Gingrich's
financial angel
A
casino mogul with legal woes
Las Vegas Sands Corp. exec
Adelson has pumped $7 million into 'Newt, Inc.'
National investigative correspondent: NBC
News
4/1/2011
Gingrich’s financial angel is the publicity-shy Sheldon Adelson,
chairman of the Las Vegas Sands Corp., and the fifth wealthiest man in America
as recently ranked by Forbes Magazine.
Adelson, who has an estimated net worth of over $23 billion, has
personally pumped $7 million over the past five years into Gingrich’s main
political advocacy organization, American Solutions for Winning the Future. His
contributions account for more than 10 percent of all the organization's funds
and have helped the former speaker promote his conservative causes and stay in
the public eye.
Adelson has also provided Gingrich the use of his aircraft for travel at
times, according to a report today by the
Center for Public Integrity.
And,
according to Republican Party sources close to both men, Adelson is now
expected to be a key fundraiser for Gingrich’s expected presidential campaign,
steering funds from two lucrative groups with whom he has influence — Las Vegas
casino executives and wealthy Republican Jewish donors.
“They
talk to each other all the time,” said one veteran Republican Party operative
who is familiar with Adelson's relationship with Gingrich. "He’s part of
the kitchen cabinet.”
But
while Adelson’s backing could prove a big asset for Gingrich in his
presidential bid, it could also create fresh problems for the former House
speaker — especially among the constituents he is courting the hardest these
days, evangelical Christians.
Adelson and his gambling company have
been plagued by legal troubles in recent months. The Sands recently disclosed
that it is being investigated by the Justice Department and the Securities and
Exchange Commission for possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices
Act.
Nevada and Hong Kong regulators have opened their own probes, according
to company disclosures.
The inquiries grow out of a wrongful
termination lawsuit filed last fall by Steven Jacobs, the former top Sands
executive in Macau where Adelson’s Venetian casino has become a major profit
center for his company.
Jacobs alleged in court papers he was fired because he objected to
Adelson's “repeated and outrageous” demands that he use “improper
leverage” with Chinese officials to obtain valuable government concessions and
that he retain the services of a Macau lawyer who was also a local government
official.
(The
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which has been vigorously enforced by the
Justice Department in recent years, bars U.S. companies from making payments to
foreign officials to obtain favorable treatment.)
Adelson’s company has also faced other troubles in Macau. Last December,
on the very day Adelson was visiting his Venetian casino there, the local
anti-vice squad raided the resort and arrested over 100 alleged prostitutes and
pimps who were allegedly operating a sex ring.
Ronald
Reese, a spokesman for the Sands, said the hotel firm’s management fully
cooperated with the Macau police on the vice squad raid. As for the Justice and
SEC probes, he said “we are cooperating fully with the investigations.”
Reese
also pointed to recent comments by Adelson
to an investment forum in which the Sands chairman denounced the lawsuit that
led to the probes as “pure threatening, blackmailing and extortion.”
Adelson told the investment conference that
government investigators “want to get all my emails” but suggested they are
likely to be frustrated because "I don’t have a computer. And I don't use
emails."
“When
the smoke clears,” he added, “I am absolutely, not 100 percent, but 1,000
percent positive that there won't be any fire below it.”
Rick
Tyler, Gingrich's spokesman, described Adelson as an “old friend” of
Gingrich's, but he declined any comment about the legal troubles facing the
Sands — or whether Gingrich has discussed them with Adelson.
Asked
whether Gingrich has flown on Adelson’s aircraft, Tyler said there have been
“no political trips on the Sands aircraft,” but would not comment on any other
use of Adelson’s planes by the former House speaker.
As
for the role Adelson is likely to have in any Gingrich presidential campaign,
Tyler said he expects that the Sands executive “will write a check for $2,500”
— the legal limit that any donor can give to a presidential candidate.
The close relationship with Adelson
illustrates the potential contradictions and pitfalls that Gingrich faces as he
appears to inch closer to formally declaring his run for presidency — an
announcement that could come as early as next month.
So
far, his biggest problem has been winning over social conservatives who are
uncomfortable over a messy personal life that includes two divorces and three
marriages.
