Sheldon Adelson

Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson spent an estimated $150 million last year in campaign contributions to help Mitt Romney and other Republicans around the country win elections. Now, in a new filing with the SEC, it turns out that's not all Adelson spent money on:

In its annual regulatory report, filed with the commission on Friday, the Sands reported that its audit committee and independent accountants had determined that “there were likely violations of the books and records and internal controls provisions” of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

The disclosure comes amid an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation into the company’s business activities in China.

It is the company’s first public acknowledgment of possible wrongdoing. Ron Reese, a spokesman for the Sands, declined to comment further.

This is the first admission of possible guilt by Adelson's company in an investigation that goes back years. Adelson began a big push in China over a decade ago and that caught the eye of investigators.

But in 2010 something big happened. Steven C. Jacobs was fired from his job as President of the company's operations in Macau. He then filed a wrongful termination suit, which alleges he was pressured to engage in improper leverage against foreign officials. In the same suit Jacobs also alleges that the company turned a blind eye to China's organized crime.

The Mayans could very well be wrong that 2012 will be the end of the world, but one thing that has failed to exist this year is our democracy. Instead it is being transformed into an auction, going to the highest bidder. Leading this race to extinction is casino mogul Sheldon Adelson:

Sheldon Adelson plays as stubbornly in politics as he does in business. So the criticisms that he’s trying to personally buy the presidential election for Newt Gingrich are met with a roll of the eyes. “Those people are either jealous or professional critics,” Adelson tells me during his first interview since he and his wife began funneling $11 million, with another $10 million injection widely expected, into the former speaker’s super PAC, Winning Our Future. “They like to trash other people. It’s unfair that I’ve been treated unfair—but it doesn’t stop me. I might give $10 million or $100 million to Gingrich.”

Adelson, the 78-year-old CEO of casino giant Las Vegas Sands, certainly can afford to: With a net worth of roughly $25 billion, that $11 million, which jolted Gingrich’s flatlining presidential bid back to life, equates to 0.044% of his fortune. For someone with a $1 million net worth, the equivalent would be $440, or a two-night stay at Adelson’s Venetian casino. Adelson could personally fund an entire presidential campaign—say, $1 billion or so—and not even notice.

Adelson has been pumping millions in the failed Gingrich campaign this cycle and now he's willing to take off the gloves and go all in with up to $100 million. But why is he doing this? Well we have the right wing boogieman showing his head again: