Sheldon Adelson probed for bribery, mob ties

Democracy Now!:

As Senate Republicans block the DISCLOSE Act, legislation that would unmask anonymous campaign donors, we look at Sheldon Adelson, a major donor behind Republican campaigns. Adelson has pledged to donate $100 million to defeat President Obama, but is now coming under new scrutiny for possible violations of federal anti-bribery law and ties to Chinese organized crime stemming from efforts to build casinos and other projects in Macau. An investigation by ProPublica, PBS "Frontline" and the Investigative Reporting Program at the University of California, found Adelson may have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act when he instructed a top executive to give $700,000 to a Macau legislator who aided his company’s efforts there. We’re joined by Stephen Engelberg, managing editor of ProPublica, and by Peter Stone, a journalist who has spent two decades covering money and politics and has been reporting on Adelson since 2008. "I think it [the report] comes at an embarrassing time, potentially embarrassing time for Adelson and for a number of republican groups who have received incredibly large donations from him in this cycle,” says Stone. “He is now backing Romney. His overriding concern is to defeat President Obama.”