Jack Abramoff

 

Jack A. Abramoff
Jack Abramoff testifying before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.
Born	February 28 1959 (1959--) (age 48) Atlantic City, NJ, U.S.
Conviction(s)	fraud, conspiracy, tax evasion
Penalty	5 years and 10 months imprisonment
Status	in prison
Occupation	businessman, lobbyist
Spouse	Pam Alexander

Jack Abramoff (born February 28, 1959) is a former American political lobbyist, a Republican political activist and businessman who was a central figure in a series of high-profile political scandals.

Abramoff, pled guilty on January 3, 2006, to three criminal felony counts in a Washington, D.C., federal court related to the defrauding of American Indian tribes and corruption of public officials.^[1] The following day he pleaded guilty to two criminal felony counts in a separate federal court, in Miami, related to his fraudulent dealings with SunCruz Casinos.^[2]

On March 29, 2006, he was sentenced to five years and ten months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of more than $21 million. His prison sentence was the minimum permitted under a plea bargain with federal prosecutors, in part because of his purported cooperation in the federal investigation. In October 2006, more than six months after his sentencing, he was ordered by a federal judge to report to federal prison by November 15, 2006.

The delay in Abramoff's imprisonment allowed him to testify in a related investigation involving the Florida gang-style murder of SunCruz Casinos owner Konstantinos Boulis and to continue cooperation with a vast investigation related to federal lobbying and related activities.

Given the complexity of the alleged crimes by Abramoff and his associates and their apparent ability to alter major pieces of federal legislation through their illegal acts, the U.S. Department of Justice has appointed an entire inter-governmental task force, including the FBI, which has been aggressively investigating Abramoff and dozens of his closest political associates and Congressional allies for nearly two years.

The extensive corruption investigation has led to the conviction of White House officials J. Steven Griles and David Safavian, U.S. Representative Bob Ney, and nine other lobbyists and Congressional aides.

In the months leading up to the 2006 election, the White House sought to distance themselves from the well-connected lobbyist, and downplayed his access to George W. Bush. Asked to provide photographs of the two men together, spokesmen denied that such photos existed. However, on January 8, 2007, CBS News linked to a blog website that had posted a picture of Bush with Abramoff. ^[3][4]

Abramoff was a top lobbyist for the Preston Gates & Ellis and Greenberg Traurig firms (see Team Abramoff) and a director of the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank, and Toward Tradition, a religious right organization, during his criminal enterprise. He was College Republican National Committee National Chairman from 1981 to 1985. He was a founding member of the International Freedom Foundation, an "anti-communist think tank" which operated from 1986 to 1993.

Early life

Abramoff Scandal

Events & scandals Indian lobbying scandal Guam investigation Marianas/Saipan scandal Internet gambling Monetary influence SunCruz Casinos Plead guilty Jack Abramoff (70 months) Jared Carpenter Italia Federici J. Steven Griles (10 months) William Heaton (24 months probation) Adam Kidan (70 months) Bob Ney (30 months) Tony Rudy Michael Scanlon Roger Stillwell (24 months probation) Neil Volz (24 months probation) Mark Zachares Convicted David Safavian (18 months) Named but not charged Ed Buckham Tom DeLay Tom Feeney Others Team Abramoff Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis Grover Norquist Susan Ralston Ralph Reed Kevin A. Ring Lists Related organizations Tribal clients Trips funded Timeline of events Category

Abramoff was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Jewish parents. His father, Franklin Abramoff, was president of the franchises unit of Diners Club.^[5]

In 1968, when Abramoff was 10, his family moved to Beverly Hills, California. Abramoff attended Beverly Hills High School, where he was renowned for his football and weightlifting prowess (he reportedly squatted over 500 pounds). During his high school years, he managed both the Beverly Hills and Westwood United Artists movie theater; his father had left Palmer to become president of the Diner's Club franchises. Abramoff has said that he embraced Orthodox Judaism at the age of 12 after seeing the film version of Fiddler on the Roof.^[6]

On an episode of Public Radio International's This American Life that aired in June 2006, journalist Jonathan Gold described Abramoff as a high school bully. "He was the sort of person who would walk across the street to be unpleasant to somebody," Gold says, going on to describe how Abramoff knocked him and his cello down a flight of stairs.^[7]

College and law school years

As an undergraduate at Brandeis University, Abramoff organized Massachusetts campuses for Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign. He graduated in 1981 and earned his JD at the Georgetown University Law Center in 1986.

