Doubtful, very doubtful, but, per the Guardian:
A judge in Las Vegas has ruled that a lawsuit involving accusations of graft and organised crime ties to casinos owned by the multibillionaire and Republican party funder, Sheldon Adelson, will be heard in the US.
The decision raises the prospect of Adelson facing difficult questions about his business practices following allegations by a former chief executive of his highly profitable casinos in the Chinese enclave of Macau that a well-known triad crime figure was used to bring in high-rolling gamblers and of influence peddling with Chinese officials.
The case potentially has implications for Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands casinos because evidence of ties to criminal organisations could cost them their gaming licences.
It could also have a bearing on the 81-year-old billionaire’s considerable political influence. He is estimated to have spent $150m in a failed bid to secure a Republican victory over Barack Obama in the last presidential election and is being vigorously courted by Republican candidates in the next race.
Friday’s ruling follows a court battle earlier this month over jurisdiction in a wrongful dismissal lawsuit by the former chief executive of the Macau casinos, Steven Jacobs. He alleges that he was fired in part for blocking hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments to a Macau legislator and lawyer because they may breach US anti-bribery laws. Jacobs also alleges Adelson opposed his attempts to break links to the triads…
Adelson is also likely to face difficult questions about his denial that his company had links to a senior Chinese official, Ng Lap Seng, who was described in court as “a courier” for Sands Macau and a link man to the Chinese government.
Ng is a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee, a political advisory body in China dominated by the Communist party.
Adelson’s four days on the witness stand during the jurisdiction hearing were marked by combative answers and testimony that contradicted his own executives. He accused Jacobs of “squealing like a pig to the government” with the allegations.
Sheldon Adelson is a GOP macher because he’s got Macao casino money. Macao exists, officially, as a “safety valve” for social refugees from the puritanical Chinese government — and, more importantly, because “gambling winnings” are a great way for Chinese politicians and businessmen to disguise otherwise inexplicable cash holdings. (Ask Whitey Bulger, lucky liquor store owner & multiple lottery winner!)
Adelson’s lawyers can probably continue to drag this case out indefinitely, but a public trial would certainly be embarrassing to the various GOP candidates soliciting his pecuniary favor in 2016 and beyond. Dubya might even be inspired to ask for his painting back, although Murphy knows the Bush family is no stranger to cooperating with totalitarian regimes…
Amir Khalid
Mind you, if George Walker Bush had given me a portrait of myself that he’d painted, I’d be more than happy to give it back.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
I’m struggling with a scene. I’m trying to show deficient leadership on a hockey team, and in particular how an intimate relationship between two of the players can cause divisiveness. I just can’t get it to come out right.
Amir Khalid
I suppose the $64,000 question (as they called it in the old days, back when $64k was real money) is, how bad could this get for Sheldon? Will it all end in a perp walk? Will it make his money so dirty that not even Republican presidential candidates will touch it?
Hal
I wonder how quickly President Romney’s new AG would have ordered the Justice Department to back off on it’s investigations in to Adelson’s casino? Though I should say, 47 million to a guy like Adelson is chump change.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/28/sheldon-adelson-pays-out-to-the-u-s-government.html
Ruckus
@Amir Khalid:
Doesn’t matter how dirty it is, to republican candidates it’s all the same, green. And they also don’t really care because they would just be dirtying it up anyway.
fuckwit
Is that a Cavuto mark?
Is it irresponsible to speculate? It’s irresponsible not to.
GregB
This Adelson kid deserves a second chance. Merely a youthful indiscretion. Pastor Huckabee will forgive him no doubt.
Anne Laurie
@fuckwit: It was my (probably overthought) callback to Little Caesar & ‘Is this the end of Rico?‘…
Keith P.
This would help to explain why he’s throwing hundreds of millions at GOP candidates. Israel is one thing, but getting rid of the bribery law is another. I remember some politicians a few years back trying to say that it shouldn’t be illegal if the host country does it, and I remember thinking “I wonder which specific donor put them up to that?”
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
One of the frustrating things is that one of the reasons the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was passed in the first place is to allow American businessmen to respond to being asked for a bribe by saying that they couldn’t, because it would be a violation of American law as well as whatever the (negligible, if any) consequences there would be locally. There’s evidence that it actually worked like that for a while, until too many American businessmen made it clear that they were prepared to ignore it, and its effectiveness was lost for everyone.
