A progressive political watchdog group is asking a Senate committee and the Federal Election Commission to investigate Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson’s alleged ties to organized crime in China, in a move a Las Vegas Sands spokesman quickly dismissed as a political stunt.
Washington, D.C.-based Campaign for Accountability released a statement calling on the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the Federal Election Commission to probe what have been consistent rumors about the dealings of Adelson and LVS with VIP junket operators tied to the Chinese triads.
“Given the extent to which Mr. Adelson’s wealth derives from Macau and his dominant role in funding Republican candidates, it seems highly likely that illegal foreign money has made its way into American elections,” Anne Weismann, the Campaign for Accountability’s executive director, said in the statement. “If triad money is winding up in the campaign coffers of U.S. politicians through Mr. Adelson’s contributions, the American people deserve to know it.”
Las Vegas Sands spokesman Ron Reese quickly derided the watchdog group’s statement as political propaganda aimed at a huge Republican donor. “Clearly, the political silly season has started, and this is an obvious political stunt,” Reese told Politico.
The group was seizing upon information that came out in a wrongful termination lawsuit against Adelson and LVS filed by former Sands China chief Steve Jacobs, who claimed he was fired because he resisted pressure from Adelson to find negative information on Chinese officials or possible bribery.
Documents submitted by Jacobs in that case cited Venetian Macau’s former relationship with a junket company run by Cheung Chi Tai, who was identified in a 1993 U.S. Senate report as a leader of China’s Who Hop To Triad, and another relationship with Ng Lap Seng, an alleged Macau organized crime figure. Regulators in Macau and, so far, other LVS jurisdictions have thus far failed to find any wrongdoing on the part of the operator.
Campaign for Accountability pointed out that Adelson contributed more than $100 million in the 2012 election cycle, and U.S. citizens deserve to know where that money came from. Reese countered that the “unsubstantiated allegations are nothing new,” according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “This stuff has been dragged out before and was repudiated by the DCCC,” Reese said. “Once again, a political stunt is being used to try and discredit Mr. Adelson’s name.”
According to Politico, Campaign for Accountability was started this year by Weismann and Louis Mayberg. Both formerly worked for the political group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, another progressive watchdog group.
