Report | China feared CIA used casinos to snare officials

China feared that US intelligence may have used Macau casinos owned by Sheldon Adelson to entrap and blackmail Chinese officials, according to a highly confidential report for the gambling industry, British newspaper The Guardian reported yesterday.
The report prepared and drafted by a private investigator in 2010 revealed that Beijing suspected that US-owned establishments in Macau were working with the CIA.
“Many of the (Chinese) officials we contacted were of the view that US intelligence agencies are very active in Macau, and that they have penetrated and utilized the US casinos to support their operations,” the document said, as cited by The Guardian.
The report, uncovered by the Investigative Reporting Program at the University of California, Berkeley, was found among a collection of Sands China documents filed with a Las Vegas court as part of an ongoing lawsuit filed by former Sands China CEO Steven Jacobs.
Jacobs is suing the company for wrongful dismissal. He argues that he was fired in 2010 because he opposed to what he thought were excessive payments to a Macau lawyer and lawmaker on the grounds that they may breach US bribery laws. He also claims that he was fired because he refused to do business with groups tied with organized crime.
The report, which is available via The Guardian’s website, is marked with the words “Steve Jacobs Copy.” The Guardian stated that the investigation had been commissioned by Sands China amid concerns that “the enclave’s government was increasingly hostile to the gambling industry in general and Sands in particular.”
Citing well-placed sources in Beijing, the report specified that Sands Macau “is the primary subject” of claims by Chinese officials of collusion with US intelligence.
According to the document, “a reliable source has reported that central Chinese government officials firmly believe that Sands has permitted CIA/FBI agents to operate from within its facilities. These agents apparently ‘monitor mainland government officials’ who gamble in the casinos.”
The report, however, does not state that Sands was complicit with CIA/FBI activities. It only states that Chinese officials believed it.
Sands called the article “a collection of meaningless speculation.”
The company’s senior vice-president for global communications and corporate affairs Ron Reese said that, “as for the document’s narrative that Sands is a front for US intelligence efforts, well that sounds like an idea for a movie script.”
He stated that the report “is a document that Steve Jacobs actually ordered for his own personal purposes and is simply a collection of meaningless speculation. In essence, it is much ado about nothing.”
The Guardian also recounted that Sands wanted the investigator to gather information on Macau’s Chief Executive Chui Sai On, including details on his reputation, and attitude toward the company and the casino industry. Furthermore, it wanted “to identify any weakness which might compromise his ability to function or his loyalty to the [Communist] Party.”
The report concluded that Mr Chui is a widely respected man raised among one of Macau’s richest and most politically connected families. “It is most unlikely that any form of scandal or allegation made against him would stick,” the document added. CP