It’s too bad, because the FCPA is one of those instances where we really were the good guys, and we fucked it up.
WereBear
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: I don’t know what leadership in a hockey team IS. Would illustrating that through the dialog help?
Howard Beale IV
@Amir Khalid: It’s buried in the article:
Losing the Nevada gaming license means Las Vegas Sands US properties effectively goes out of business.
Chet
@Anne Laurie: Mother of mercy!
Howard Beale IV
Earlier in the trial, Adelson attempted to lecture the court-needless to say, the judge was having none of it:
EconWatcher
Adelson is proof that piles of money (probably largely ill-gotten) cannot buy happiness.
I remember reading how his two adult sons (one or both of whom was a drug addict) sued him in court. Their theory seemed to be that he was somehow legally obliged to provide them with more of his money to support their ne’er- do- well lifestyles. It says a lot about them, but perhaps more about the man who raised them. One or both of them later died of a drug overdose (too lazy to look it up).
No matter how much wealth you accumulate or power you think you wield, how can you feel about your life if your family ends up that way?
Cervantes
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
Well, it became law in 1977. Take a look at the (complete) enforcement record.
Yes.
Gene108
@GregB:
Will Addelson seek foregiveness from Jesus? If not there is no reason Huckabee or any other Republican should forgive him, if he refuses to take the redemption and foregiveness offered by the Son of God dying for our sins on the cross.
Edit: I believe Addelson’s Jewish, so Jesus may not be an option for him.
Tokyokie
@Keith P.: Back before their respective handovers, Macau was renowned for being where action too dirty even for Hong Kong was carried out. The Brits had some concerns about rule of law, but the Portuguese probably stopped caring around the time they lost their African colonies back in the ’70s. The casinos were in Macau (a short ferry ride from HK), and it was well known the triads owned them.
Anyway, when I first heard of Adelson sometime after the handover and learned that he was the owner of the largest casino in Macau, I knew that he was in bed with gangsters. One cannot become a Macau casino mogul without being crooked anymore than can work in a meatpacking plant without getting blood on the apron.
My first post to go into moderation. Wonder what caused it.
SFAW
@Amir Khalid:
Oh, Amir, always with the jokes. Perp walk? Right.
Mike in NC
Shelly need to spend his Golden Years wearing an orange jumpsuit, turning big rocks into little rocks.
EconWatcher
@SFAW:
Unlikely, I agree, but the unbelievable arrogance shown by his attempt to lecture the federal judge hearing his case does give some reason for hope. I’m quite certain his lawyers spent months trying to beat that out of him before the hearing, obviously to no avail.
A slick white-collar criminal who knows how to charm a courtroom may get away with anything. But a guy like him who is completely incapable of hiding his true self could be headed for a come-uppance. Let’s hope.
Fred
If convicted Adellson will at worst be forced to sell his Vegas casino for billion$. But of course he would have to live long enough for the endless legal wrangling to wind through the courts. So if he lives to be 110 he might face that awful fate of divesting the Vegas holdings.
Fred
My comment is in moderation? You must be kidding. I used no questionable words and dissed no one. Oh I’m so put upon.;-(
bcinaz
These revelations should be embarrassing and disqualifying to many in the GOP, but it is the hallmark of Citizen’s United that there is no such thing as ‘Dirty Money’ in politics. Nothing in the law will prevent him from giving as much as he wants. If candidates aren’t already embarrassed, what difference will this really make?
MattF
@Howard Beale IV: Uh, whoa. Sheldon, this is a Federal judge. You need to be respectful.
This alone makes me think that Adelson doesn’t quite grok the magnitude of his problems. And, probably, no one is telling him.
Tokyokie
@MattF: Frankly, if that’s the way Adelson deals with federal judges, I’m somewhat surprised that one of his business partners has not already decided to liberate his brain from the confines of his skull.
Scott
Republicans palling around with mobsters.
PeakVT
The good news is that this might get Adelson out of US politics. The bad news is that he’ll probably just refocus on screwing up Israeli politics (more) and increasing Israeli colonization of the West Bank.
burnspbesq
The footnotes to Sands’ financials filed as part of its most recent SEC Form 10-Q have a reasonably detailed description of the status of various lawsuits and investigations that are ongoing. It’s a fairly gob-smacking story.
