(ROSLAN RAHMAN/ AFP/GETTY IMAGES ) - Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, give a news conference at the Marina Bay Sands complex in Singapore in June 2010.
The Venetian opened in 1999 — as a nonunion resort.
Looking to expand his gambling empire, Adelson turned to Asia. The Chinese were looking for a new casino operator for freewheeling Macao, the resurgent former Portuguese colony near Hong Kong that was returned to Chinese control in 1999.
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Adelson wanted in, and he was not averse to flexing his political muscle. He later testified in a lawsuit that he called Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), then House majority leader, in 2001 on behalf of Chinese officials concerned that a House resolution on human rights would hurt Beijing’s chances to host the 2008 Olympics.
DeLay told him the bill had been put on hold — and Adelson led the Chinese to believe he had something to do with it, according to testimony in the lawsuit. “Did the Chinese think that [Adelson] had been helpful in the Olympics?” Las Vegas Sands attorney Rusty Hardin told a jury. “Yeah, I’m sure they did.”
China awarded Adelson a coveted gambling concession. The Sands Macao opened in 2004.
Two years later, as Adelson was building the 3,000-room Venetian Macao, Gingrich traveled to Hong Kong and Singapore. Gingrich wrote in a column for Human Events about visiting with a casino developer whom he did not name.
“One casino developer I spoke to while I was there is building a billion-dollar-plus casino and resort in Macao, China,” Gingrich said. “He summed up one of our core challenges of competing in the global economy: ‘I have done two billion-dollar projects in Las Vegas and China in the last few years. The workmanship in China was better and the 62,000 applicants for jobs were more enthusiastic and better qualified.’ ”
During Gingrich’s visit, Las Vegas Sands was selected over three rivals to develop Singapore’s first casino resort. An official close to Adelson said that to the best of his knowledge, he was not aware of anything Gingrich ever did for Adelson’s casino business.
At the time, Gingrich told the Straits Times in Singapore that he was in Asia to research a novel on World War II.
A spokesman for Adelson said that he was not in Asia at the time.
Regardless, the two men’s ties remained strong. And soon they turned financial.
Adelson wrote a check six months after the trip, supplying the $1 million in seed money for a new nonprofit political organization created by Gingrich called American Solutions for Winning the Future.
It was one of only two checks the group received in 2006. The other was for $35,000.
Adelson’s first $1 million did not last long.
In less than a year, American Solutions had burned through most of the Adelson money, and by late summer he was solicited for more, according to two former employees and spending reports.
Adelson agreed, but only after the group had amped up its own fundraising. Adelson told American Solutions he would do a dollar-for-dollar match for the “527” group, a nonprofit permitted to engage in some political activities. American Solutions ultimately spent $2 for every $3 raised on administration and fundraising, records show.
Several Gingrich employees, who were not authorized to speak publicly, said they were concerned about how Adelson’s money was being spent, particularly for private charter travel that cost from $30,000 to $45,000 a flight.
The employees said that when Gingrich had out-of-town meetings for his for-profit Center for Health Transformation, staff would be asked to find events as well for American Solutions. “American Solutions events were put on the books to have something in the city to pay for airfare,” a former official of the group said.
Over five years, the charter jet travel cost $6.6 million.
“His personal accountant had expressed real concerns,” the former official said. “I don’t think he flew commercial for almost a two-year period. It was a huge drag on American Solutions.”
Gingrich’s campaign spokesman, R.C. Hammond, did not respond to written questions for the story. Hammond, who also was previously spokesman for American Solutions , said the 527 group had heard few complaints about high fundraising costs.
Researcher Lucy Shackelford and research editor Alice Crites contributed to this report.
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