Sheldon Adelson Pledges $10 Million to Koch Brothers Effort
Adelson and the Koch Brothers are two of the biggest GOP backers in the 2012 elections.
| Posted Saturday, June 30, 2012, at 2:28 PM
Photo by Aaron Tam/AFP/Getty Images.
Sheldon Adelson, the casino billionaire who has dumped tens of millions of dollars into organizations backing Republican politicians for the November elections, will reportedly hand over another $10 million to the campaign efforts backed by the Koch brothers.
The donation, reported Friday by Politico, was pledged during a Koch brothers' donor summit earlier this week. Charles and David Koch are the founders of the conservative, anti-tax group Americans for Prosperity. They, along with Adelson, comprise some of the biggest monetary backing of the GOP campaign for 2012.
According to the AP, Koch Industries pulls in $110 billion in annual revenue. Adelson is estimated to be worth about $25 billion. Other big pledges at the summit reportedly include a seven-figure donation from Charles Schwab, and, of course, a significant sum from the Koch brothers themselves.
Politico lists Adelson's stunningly large donation history for the 2012 campaign:
"Adelson’s family donated more than $20 million to the super PAC supporting Newt Gingrich’s failed presidential bid (though $5 million was refunded last month) and $5 million to a super PAC affiliated with House Speaker John Boehner. He has committed $10 million to the pro-Romney PAC and, according to The Huffington Post, $20 million to a Rove-linked nonprofit group called Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies and $5 million to one linked to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. HuffPo also reported that Adelson planned to donate $10 million to a nonprofit linked to the Kochs, but the pledge made by Abboud this week is expected to go into a fund collected at the brothers’ summits and controlled by their operatives."
In addition to pledging millions of dollars to Republican causes, Adelson's camp is also busy this week denying allegations from a Sands Corp. former executive, who claims that the billionaire personally approved of prostitution and other improper activity in a company property in China, according to the Associated Press. The accusation surfaced in court documents on Thursday: former executive Steven Jacobs is suing Adelson and his companies for breach of contract and pushing him into illegal activities. An attorney representing two Sands companies called the allegations false and "scurrilous."
