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If big money donors really do make a difference in the U.S. political landscape, the next American President could be determined by….the Chinese?
For his part, casino magnate and GOP mega donor Sheldon Adelson has denied any ties to Macau businessman named Ng Lap Seng, named in a U.S. congressional report as a key player in illegal Chinese funding of U.S. political campaigns.
Testifying on Tuesday in a Las Vegas court for a civil case alleging Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands Corp’s Macau casinos were involved in influence peddling and links to organized crime, Adelson stated that never met Ng Lap Seng but knew of him.
“I heard that he was a real estate developer or that he was the head of the real estate developers’ association or something,” said Adelson.
That’s not what others are saying.
From the Guardian:
Legal counsel for Steven Jacobs, the former CEO of Adelson’s Macau casinos, who is suing the 81-year-old billionaire for wrongful dismissal, told Adelson on the stand that Ng is better known as a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee and that he had acted as “a courier” for Adelson’s company.
In an ironic twist, a U.S. congressional investigation in 1998 concluded that Ng had acted as an intermediary in sending funds to the tune of over $1 million to help Democratic candidates.
The case led to the conviction of others involved for breaching campaign funding laws but Ng was not charged. Ng also visited the White House and met with then president Bill Clinton, the Guardian noted.
- Gilbert Horowitz, Gambling911.com
