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The casino company run by the principal financial backer of Newt Gingrich's presidential bid, Sheldon Adelson, has been under criminal investigation for the last year by the Department of Justice and the Securities Exchange Commission for alleged bribery of foreign officials, according to corporate documents.
In a separate civil lawsuit, a former executive of the company has alleged that Adelson ordered him to keep quiet about sensitive issues at the Sands casinos on the Chinese island of Macau, including the casinos' alleged "involvement with Chinese organized crime groups, known as Triads, connected to the junket business." The triads -- Chinese organized crime syndicates -- are allegedly involved in organizing high stakes gambling junkets for wealthy Chinese travelers.
"The growth of gambling in Macau, fueled by money from mainland Chinese gamblers and the growth of U.S.-owned casinos, has been accompanied by widespread corruption, organized crime and money laundering," the commission found.
The Venetian-Macao, a casino owned by the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, was also the subject of a reported "sex-trade crackdown" that occurred in 2010 on the same day Adelson arrived on the island for meetings with government leaders in Macau, according to published accounts in 2010. Chinese press reported that authorities found more than 100 prostitutes inside the casino.
The Journal identified one of the "whales" as Zhenli Ye Gon, a Chinese-born Mexican national who was indicted in 2007 in the United States on charges of dealing in materials used to make methamphetamine.
The drug case was dismissed in 2009 but Ye Gon is still in U.S. custody awaiting extradition to Mexico, where authorities want to try him on drug trafficking and money laundering charges, the Journal said, citing court records.
The Journal said Ausaf Umar Siddiqui, a former executive with the Fry's Electronics retail chain, also was under scrutiny. Court filings in another case showed Siddiqui sent more than $100 million to the Sands. Siddiqui was charged with taking kickbacks from Fry's vendors, pleaded guilty and is now in prison.
In 1988, Adelson and his partners purchased the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, the former hangout of Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack, in order to bring Las Vegas to a new source of business from the exhibition industry. The following year, Adelson and his partners constructed the Sands Expo and Convention Center, then the only privately owned and operated convention center in the United States.
That same year, Hughes continued what would be an unprecedented buying spree of Las Vegas Strip casinos. He spent $23 million for the Sands Hotel, $3.3 million for the Castaways and $23 million for the New Frontier. In 1968, he spent $5.4 million for the Silver Slipper and $17.3 million for the Landmark. His deal to buy the Stardust for $30.5 million would later fall through. Hughes also acquired the Harolds Club Casino in Reno for $10.5 million.
While in Las Vegas, Hughes employed key aides who belonged to the Church of Latter Day Saints. Mormons were prohibited from doing two things he did not do—drink alcohol and smoke. Hughes was known to dine on TV dinners and fast-food sandwiches while watching movies in his darkened hotel suite at the Desert Inn. He was also addicted to painkillers. Some biographers allege that his aides, nicknamed the "Mormon Mafia," deliberately cut him off from the outside world and enabled his addiction to painkillers. For years, he communicated with his aide, Maheu, only by phone or written notes—one of Hughes' highest ranking employees never met his employer face-to-face. Hughes became so reclusive that Governor Laxalt insisted on talking to him by phone in 1968 to make sure he was really alive.
The Mormon Church owns one of the most active and unregulated gun sale portals on the web, according to a national investigation released by the New York City Mayor's office.
The website in question is KSL.com, the online hub for Utah's NBC affiliate and sister radio station, which are both owned and operated by the for-profit arm of the Mormon Church. In addition to local news, KSL.com produces a popular classifieds section that reaches millions of users well beyond Utah.
The LDS connection drew little notice when Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a leading financier of the gun control movement, published the report in December, but an official involved with Bloomberg's investigation is calling out the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for putting "profits over principle."
"A church, like any other organization, has the right to raise money," said the person, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for the mayor. "But one would think that a church would feel a special obligation to make sure that they weren't fueling a black market for a particularly deadly form of commerce."
According to an article published last March in the Deseret News,which is also owned by the Mormon church, KSL considered eliminating the firearm category from its site altogether, under pressure from state law enforcement. Ultimately, though, it decided to keep the gun ads, opting only to post a guide to gun sale laws more prominently on its homepage.
"The responsibility for the transaction is that of the parties involved," Atkinson said. "This is just like any other transaction, a vehicle, a lawnmower, a bicycle."
But the person involved with the Bloomberg investigation said KSL and the Mormon church should set a higher bar for gun ads.
"The fact that they have looked into this makes it clear that they understand they have a problem, he said. "If they have essentially decided to press on without taking effective action, it seems they've made a choice to put profits over principle."
There is a coordinated effort on the left to also make Adelson’s life miserable for donating to Republican causes. The Justice Department is investigating whether Adelson’s casinos potentially broke the law by not reporting allegedly laundered monies that were transferred to its casinos. Of course, just investigating the matter -- and making it known to the public -- associates Adelson with guilt when no monies may have been laundered at all.
Recently, the DCCC falsely accused him of being linked to “Chinese prostitution money,” comments which they later retracted and for which they apologized.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee retracted statements it made linking Las Vegas Sands (LVS.N) Chief Executive Sheldon Adelson with funds it said came from "Chinese prostitution money" and that it said had been contributed to Republican congressional candidates.
"In press statements issued on June 29 and July 2, 2012, the DCCC made unsubstantiated allegations that attacked Sheldon Adelson, a supporter of the opposing party," the Democratic committee said in a statement. "This was wrong. The statements were untrue and unfair, and we retract them."
The allegations came from a filing in Nevada state court in which Steven Jacobs, the former president of Sands China Ltd (1928.HK), alleged wrongful termination and asserted that he had seen documents in which Adelson "personally approved" what he called "a prostitution strategy" at the company's casino operation in the Chinese special administrative region of Macau.
In a July 16 letter to the DCCC, attorneys for Adelson, 78, demanded that the committee retract the allegations and apologize to Adelson.
"Mr. Adelson does not tolerate prostitution, let alone, as you have said, make money from it," the attorneys wrote. "The fact is that Mr. Adelson has consistently objected to and maintained a strong
wonder if Mitt is a pedophile.. I wonder that about a lot of politicians.. some of the scandals that have managed to bust out into the media about British politicians are shocking to say the least.
One problem with your comment is Frank Marshall Davis died July 26, 1987. So anything about him would be 25 years old at least.
Originally posted by Fromabove
reply to post by JBA2848
Obama smoked dope, snorted coc aine, beat little girls, and hung around with convicted terrorists. His cabinet is filled with liars, cheats, and deadbeats. So what's the big deal about what other people do, lets talk about all the failures of Obama, and there are so many.