mecenáš

13:23 Oct 19, 2013 

you might want to put your suggestion with the "shady" or other adjective as an answer so I can give you points, if you're into that sort of thing.

15:50 Oct 16, 2013 

Happy to be helpful!

15:32 Oct 16, 2013 

you've captured it perfectly, overall and in my context, and you've given credibility to my theory that I'd have to slip in an adjective to stress the negative undercurrent. Thanks!

15:12 Oct 16, 2013 

That's not to say they've ever received any money from them though! Far be it from me to accuse anybody here! :-)

15:06 Oct 16, 2013 

"As far as I know, no Slovak politician has ever acknowledged receiving money from business big shots..."

15:03 Oct 16, 2013 

Thank you! :-)

14:48 Oct 16, 2013 

the shady and shadowy did cross my mind, you have my agreement here, it is elegant yet to the point

14:44 Oct 16, 2013 

If I may chime in here, I'd like to point out that, interestingly enough, it's only in politics where "mecenáš" has this distinctively negative undercurrent. What's more, the word isn't slangy at all, which perhaps should be taken into consideration in the English rendition.
As far as I know, no Slovak politician has ever acknowledged receiving money from business big shots (if such donations have occurred, that is :-), so nobody knows for sure who the sponsors are. In other words, according to media reports, apparently everything happens under a veil of secrecy, so perhaps you could consider combining words such as "covert", "shadowy" or "shady" (not sure about this one) or similar words with neutral and oft-used expressions along the lines of "financial backer" or "donor".
[Edited slightly to clarify some points.]

13:19 Oct 16, 2013 

It's very casual and slang is a better fit

13:19 Oct 16, 2013 

thanks for the useful link

13:08 Oct 16, 2013 

Of course, it very much depends on the tone of the article, if you wish to use a slang or if you wish to remain 'formal'. After the slang expressions that you have had here recently, I just looked for a slang, so I am sorry if this was not the case. Vic Voskuil was asking the same thing, actually.

12:53 Oct 16, 2013 

Old Nick backer has an equivocal connotation, I sort of like it

12:53 Oct 16, 2013 

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patronage - this focuses quite a bit on politics. Might help

12:46 Oct 16, 2013 

politicky mecenas. I mean, I know contributor is the general term but the text is about 'busting' the corrupt big money backers so I hesitate to use it.

12:25 Oct 16, 2013 

Sugar daddy pops to mind, but can't say that's a regular alternative for a maecenas.

12:12 Oct 16, 2013 

is the only thing with a negative connotation that comes to my mind. But I have no idea what I'd put in the place of "something" :)
Charity-monger perhaps? Google has a few hits.