compared to them contributing $40 DOLLARS......pretty awesome.


as for him and rommey a ticket...It is like putting rommey with Al capone.

scarey...

I would think Rachel should be careful reporting on Adelson.

[Kingofalldems]

9. And the hits just keep on coming.

[AsahinaKimi]

10. Here is more..

Sheldon Adelson and Macau
Posted by Evan Osnos

Nearly forty years ago, S. J. Perelman described a fictional Hong Kong hotel he called the “Golden Bamboozle,” a reference not only to a bed chamber that cost a “prince’s ransom,” but to a city that was a magnet for bon vivants and grifters and risk-takers of every stripe.

I hereby transfer the crown of the Golden Bamboozle to Macau. Hong Kong is, alas, feeling more anxious than fun, and it is that other Chinese territory, just an hour by ferry across the gray waves of the Pearl River estuary, that now gives us the most exotic headlines in Asia—including some that may be edging uncomfortably closer to Mitt Romney.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/evanosnos/2012/07/sheldon-adelson-and-macau.html#ixzz20tbsCdAu

[riverbendviewgal]

12. in less than 3 weeks he

will be 79 years old...If you ask me he does not look all that healthy...All that wealth and he won't be able to take to Hell.

[Thrill]

13. Stories like this never have any legs with MSM

[nanabugg]

14. Just look at him. What thoughts come to your mind? I won't say in public. nt

[yurbud]

15. He looks like someone Michael Corleone whacked at the end of The Godfather

[McCamy Taylor]

17. A casino is a great way to funnel foreign money into US elections.

A bunch of wealth Chinese mobsters can "lose" big at one of this guy's casinos and the money can be skimmed right off the top and given to Romney. Someone needs to find out who the big gamblers---and losers---are at Adelson's Chinese casino.

Macau gets roughly 70 percent of gambling revenue from VIP, or high-stakes gamblers, according to Aaron Fischer, CLSA’s head of Asian consumer and gaming research in Hong Kong. The “mass market” - usually the term for middle-class visitors - is still the most profitable because casino operators pay commissions to professionals bringing in high-stakes gamblers.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-29/macau-casino-owners-bet-everyone-wins-as-adelson-expands-retail.html

Any way we can find out who these VIPs are? Will tell us who is bankrolling Romney.

[SunSeeker]

18. What I don't get is why China is letting this guy soak her citizens.

Maybe they wanted Adelson to go ahead and build the casinos. Then they could move in and nationalize them, possibly under the pretext that Adelson was corrupt, what with the obvious FCPA violation.

[bluedigger]

19. Doesn't this make Romney the Manchurian Candidate?