Among other examples of mind-boggling chutzpah, in the Jacobs wrongful-termination suit Sands claimed that documents produced in discovery were required to be redacted in order to comply with Macau data-privacy laws.
Seriously? What fucking drugs are these guys on?
Emma
@Tokyokie: My feelings exactly. The Chinese don’t futz around, and accidents are easily arranged.
LanceThruster
Zionism is poisoning our government and our media.
burnspbesq
@MattF:
He’s being told. To cite only one example, the audit committee of the board of directors of sands conducted an investigation and concluded, in writing, that the company “probably” violated the FCPA. There have been references to that investigation in just about every Sands 10-K and 10-Q since 2013.
Adelson knows exactly what he is doing. He thinks he can buy the White House and get a Republican President to call off DOJ and the SEC.
Mary Jo White, the current SEC chair, was a big Hillary supporter in 2008 when she was a partner in a major NYC law firm, and she previously served as the U.S. Attorney in both Brooklyn and Manhattan. If Hillary wins, there’s a pretty good chance that White will be AG, and she’s shoved broomsticks up the asses of much tougher people than Adelson over the course of her career.
Andrew Ceresney, White’s protege and the current head of the Enforcement Division at the SEC, is the smartest person I’ve ever met, and absolutely not someone you want to fuck with.
Adelson is in a heap o’ trouble.
Howard Beale IV
@burnspbesq: After reading The Guardian coverage of L’affaire Adelson, sounds like his counsel are a few fries short of a happy meal.
Then again, it’s probably no bed of roses having Adelson as your client as well.
Chris
@MattF:
I think these people are used to seeing public figures as difficult, unruly, overpaid servants. Like a maid that they want to fire but can’t because the wife likes her.
Peale
How do I know I’m home? The gas stations all have great baked goods, summer sausage in most of its conceivable forms, very good cheese, and live minnows. There’s nothing that says home like knowing which gas station one goes to for the best worms, which one goes to for the best sweet rolls.
SRW1
@Amir Khalid:
Pecunia non olet.
Has been known for almost two thousand years.
burnspbesq
@Howard Beale IV:
Even the best lawyers can come off looking badly when the client is one taco short of a combo platter.
Frankensteinbeck
@MattF:
My (limited) understanding is that pissing off the judge is the worst thing you can possibly do in a courtroom.
joel hanes
@SRW1:
summer sausage in most of its conceivable forms, very good cheese, and live minnows.
I’m guessing Wisconsin.
One of my favorite states. Too bad about the current state government, and the voters that support it.
Lurking Canadian
@Fred: I’m guessing, but given the subject of the post, is it possible that your comment referred by name to the class of business where people entertain themselves by risking money, usually in the form of small plastic disks, on probability-based amusements? Or perhaps to the names of those amusements? ‘Cause that’ll do it.
Tree With Water
The first shots have already been fired in what will be a concentrated and sustained attack on the Clinton Foundation and its “influence peddling”. I oppose Hillary as a presidential candidate, but resent those allegations- as I do so many other attacks upon her.
Opportunity now knocks to retaliate ten fold. Democratic party shot callers- especially Hillary- should take pains to further acquaint the American people with the patron saint of the republican party. Even the politically timid can’t deny that the moniker, Sheldon “The Crooked Chinese Mafia Guy” Adelson, has got a certain ring to it. A U.S. court of law has presented democrats with a Christmas present in May (if Hillary has a sense of humor, she’ll establish a committee expressly formed to hound Adelson from Clinton Foundation funding). However it’s accomplished, the opportunity to exploit it and mount a sustained attack on the man should be undertaken, and his slimy role in the ongoing degradation of our democracy exposed for what it is.
Hungry Joe
“Behind every great fortune lies a great crime.” — Honore de Balzac
To which I must respond, “Just one, monsieur?”
The Pale Scot
This needs to linked to Citizens United calling it an attempt of chinese mobsters to influence US elections.
The Pale Scot
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Please refer to Torchwood S02E08 “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang”
Zinsky
This smarmy prick Adelson can hire the slickest, most expensive lawyers in the world and keep this case tied up in legal red tape until he is tits up and six feet under. That is the difference between the 99% and himself. Money provides you with options.