According to Nina J. Easton's book Gang of Five, Abramoff gained much of his credibility in the conservative movement through his father, Franklin Abramoff. As president of Diners Club, Abramoff's father worked closely with Alfred S. Bloomingdale, a personal friend of Ronald Reagan, and Abramoff would use the name in fundraising.

College Republican National Chairman

After graduating from Brandeis, Abramoff ran for election as chairman of the College Republican National Committee (CRNC). After a campaign managed by Grover Norquist which cost over $10,000, Abramoff won the election after the chief competitor, Amy Moritz (who later, as Amy Ridenour, became a founding director of the National Center for Public Policy Research, and was involved in several trips funded by Jack Abramoff), was convinced to drop out. Abramoff "changed the direction of the committee and made it more activist and conservative than ever before," notes the CRNC. "It is not our job to seek peaceful coexistence with the Left," Abramoff was quoted as saying in the group's 1983 annual report, "our job is to remove them from power permanently."^[8]

Norquist served as executive director of the committee under Abramoff. Abramoff later recruited Ralph Reed, a former president of the University of Georgia College Republicans chapter, as an unpaid intern. Reed, still a young student, was invited to sleep on Abramoff’s couch. According to Reed's book Active Faith, Reed also introduced Abramoff to his future wife, Pam Alexander.

Long-standing college political alliances

At the CRNC, Abramoff developed political alliances with College Republican chapter presidents across the nation, many who would later hold roles in state and national politics and business, and some who would later interact with Abramoff as a lobbyist. Some of those relationships are at the core of the current federal investigation.

At the CRNC, Abramoff, Norquist and Reed formed what was known as the "Abramoff-Norquist-Reed triumvirate." After Abramoff's election, the trio purged "dissidents" and re-wrote the CRNC's bylaws to consolidate their control over the organization. According to Gang of Five (p. 142), Reed was the "hatchet man" and "carried out Abramoff-Norquist orders with ruthless efficiency, not bothering to hide his fingerprints."

In 1983 with Abramoff in control, the CRNC passed a resolution condemning "deliberate planted propaganda by the KGB and Soviet proxy forces" against the government of South Africa, at a time when the government of South Africa was under worldwide criticism for the Apartheid regime.^[9]

In 1984, Abramoff and other College Republicans formed the "USA Foundation", a non-partisan tax-exempt organization which held two days of rallies on college campuses around the United States celebrating the first anniversary of the invasion of Grenada. In a letter to campus Republican leaders, Abramoff claimed:

"While the Student Liberation Day Coalition is nonpartisan and intended only for educational purposes, I don't need to tell you how important this project is to our efforts as [College Republicans]. I am confident that an impartial study of the contrasts between the Carter/Mondale failure in Iran and the Reagan victory in Grenada will be most enlightening to voters 12 days before the general election."^[10]

Citizens for America

In 1985, Abramoff joined Citizens for America, a pro-Reagan group that helped Oliver North build support for the Nicaraguan contras. Citizens for America staged an unprecedented meeting of anti-Communist rebel leaders known as the Democratic International in Jamba, Angola. This conference included leaders of the Mujahedeen from Afghanistan, UNITA from Angola, the Contras from Nicaragua, and opposition groups from Laos. Out of this largely ceremonial conference came the International Freedom Foundation. Abramoff helped to organize, and also attended the conference.

Abramoff's membership ended on a sour note when Citizens for America's sponsor Lewis Lehrman, a former New York gubernatorial candidate, concluded that Abramoff had spent his money carelessly.