Most
difficult of all have been the painful details of his marriage to his current
wife, Callista Gingrich. According to testimony that surfaced during Gingrich’s
1999 divorce proceeding — and which were publicly confirmed by his lawyer at
the time — Gingrich’s relationship with Callista began in 1993, when she was a
young staffer on the House Agriculture Committee. (Gingrich was House minority
leader at the time.)
The
relationship continued throughout the four years that Gingrich served as
speaker — a period during which he promoted an agenda that often championed
family values and called, in 1998, for President Bill Clinton’s impeachment for
lying about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
Gingrich has publicly acknowledged his “weaknesses” and “failures”
during numerous interviews in recent weeks.
And
he has also sought to win over evangelical Christians through a non-profit
group he first set up two years ago with the declared mission of preserving and
promoting “America’s Godly heritage,” according to its initial tax filing.
The
Renewing American Leadership group, along with a political affiliate, has
raised more than $5 million in the past two years, according to Gingrich’s
spokesman.
Among
the group’s activities: a 40-day “fast and prayer” campaign last fall that
called on candidates for office in the 2010 election to sign a pledge to
uphold, among other values, “the sacredness of marriage.”
At
the same time, the political arm of the group provided $150,000 to help
bankroll a successful campaign to oust three Iowa Supreme Court judges who had
voted to uphold same sex marriage.
Tyler
said the funds for the Iowa effort came from a single donor solicited by
Gingrich. But he declined to identify who the contributor was, saying that
Renewing American Leadership, as a non-profit group, does not identify its
donors.
Bob
Vander Plaats, a prominent Iowa Republican activist who served as spokesman for
campaign to oust the state judges, said the funds from Gingrich’s group were
key to the success of that effort.
“There’s no doubt — if we did not have that initial funding there’s no
way we could even get started," Vander Plaats said in an interview.
"There’s no way you could even get out of the starting gate. So that was
crucial resources.”
Renewing American Leadership is only one arm of what is informally known
as Newt Inc., a sprawling network of non-profits, businesses and
political groups that promote Gingrich's books, videos, speeches and policy
positions. The network includes a communications company, a media company and a
consulting company that markets Gingrich's advice to health care companies.
But
its largest and most visible branch is American Solutions, which has raised
over $52 million since it was founded in 2006. That's more money than the
political advocacy groups or political action committees of any other potential
GOP candidate or member of Congress, according to the Center for Responsive
Politics.
The
group has promoted a wide variety of Gingrich's conservative causes, ranging
from lower taxes and more domestic oil drilling to opposition to President
Obama's health care proposals.
The
fundraising success of American Solutions has enabled Gingrich to assemble a
mailing list of over a million donors that he can now use for his presidential
campaign, according to a source close to Gingrich.
Although substantial sums have also come from
corporate interests — including close to $2 million from giant energy companies
Peabody Energy, Arch Coal and Devon Energy — Adelson's $7 million in
contributions makes him far and away the biggest single donor.
The
casino mogul, a close friend of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, owns
the largest circulation newspaper in Israel, called Israel Hayom.
Last
May, the paper printed an article by Gingrich in which the former GOP House
leader criticized the White House's Mideast policies and warned of a “second
Holocaust.” A large photo of Gingrich appeared on the cover,
accompanied by a headline in Hebrew: “The Obama administration is denying
reality.”
When,
as most expect, Gingrich announces his candidacy next month, Adelson will be
unable to write the kind of seven-figure checks to a presidential campaign that
he has been accustomed to sending to American Solutions.
Instead, as Tyler pointed out, he will be limited — like everyone else —
to contributions of $2,500 for the Republican primary campaign.
But
that is hardly the limit of Adelson's ability to help Gingrich financially, three
GOP fundraising sources said, all of whom asked for anonymity.
In
recent years, Adelson has become among the most influential of all Republican
Party donors, especially among wealthy Jewish contributors who share his views
about Israel and the threat of radical Islam, these sources said. Adelson is
also the single biggest donor for a group called the Republican Jewish
Coalition, which has taken many presidential candidates on trips to Israel and
regularly holds its meetings — as it did last week — in one of Adelson's Las
Vegas hotels.
When
it comes to donating to politicians, “there’s a whole group of people —
lawyers, bankers, investors and others — who are prepared to follow Adelson's
lead,” said one of the GOP fundraisers.
And
that could be just what Gingrich needs to overcome his difficulties, at least
so far, in winning over Christian conservatives.
This story includes reporting by Peter Stone of the Center for Public
Integrity.