Sheldon Adelson * Bribery Law * Possibly Much More?

Is Adelson, one of them celebrated 1% 'job creators', job creation in Macau, trying to buy the needed political power, from the very top on down, to slam the breaks on any ongoing investigations and possible future ones?

Caught this yesterday from ProPublica that led to similar with their partner in this investigative journalist report the PBS Frontline show. They also had teamed up with the University of California.

From the Frontline site page:

Matt Isaacs and Lowell Bergman reported on this story for the Investigative Reporting Program of the University of California and FRONTLINE. Some of their work was underwritten by a grant from the Nathan Cummings Foundation. Stephen Engelberg is managing editor of ProPublica.

This is what came up from ProPublica:

Inside the Investigation of Leading Republican Money Man Sheldon Adelson

16 July 2012 - A decade ago gambling magnate and leading Republican donor Sheldon Adelson looked at a desolate spit of land in Macau and imagined a glittering strip of casinos, hotels and malls.

Where competitors saw obstacles, including Macau's hostility to outsiders and historic links to Chinese organized crime, Adelson envisaged a chance to make billions.

Adelson pushed his chips to the center of the table, keeping his nerve even as his company teetered on the brink of bankruptcy in late 2008.

The Macau bet paid off, propelling Adelson into the ranks of the mega-rich and underwriting his role as the largest Republican donor in the 2012 campaign, providing tens of millions of dollars to Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and other GOP causes. read more>>>

Which gives the links to the Frontline similar report:

His Man in Macau: Inside the Investigation Into Sheldon Adelson’s Empire

So far as I can see this is only in blog style reporting and not listed as an upcoming episode for the Frontline show.

Then last night the News Hour carried a discussion of the report with Stephen Engelberg of ProPublica.

AIR DATE: July 16, 2012
Did GOP Money Man Sheldon Adelson Violate Bribery Law?

SUMMARY
One of the largest Republican donors in the 2012 election, gambling magnate Sheldon Adelson, is now under investigation for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, an anti-bribery law. Ray Suarez discusses the charges against Adelson with ProPublica managing editor Stephen Engelberg. Transcript

Watch Did GOP Money Man Sheldon Adelson Violate Bribery Law? on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

A cut from the discussion:

STEPHEN ENGELBERG, managing editor, ProPublica: Well, he needed a couple of things in Macau.

And it wasn't just expanding the empire. At the time of the events that we write about in 2008, Sheldon Adelson had made a huge bet on Macau. He was constructing billions of dollars worth of casinos and a mall and other things. And he had suddenly run short of money. The financing was in doubt.

And they needed to raise some money. And they looked to do that a couple of different ways. One was to sell off some luxury apartments that they had built there. For that, they needed permission of the authorities in Macau. And the other was to go and have an IPO, so a stock in their new subsidiary in Macau known as China Sands.

In both of those things, they needed some favorable rulings from local politicians. And they weren't getting them. And it was at that moment that they hired a man named Leonel Alves as their outside counsel. Now, Alves is a lawyer, a very-well-plugged-in guy in Macau. He has got three different posts.

He's an adviser to the executive who kind of rules Macau, kind of like Macau's governor or president, you might call him. He's a member of the Macau legislature, and he's also a member of a committee within the mainland China that advises the ruling Communist Party on policy. So he is both a political figure and a lawyer.

And Adelson's company hires him to help him with these -- help with these problems. And he does so. He delivers.

snip

STEPHEN ENGELBERG: Yes.

This case is being investigated by the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. That would handle the criminal side of it. The Securities and Exchange Commission potentially could also be looking at civil violations of the law. But the criminal side of this is being handled by the Department of Justice.

And we are told by people familiar with that that this case is ongoing and expanding.

Also yesterday it's reported that Adelson jumped in to help the fledgling 'Young Guns Super PAC' which in one report, somewhere, said they had only raised some $300thousand plus change so far, with a huge contribution.

GOP super PAC receives major donation from casino mogul Sheldon Adelson

Young Guns Action Fund, a super PAC established to elect Republicans to the House of Representatives, received a $5 million donation from casino magnate Sheldon Adelson in April, federal disclosure records show.

Adelson donated millions toward Newt Gingrich's campaign during the Republican primaries and says he intends to spend $100 million this election cycle through various causes.

Wondering since his name first started coming up, and remembering a report on him and Macau not to far back, if this money, multi-millions, he's been throwing around is actually all his from his business dealings.

Now as these investigations have been moving forward, what is he talking to those he's donating to about and what exactly is it he wants back in return for investing his wealth in campaigns and not economic growth, a reagan capitalist! Positive results mean huge amounts of wealth to come!