Reagan appointment

In 1986, Abramoff was appointed by President Ronald Reagan as a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.^[11]

In Hollywood

Abramoff spent ten years in Hollywood, and produced Red Scorpion, a low-budget action film with anti-communist themes, made in 1988 just after his term with the College Republicans ended. This movie was filmed in South-West Africa (now Namibia) and was funded in part by the apartheid regime in South Africa through the International Freedom Foundation, which Abramoff founded.^[12][13]

April 27 1998, Abramoff wrote a letter to the editor of The Seattle Times rebutting an article critical of Abramoff. He claimed, "The IFF was a conservative group which I headed. It was vigorously anti-Communist, but it was also actively anti-apartheid. … In 1987, it was one of the first conservative groups to call for the release of Nelson Mandela, a position for which it was roundly criticized by other conservatives at the time. While I headed the IFF, we accepted funding only from private individuals and corporations and would have absolutely rejected any offer of South African military funding, or any other kind of funding from any government—good or evil."

It was during his travels in South Africa that Abramoff first met South African-born rabbi David Lapin, who became his religious advisor, and David's brother and fellow rabbi Daniel Lapin, who allegedly introduced Abramoff to Congressman Tom DeLay (R-TX) at a Washington, DC dinner shortly after the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994.^[14] Lapin later claimed that he did not recall the introduction.

Lobbying

In December 1994, Abramoff was hired as a lobbyist at Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds LLP, the lobbying arm of Preston Gates & Ellis LLP, based in Seattle, WA. According to The Seattle Times in 1995, following the Republican takeover of Congress, partner Emanuel Rouvelas determined that the firm "didn't have a conservative, Christian Coalition Republican with strong ties to the new Republican leadership." For this reason the traditionally Democratic firm extended a job offer to Abramoff, who was described in a press release as having close ties to Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey.

According to The Seattle Times, Abramoff used "Preston Gates as the launching pad for schemes of fraud and influence peddling that would play out on a larger scale" now becoming "one of the biggest lobbying scandals in a generation."^[15]

In 1995, Abramoff began representing Indian tribes with gambling interests. He became involved with the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. One of Abramoff's first acts as a tribal gaming lobbyist was to defeat a Congressional bill to tax Indian casinos, sponsored by Reps. Bill Archer (R-TX) and Ernest Istook (R-OK). According to Washington Business Forward, a lobbying trade magazine, "Tom DeLay was a major factor in those victories, and the fight helped cement the alliance between the two men.^[16] DeLay has called Abramoff "one of his closest and dearest friends"

Saipan and Northern Mariana Islands

Main article: Jack Abramoff CNMI scandal

Abramoff and his law firm were paid at least $6.7 million by the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) from 1995 to 2001, which may manufacture goods with the "Made in the USA" label but is not subject to U.S. labor and minimum wage laws. After Abramoff paid for Tom Delay and his staffers to go on trips to the CNMI, they crafted policy that extended exemptions from federal immigration and labor laws to the islands' industries. Abramoff also negotiated for a $1.2 million no-bid contract from the Marianas for 'promoting ethics in government' to be awarded to David Lapin, brother of Daniel Lapin. Abramoff also secretly funded a trip for James E. Clyburn (D-SC) and Bennie Thompson (D-MS).

Documentation also indicates that Abramoff's lobbying team helped prepare Rep. Ralph Hall's (R-TX) statements on the house floor in which he attacked the credibility of escaped teenaged sex worker "Katrina," in an attempt to discredit her testimony regarding the state of the sex slave industry on the island.^[17] Ms. magazine also explored Abramoff's dealings in the CNMI and the plight of garment workers like Katrina in their spring 2006 article "Paradise Lost: Greed, Sex Slavery, Forced Abortions and Right-Wing Moralists."

Later lobbying efforts involved mailings from a Ralph Reed marketing company to Christian conservative voters and bribery of Roger Stillwell, a Department of the Interior official who in 2006 pleaded guilty to accepting gifts from Abramoff.

