Free Republic

Nine days after registering his presidential exploratory committee last November, Rudolph Giuliani appeared in Singapore to help a Las Vegas developer make a pitch for a $3.5 billion casino resort. Though the bid ultimately failed, and there was nothing illegal about the involvement, it drew Giuliani into a complex partnership with the family of a controversial Hong Kong billionaire who has ties to the regime of North Korea's Kim Jong Il and has been linked to international organized crime by the U.S. government. ... Giuliani's public involvement in the gaming bid began at a September 2006 news conference in Singapore...

Report: U.S. probes Bank of China Scrutiny focuses on possible N. Korea fund-raising connection Thursday, September 8, 2005 Posted: 0517 GMT (1317 HKT) Bank of China and two banks based in Macau are under U.S. scrutiny for possible connections to North Korea's illicit fund-raising network, which Washington believes finances Pyongyang's nuclear program, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The banks, which could face stiff sanctions, are caught up in a U.S. operation to shut down lucrative North Korean enterprises producing narcotics, counterfeit U.S. currency and fake cigarettes, the newspaper said. One of the Macau lenders, Banco Delta Asia SARL,...

HONG KONG (AP) -- The first wife of Macau gambling tycoon Stanley Ho, dubbed "the No. 1 beauty in Macau," has died, newspapers reported Sunday. She was 80. Clementina Angela Leitao Ho died at home Saturday after suffering from a long illness, newspapers quoted a statement from Ho's office as saying. Calls to his company went unanswered Sunday. Born into a wealthy Portuguese family in Macau, the young Leitao, whose father was one of the most prominent lawyers in the small gambling enclave, was famed for her beauty. Leitao and Ho were married in 1942, long before his monopoly...