Nixon Returns Chapter III - Justice Department investigates Sheldon Adelson

LATIMES:

The Justice Department is investigating whether Las Vegas Sands Corp., owned by high-profile Republican donor Sheldon Adelson, broke federal law by failing to report millions of dollars of potentially laundered money transferred to its casinos by two high-rolling Las Vegas gamblers, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles is investigating deposits made in the mid-2000s by a Mexican pharmaceutical businessman, later indicted for drug trafficking in 2007, and a California executive with Fry’s Electronics, who later pleaded guilty to taking illegal kickbacks, the newspaper said, citing lawyers and federal officials working on the case.

The Journal said there were no indications that the investigation included actions by Adelson, Sands’ chief executive and a major political donor for the Republican Party. Adelson has pledged to spend as much as $100 million to help Republican candidates in this election cycle.

3 days ago:

DNC retracts claims GOP donor Adelson financially tied to prostitution

House Democrats’ campaign arm is retracting claims it made that Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, a prominent Republican donor, was financially tied to prostitution — claims it now says “were untrue and unfair.”

The retraction comes after Adelson’s lawyer sent a letter last month to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee asking it to “retract and apologize for” what it called defamatory and libelous claims that Adelson, who heads Las Vegas Sands Corp., encouraged and profited from prostitution in Macau and donated “Chinese prostitution money” to Republican leaders.

The allegations were first made by fired Sands China Ltd. executive Steven Jacobs, in a seven-page sworn declaration filed June 27.

The Sands’ six-page response argued that no weight should be given to what Sands attorneys call the “inflammatory and personally derogatory” claims. It includes a copy of a May 2009 email suggesting that Jacobs knew that Adelson doesn’t tolerate prostitution at any Sands properties.

If this is not pure outright INTIMIDATION, I wonder what is?

Then again, perhaps this is at the urging of former Obama adviser Merrill McPeak

Let’s imagine if George Bush and Alberto Gonzalez were doing this for a moment….