Naftasib

Executives of Naftasib, a Russian energy company, funneled almost $3.4 million to Abramoff and DeLay advisor Ed Buckham between 1997 and 2005. About $60,000 was spent on a trip to Russia in 1997 for Tom DeLay, Buckham, and Abramoff. In 1998, $1 million was sent to Buckham via his organization U.S. Family Network to "influence DeLay's vote in 1998 on legislation that helped make it possible for the IMF to bail out the faltering Russian economy." DeLay voted for the legislation. The money was funneled through the Dutch company Voor Huisen, the Bahamas company Chelsea Enterprises, and the London law firm James & Sarch Co.^[18][19]

The executives involved, who met DeLay during the 1997 trip, were Marina Nevskaya and Alexander Koulakovsky. Nevskaya was also involved in Abramoff's support of an Israeli sniper school, as indicated by an email sent to Abramoff by an assistant to Marina Nevskaya detailing prices of thermal vision devices.^[20]

eLottery, Inc.

Main article: Internet Gambling Prohibition Act

In 1999, eLottery hired Abramoff to block the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act, which he did by enlisting the help of Ralph E. Reed, Jr., Grover Norquist, and Tom DeLay's former chief of staff, Tony Rudy.^[21]

Emails from 2000 show that Susan Ralston helped Jack Abramoff pass checks from eLottery to Lou Sheldon's Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) and also to Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), in route to Reed's company, Century Strategies.^[22][23]

Abramoff joins Greenberg Traurig

Main article: Team Abramoff

On January 8 2001, Abramoff left Preston Gates to join the Government Relations division of the law firm of Greenberg Traurig, which once described him as "directly involved in the Republican party and conservative movement leadership structures" and "one of the leading fund raisers for the party and its congressional candidates." With the move to Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff took as much as $6 million dollars worth of client "work" from his old firm, including the Marianas Islands account. When asked in an interview why he moved to Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff replied "they have a dominant presence … This move is an excellent opportunity for me and my clients with the new Administration."^{[citation needed]} At Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff recruited a team of lobbyists known familiarly as "Team Abramoff". The team included many of his former employees from Preston Gates and former senior staffers of members of Congress.

Tribal lobbying

Main article: Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal

Abramoff's Tribal Clients

Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians Pueblo of Sandia Pueblo of Santa Clara Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe Tigua Indian Reservation

Around the time he joined Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff's choice of lobbying clients changed to focus much more on Native American tribes. While Abramoff was a registered lobbyist for 51 clients while working at Preston Gates, with only 4 being tribes, Abramoff would eventually represent 24 clients for whom he was registered lobbyist at Greenberg Traurig, of which 7 were tribes.

Tyco Inc.

Former White House Deputy Counsel Timothy Flanigan left his job in December 2002 to work as General Counsel for Corporate and International Law at Tyco International. He immediately hired Abramoff to lobby Congress and the White House on matters relating to Tyco's Bermuda tax-exempt status.^[24] Flanigan stated to the Senate Judiciary Committee that Abramoff bragged that he could help Tyco avoid tax liability aimed at offshore companies because he "had good relationships with members of Congress."^[25]

Tyco Inc. claimed in August 2005 that Abramoff had been paid $1.7 million for 'astroturfing', or the creation of a fake 'grassroots' campaign to oppose proposals to penalize US corporations registered abroad for tax reasons. The work allegedly was never performed, and most of the fee Tyco paid Abramoff to lobby against the legislation was "diverted to entities controlled by Mr. Abramoff".^[25]

Government of Malaysia

Abramoff's team also represented the government of Malaysia, and worked toward improving Malaysian relations with the United States, particularly with trade relations.^[26]

Government of Sudan

According to the Los Angeles Times, Abramoff also met with the government of Sudan, offering a plan to deflect criticism from American Christian groups over the regime's alleged role in the Darfur conflict. Abramoff promised to enlist Ralph E. Reed, Jr., to assist, as well as starting a grass-roots campaign to improve the image of Sudan in America.^[27]

Channel One News

Abramoff has been a lobbyist for the school TV news service Channel One News. From 1999 to 2003, Channel One retained him to ensure Congress did not block funds to their service. Not only did Channel One face frequent campaigns by political groups to persuade Congress to limit its presence in schools, but it also derived much of its advertising revenue from U.S. government sources, including the Office of National Drug Control Policy and military recruitment. Since Abramoff and Channel One parted ways, Channel One's advertising revenues have dropped substantially, but a cause-and-effect relationship would be difficult to establish.^[28]

