(Corrects to Adelson's lawyers due to face hearing, para 3;
corrects spelling of Adelson's wife name, para 11; makes clear
Adelson travelled separately to Israel, para 12;)
HONG KONG/LOS ANGELES, Aug 1 (Reuters) - The Macau
government has launched an official investigation into Sands
China, owned by billionaire Sheldon Adelson, after the
company transferred documents linked to a wrongful dismissal
case to the United States from Macau.
It is the latest twist in a saga that has become a firestorm
for the casino mogul, who owns casinos in Las Vegas, Macau and
Singapore and is the most active donor in U.S. Republican
candidate Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.
Adelson's lawyers are due to face an Aug. 30 hearing in the
United States, where District Court Judge Elizabeth Gonzales
will decide whether Las Vegas Sands Corp withheld
financial documents in a case in which the 78-year-old is
accused of having personally approved of prostitution at the
company's casino in China's special administrative region of
Macau.
Sands, the biggest casino operator in Macau by market value,
announced the Macau investigation on Wednesday in a voluntary
notice. It did not provide further comment on the probe.
The closely watched case began in October 2010 as a wrongful
termination suit filed by Steven Jacobs, who was fired in July
2010 from his job as chief executive officer of Sands China Ltd
, Sands' Macau subsidiary.
Jacobs claims in court documents that he was wrongfully
dismissed after clashing with Adelson over what Jacobs alleged
was improper and illegal conduct, including allowing
prostitution and hiding the use of unauthorized construction
workers for the Sands China casino.
His suit triggered a federal investigation by the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission into its Macau operations.
Sands lawyers acknowledged to Judge Gonzales in June that
they were in possession of documents from Jacobs' computer hard
drive, after having previously said that the information could
not be produced without violating Macau data protection laws.
Last week, the nonprofit investigative-journalism
organization ProPublica reported that Sands had transferred
these documents to the United States from Macau, citing a court
filing and a deposition of Sands Assistant General Counsel
Michael Kostrinsky.
Sands lawyers now say, according to a filing, that the
documents were transported "in error" on a hard disk to the
casino's deputy general counsel in the U.S. in November 2010
without notifying Macau authorities.
The charges cast a harsh light on Adelson, the largest
individual donor to U.S. Republican candidates in 2012
campaigns. Adelson and his wife Miriam recently gave $10 million
to the Restore Our Future, a super PAC to support Romney's
presidential bid.
On July 30, Adelson visited Israel at the same time Romney
was on a foreign policy and fundraising trip to Israel.
The company has adamantly denied all the charges made by
Jacobs. "These questions will be answered in due course in the
most appropriate forum - namely the courtroom," said Sands
spokesman Ron Reese.
In March 2011, Las Vegas Sands also said it was being
investigated by U.S. authorities for potential breaches of the
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits bribes to foreign
officials by U.S. companies.
Shares in Sands China fell 3 percent after the market opened
in Hong Kong on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Farah Master in Hong Kong and Sue Zeidler in Los
Angeles; Editing by Ronald Grover and Chris Gallagher)
