Las Vegas Casino Settles in Money-Laundering Inquiry
By MICHAEL LUO
Published: August 28, 2013
The Las Vegas Sands Corporation, the casino company controlled by Sheldon G. Adelson,
a major Republican donor, has agreed to pay the federal government more
than $47 million to resolve a money-laundering investigation that cast
an unwanted glare on Mr. Adelson and his gambling empire during the
presidential campaign last year.
The agreement with the United States attorney’s office in Los Angeles,
announced on Tuesday, means the Sands will not be prosecuted in the
case. It ends one of two federal inquiries that came into public view
last year when Mr. Adelson was becoming the biggest single political
donor in history, donating tens of millions in support of several
Republican presidential candidates.
The money-laundering investigation was reported last year by The Wall
Street Journal. (A separate federal investigation examining whether the
company violated federal laws against bribing foreign officials with its
business activities in China is continuing.)
The money that the Sands agreed to pay the government represents the
amount it received from Zhenli Ye Gon, a Chinese businessman with a
pharmaceutical company in Mexico who was at the time the biggest
all-cash gambler in the history of the Venetian, the Sands’ flagship
casino resort in Las Vegas.
Mr. Ye Gon was indicted in 2007 on federal drug charges. Those charges
were dismissed, but he has remained in federal custody pending an
extradition request to Mexico, where prosecutors are seeking to pursue
drug charges against him.
The agreement with the Sands lays out a list of failures by the
company’s compliance personnel to vet Mr. Ye Gon and the source of his
money after he transferred tens of millions to the Sands between 2005
and 2007 from multiple currency exchange houses in Mexico, according to
federal prosecutors. Mr. Ye Gon even told casino employees that he
preferred to wire the cash in smaller installments “because he did not
want the government to know about these transfers,” the agreement said.
The Sands acknowledged in the agreement that while it believed it had
been complying with federal laws, the company failed to “fully
appreciate the suspicious nature of the information” coming from Mr. Ye
Gon and should have done more to alert the authorities about him.
Federal prosecutors cited the Sands’ “voluntary and complete disclosure”
of its activities involving Mr. Ye Gon, as well as the company’s
“extensive” cooperation in the investigation, as the basis for the
agreement not to prosecute.
Perhaps the whale should simply have bought Nassau County and ran it efficiently?
HI-
Stop scratching on holidays
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.
Thanks for the help. The item’s
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> Stop scratching on holidays
Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.
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