Telecommunications firm

On October 18, 2005, The Washington Post reported that Bob Ney, as chair of the House Administration Committee, approved a 2002 license for an Israeli telecommunications company to install antennas for the House. The company, then Foxcom Wireless, an Israeli start-up telecommunications firm, (which has since moved headquarters from Jerusalem to Vienna, Va., and been renamed MobileAccess Networks) later paid Abramoff $280,000 for lobbying. It also donated $50,000 to the Capitol Athletic Foundation charity that Abramoff sometimes used to secretly pay for some of his lobbying activities.^[29] In Abramoff's plea agreement, Abramoff pled only to misrepresentation^{[citation needed]}, in Scanlon's plea agreement, the above was described as public corruption.^[30]

Access to the Bush Administration

Jack Abramoff was a member of the Bush Administration's 2001 Transition Advisory Team assigned to the Department of the Interior.^[31] Abramoff befriended the incoming Deputy Secretary of the Interior, J. Steven Griles.

The draft report of the House Government Reform Committee said the documents — largely Abramoff's billing records and e-mails — listed 485 lobbying contacts with White House officials over three years, including 10 with top Bush aide Karl Rove.

The report said that of the 485 contacts listed, 345 were described as meetings or other in-person contacts; 71 were described as phone conversations and 69 were e-mail exchanges. [2]

In the first 10 months of 2001, the Abramoff lobbying team logged almost 200 contacts with the new Administration.^[31] He may have used these senior level contacts to assist in his lobbying for Indian tribes concerning tribal gaming. The Department of the Interior has Federal regulatory authority over tribal affairs such as tribal recognition and gaming. From 2000 to 2003, six Indian tribes paid Abramoff over $80 million in lobbying fees.^[5]

The Department of the Interior Office of Insular Affairs has authority over policy and grants to US Territories such as the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).^[32] This may have assisted him in lobbying for textile interests in the islands. U.S. Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) and U.S. Rep and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay also heavily lobbied the CNMI for opposing the minimum wage.^[33][34]

According to an article published in the New York Times on November 10, 2005, Abramoff asked for $9 million in 2003 from the president of the African nation of Gabon, Omar Bongo to arrange a meeting with President Bush and directed his fees to an Abramoff-controlled lobbying firm, GrassRoots Interactive.^[35] Bongo did meet with President Bush in the Oval Office on May 26, 2004.^[35] There has been no evidence in the public record that Abramoff had any role in organizing the meeting or that he received any money or had a signed contract with Gabon.^[35]

White House and State Department officials described Mr. Bush's meeting with President Bongo, whose government is regularly accused by the United States of human rights abuses, as routine.^[35] The officials said they knew of no involvement by Mr. Abramoff in the arrangements. Officials at Gabon's embassy in Washington did not respond to written questions.^[35]

Susan Ralston, Special Assistant to the President and Assistant to the Senior Advisor Karl Rove since 2001, previously worked as an administrative assistant for both Jack Abramoff and Ralph Reed.^[5][36]

According to former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Abramoff was paid $1.2 million to arrange a meeting between Mahathir and president George W. Bush, allegedly at the direction of the Heritage Foundation. Mahathir insisted that someone unknown to him had paid for the meeting.^[37]

On May 9, 2001, Chief Raul Garza of the Kickapoo tribe of Texas met with President Bush, with Jack Abramoff and Grover Norquist in attendance. Abramoff was identified in the background of a photo taken at the meeting.^[38] Days before the meeting, the tribe paid $25,000 to Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform at Abramoff's direction. According to the organization's communications director, John Kartch, the meeting was one of several gatherings with President Bush sponsored by ATR. On the same day, the chief of the Louisiana Coushattas also attended an ATR-sponsored gathering with President Bush. The Coushattas also gave $25,000 to ATR soon before the event.

