Editor’s note: This article was first published in March 2013, as news. The Eurovegas project in Alcorcón (Madrid) was abandoned by Las Vegas Sands in December 2013, and Sheldon Adelson died in 2021. The investigations mentioned were ongoing at the time.
Las Vegas Sands Corporation, an international gambling empire controlled by billionaire Sheldon G. Adelson, has told the SEC (the US Securities and Exchange Commission) that it probably violated a federal law against bribing foreign officials.
The American company, which this year is due to start building the huge Eurovegas leisure and gambling complex in Alcorcón (Madrid), is under serious investigation over bribes to Chinese officials. According to some former executives, opening doors in China requires a certain “collaboration” in the form of connections and favours. The practice of “you give me something and I grant you something” is common in this kind of business, according to the New York Times, and especially so at Las Vegas Sands Corporation.
The documents allegedly show that more than $70 million was paid to companies linked to Mr. Yang (Sheldon Adelson’s go-between in China) for a shopping centre in Macau and the sponsorship of a Chinese basketball team.
Steven C. Jacobs, the former head of Las Vegas Sands’ operations in Macau, has also claimed that he was pressured to bribe senior Chinese officials. He further alleges that Las Vegas Sands turned a blind eye to certain figures from Chinese organised crime who operated in its casinos.
Sheldon Adelson became the largest individual donor in political history during the 2012 presidential election, giving more than $60 million to eight Republican candidates, including Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney. He gave Mitt Romney’s campaign alone $30 million… in exchange for…?
Now that we know Mr. Adelson and his system of winning contracts by bribing politicians a little better, I imagine many Spaniards will be wondering whether anyone in Spain has been bribed in the same way to get the Spanish government to change certain laws exclusively for Las Vegas Sands, some of them tax laws.
Considering that Spain has gone from being the “land of the tambourine” (the old folkloric cliché) to the “land of bribes and crooks”, it wouldn’t be surprising. Still, Mr. Adelson, since this is all mere speculation, welcome, and make yourself at home. You may run into some language difficulties, but here our national language is perfectly understood when it comes in an ENVELOPE 🙂
Featured image: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
