{"id":16445,"date":"2015-07-22T10:59:46","date_gmt":"2015-07-22T18:59:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=16445"},"modified":"2015-07-22T11:22:11","modified_gmt":"2015-07-22T19:22:11","slug":"sheldon-adelson-spymaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/sheldon-adelson-spymaster\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheldon Adelson, spymaster?"},"content":{"rendered":"

So Sands China<\/strong> did have a “blackmail strategy” after all … in the eyes of the Chinese government<\/a>, that is. According to a report<\/a> commissioned \"Sheldon<\/a>by Sands and marked eyes-only for Sands China<\/strong> CEO Steven Jacobs<\/strong>,\u00a0\u201cMany of the officials we contacted were of the view that US intelligence agencies are very active in Macao<\/strong> and that they have penetrated and utilised the US casinos to support their operations,\u201d it read, adding that Sands \u201cis the primary subject\u201d of Peking’s concern:\u00a0\u201cA reliable source has reported that central Chinese government officials firmly believe that Sands has permitted CIA<\/strong>\/FBI<\/strong> agents to operate from within its facilities. These agents apparently \u2018monitor mainland government officials\u2019 who gamble in the casinos.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. government agents were accused of “\u2018luring\u2019 and entrapping mainland government officials, involved in gaming, to force them to cooperate with US government interests.\u201d Sands is accused neither of involvement or even knowledge … although maybe Adelson thought it was his patriotic duty to make his casinos available to gather intelligence. (But if that were the case, why didn’t he get a more lenient deal in the recent $47 million money-laundering settlement<\/a> with Uncle Sam?)<\/p>\n

The report, which Sands dismisses as “meaningless speculation,” appears to be very well sourced. It also states that the Peking<\/strong> \"venetian-macao-bridgeofsigh\"<\/a>government was concerned about where public servants were finding the cash that enabled them to gamble away $2 billion a year to U.S. casino interests. The report depicts U.S.-owned casinos as a wedge, seeking to open an American sphere of influence in China<\/strong>, including a consulate the could be a front for intelligence activities. They also suspected that the U.S. government was engaged in electronic snooping on Chinese banks, particularly with regard to money transfers to and from North Korea<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

(One of the turning points of China’s relationship with Sands was the latter’s premature exuberance over a proposed resort development on Hengqin Island<\/strong>. As one of the journalists who interviewed then-COO William Weidner<\/strong> on the Hengqin project, I suppose I’m tangentially related to getting it canned.)<\/p>\n

The report’s probe of Macao Chief Executive Fernando Chui<\/strong> found an admired member of the company of whom it was “most unlikely that any form of scandal or allegation made against him would stick.\u201d That’s better than Adelson’s fractious reputation amongst Chinese officials, which the report describes as “infamous.” Las Vegas Sands<\/strong> seems to have been caught off-balance by The Guardian<\/em>‘s discovery, claiming that it was the so-called “Vickers report,” probing alleged links between Sands and Chinese organized crime. The Vickers report, however, remains under a court-ordered seal.<\/p>\n

* Regardless of whether he’s trying to meddle in China’s internal affairs, Adelson continues to poke his nose where it doesn’t belong: namely the freedom of individual states to offer Internet<\/strong> gambling. He’s providing employment for a bipartisan roster of unemployed politicians<\/a>, including Trent Lott<\/strong>, Ron Dellums<\/strong>, John Breaux<\/strong> and columnist\u00a0J.C. Watts<\/strong>. At least Dr. Ron Paul<\/strong> is there to remind us that some ex-politicians won’t sell their souls to Las Vegas Sands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So Sands China did have a “blackmail strategy” after all … in the eyes of the Chinese government, that is. According to a report commissioned by Sands and marked eyes-only for Sands China CEO Steven Jacobs,\u00a0\u201cMany of the officials we … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[37,62,33,12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16445"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16445"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16449,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16445\/revisions\/16449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}