The details of the Kickapoo meeting and a letter dated May 10, 2001 from ATR thanking the Kickapoos for their contribution were revealed to the New York Times in 2006 by former council elder Isidro Garza, who with Raul Garza (no relation), is under indictment in Texas for embezzling tribal money. According to Isidro Garza, Abramoff did not say the donation was required to meet the president; the White House denied any knowledge of the transaction.^[39]

Other photos have surfaced of Jack Abramoff and President Bush meeting at the White House and Oval Office on either December 22 or 23, 2002. The photos were found on a site that published many pictures of governmental events, ReflectionsOrders.com. The owner of the site removed the photos almost immediately when the presence of Abramoff and Bush together was discovered. Some internet users located the photos and preserved copies of some of them.^[40] The owner of the site gave thousands of dollars to the Bush campaign and Republican National Committee, according to public FEC contribution records.^[41]

An NPR news report from March 2006 stated that: "...Abramoff recently granted a rare press interview to Vanity Fair magazine, where he asserts President Bush and other prominent figures in Washington know him very well. He called them liars for denying contact with him" [3].

Possible foreknowledge of the Iraq War

Jack Abramoff has indicated that he knew that the US would invade Iraq before the American public did. On March 18, 2002, Jack Abramoff told a friend, that "I was sitting with Karl Rove, Bush's top advisor, at the NCAA basketball game, discussing Israel when [your] email came in. I showed it to him. It seems that the President was very sad to have to come out negatively regarding Israel but that they needed to mollify the Arabs for the upcoming war on Iraq. That did not seem to work anyway. Bush seems to love Sharon and Israel, and thinks Arafat [sic] is nothing but a liar. I thought I'd pass that on."^[42] This was written before the Downing Street memo, the Bush-Blair memo, and Niger uranium documents forgery were written. This was also before the Office of Special Plans and the White House Iraq Group were created. This was before Congress authorized Bush the authority to invade Iraq with the Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq.

Signatures, skyboxes, and Scotland

In addition to offering many Republican members of Congress free meals at his expensive restaurant, Signatures, Abramoff maintained four skyboxes at major sports arenas for political entertaining at a cost of over $1 million a year. Abramoff hosted many fundraisers at these skyboxes including events for politicians publicly opposed to gambling, such as John Doolittle.^[43]

DeLay, Ney and Florida Republican Representative Tom Feeney have each gone on golf trips to Scotland that were apparently arranged or funded by Abramoff. These trips took place in 2000, 2002, and 2003. Ney and Feeney each claimed that their trips were paid for by the National Center for Public Policy Research, but the group denied this. Spokespeople for Ney and Feeney blamed others for filing errors. Ney later pleaded guilty to knowing that Abramoff had paid for the trip.

A former top procurement official in the Bush administration, David H. Safavian, has been convicted of lying and obstruction of justice in connection with the Abramoff investigation. Safavian, who traveled to Scotland with Reed and Ney on a golf outing arranged by Abramoff, was accused of concealing from federal investigators that Abramoff was seeking to do business with the General Services Administration at the time of the golf trip—in particular, seeking help finding property for his private religious school Eshkol Academy and for one of his tribal clients. Safavian was then GSA chief of staff.^[44]

Overview of criminal and political investigations

People convicted in Abramoff probe (as of June 9, 2007)

Lawmakers, lobbyists, Bush administration officials, congressional staffers and businessmen caught up in the Jack Abramoff public corruption probe:^[45]

• Italia Federici, co-founder of the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, pleaded guilty to tax evasion and obstruction of a Senate investigation into Abramoff's relationship with officials at the Department of Interior.

• Former Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, sentenced in January to 2 1/2 years in prison, acknowledged taking bribes from Abramoff. Ney was in the traveling party on an Abramoff-sponsored golfing trip to Scotland at the heart of the case against former White House official David Safavian.

• Former Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles, the highest-ranking Bush administration official convicted in the scandal, pleaded guilty to obstructing justice. He admitted lying to a Senate committee about his relationship with Abramoff, who repeatedly sought Griles' intervention at Interior on behalf of Indian tribal clients.

• Abramoff is serving six years in prison on a criminal case out of Florida, where he pleaded guilty in January 2006 to charges of conspiracy, honest services fraud and tax evasion. He has not yet been sentenced on charges of mail fraud, conspiracy and tax evasion stemming from the influence-peddling scandal in Washington. Abramoff is cooperating in a bribery investigation involving lawmakers, their aides and members of the Bush administration.

