The billionaire casino magnate, the triad leader and the Chinese legislator

Sheldon Adelson, one of the world’s richest men and a Republican party financier, spent nearly a week in a Las Vegas courtroom denying his casinos in Macau had links to organised crime and influence-peddling with Chinese officials.
Sheldon Adelson
Forbes says Adelson is the world’s eighth richest man with a $36bn fortune as the major shareholder in the Las Vegas Sands casino empire he founded. He is fighting a lawsuit claiming that his highly profitable Macau casinos had ties to Chinese organised crime and bribed officials.
Steven Jacobs
Jacobs, former CEO of Adelson’s Macau casinos, is suing for wrongful dismissal. He claims he was sacked for trying to cut the company's ties to organised crime and for ending a contract with a Macau legislator which the casino conglomerate’s lawyers warned could breach US anti-bribery laws. Adelson claims Jacobs was dismissed for incompetence and accuses him of “blackmail”.
Leonel Alves
Alves was a Macau legislator and lawyer hired by Adelson’s Macau casinos. Jacobs regarded payments to Alves as open to accusations of attempting to bribe Chinese officials and ended the contract. Adelson reinstated it after dismissing his Macau CEO.
Cheung Chi Tai
Cheung is an alleged leader of a Chinese organised crime group which brought in high rolling gamblers to Adelson’s casinos in Macau. He was accused in a trial in Hong Kong of ordering the murder of a Macau dealer suspected of cheating the casino out of millions of dollars. Hong Kong police are investigating him for money laundering.
Ng Lap Seng
Ng is a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Committee who was described in court as a "courier" and contact with Beijing for Adelson's company. A US congressional investigation in 1998 implicated Ng in the illegal funding of American political campaigns.
Photo credits, from top: Julie Jacobson/AP; Jeff Scheid/AP; Whhalbert/Creative Commons; Internet