The Macau Connection

The article [excerpt below], while lengthy, is worth reading in its entirety for the corruption intertwined with Sands and Sheldon Adelson that's worth following:

SPECIAL REPORT - The Macau Connection
When Steve Jacobs joined Las Vegas Sands in 2009, the company was sinking.

The Sands, which owns the Venetian resort, saw its stock price hit an alarming low, below $2 a share, around the time Jacobs, a 47-year-old Harvard graduate with a boyish face and close-cropped silver hair, took a job heading Sands China, which runs the company's Macau operations.

But over the course of the next year, Sands mounted a remarkable recovery, thanks in large part to Jacobs' leadership in Macau, a gambling boomtown bigger than Las Vegas and 16 time zones ahead of the Strip.

"There is no question as to Steve's performance," Sands COO Michael Leven told the company's board of directors in early 2010, according to court records. "The Titanic hit the iceberg. (Jacobs) arrived and not only saved the passengers, he saved the ship."

The feel-good story, however, was not to last.

Within months, Jacobs was clashing with the company's CEO Sheldon Adelson over several issues, according to a legal complaint, including whether to hire more so-called junket operators who bring in high rollers. Jacobs says he objected, citing their corrupt reputation -- and last July, the company unexpectedly fired him effective immediately. Two security guards escorted him out of the casino without allowing him to gather his belongings, and then unceremoniously escorted him out of town, Jacobs alleges.