US election commission clears Sheldon Adelson of foreign-money claims

There’s “no reason to believe” that Sheldon Adelson funneled illegal foreign contributions into the U.S. election campaigns.

That was the decision that the Federal Election Commission came out with in response to allegations that the Las Vegas Sands Corp. chairman had used funds from foreign sources via his casinos in Macau to make contributions to federal elections.

Documents posted on FEC’s website showed that commissioners voted 5-0 in June following recommendations from the FEC’s general counsel office.

The complaint against Adelson was filed by the nonprofit watchdog group Campaign for Accountability (CfA) in 2015, following the indictment of Chinese billionaire Ng Lap Seng who was caught smuggling $4.5 million into the United States. The watchdog alleged that Adelson’s contributions were largely made up of “illegally laundered foreign funds” derived from Chinese crime groups.