• Tony Rudy, lobbyist and one-time aide to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, pleaded guilty in March 2006 to conspiring with Abramoff. He is cooperating with investigators.

• Former White House official David Safavian, the Bush administration's former top procurement official, was sentenced to 18 months in prison in October 2006 after he was found guilty of covering up his dealings with Abramoff. Safavian is appealing his conviction.

• Michael Scanlon, a former Abramoff business partner and DeLay aide, pleaded guilty in November 2005 to conspiring to bribe public officials in connection with his lobbying work on behalf of Indian tribes and casino issues. He is cooperating with investigators.

• William Heaton, former chief of staff for Ney, pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge involving a golf trip to Scotland, expensive meals, and tickets to sporting events between 2002 and 2004 as payoffs for helping Abramoff's clients.

• Neil Volz, a former chief of staff to Ney who left government to work for Abramoff, pleaded guilty in May 2006 to conspiring to corrupt Ney and others with trips and other aid.

• Mark Zachares, former aide to Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, pleaded guilty to conspiracy. He acknowledged accepting tens of thousands of dollars worth of gifts and a golf trip to Scotland from Abramoff's team in exchange for official acts on the lobbyist's behalf.

• Roger Stillwell, a former Interior Department official, was sentenced to two years on probation in January after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge for not reporting hundreds of dollars worth of sports and concert tickets he received from Abramoff.

• Former Abramoff business partner Adam Kidan, sentenced in Florida in March 2006 to nearly six years in prison for conspiracy and fraud in the 2000 purchase of the Fort Lauderdale-based SunCruz Casinos gambling fleet.

Indian tribes grand jury investigations

Main article: Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal

Abramoff and his partner Michael Scanlon (a former Tom DeLay aide) conspired to bill Indian casino gambling interests out of an estimated $85 million in fees. The lobbyists also orchestrated lobbying against their own clients in order to force them to pay for lobbying services. These practices were the subject both of long-running criminal prosecution and hearings by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

On November 21, 2005 Scanlon pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe a member of Congress and other public officials.

On January 3, 2006, Abramoff pled guilty to three felony counts, conspiracy, fraud, and tax evasion, involving charges stemming principally from his lobbying activities in Washington on behalf of Native American tribes. In addition, Abramoff and other defendants must make restitution of at least $25 million that was defrauded from clients, primarily the Native American tribes. Further, Abramoff owes the Internal Revenue Service $1.7 million as a result of his guilty plea to the tax evasion charge. In the agreement, Abramoff admits to bribing public officials, including Bob Ney, a Republican congressman from Ohio.^[46] Also included: the hiring of congressional staffers and conspiring with them to lobby their former employers—including members of Congress—in violation of a one-year federal ban on such lobbying.^[47]

Later in 2006 Abramoff lobbyists Neil Volz (Ney's former chief of staff) and Tony Rudy pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges; in September 2006 Bob Ney himself pleaded guilty to conspiracy and making false statements.

SunCruz Casinos fraud conviction

Main article: SunCruz Casinos

On August 11, 2005, Abramoff and his partner, Adam Kidan, were indicted by a federal grand jury in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on fraud charges arising from a 2000 deal to buy SunCruz Casinos from Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis. Abramoff and Kidan are accused of using a fake wire transfer to make lenders believe that they had made a $23 million down payment, in order to qualify for a $60 million loan.^[48] Kidan received the same sentence as Abramoff, 5-years, 10-months, which he began serving at Fort Dix Federal Penetentiary, in Fort Dix, New Jersey, on October 23, 2006.

Congressman Bob Ney also was implicated in helping to consummate the deal.

After the partners purchased SunCruz in September 2000, the business relationship with Boulis deteriorated, culminating in a fistfight between Kidan and Boulis in December 2000. In February 2001 Boulis was murdered in his car in a mob style attack.

The murder investigation, which presently includes three mobsters who had received payments from Kidan, is ongoing. Two of the suspects face the death penalty. SunCruz is now owned and operated by Oceans Casinos Cruises.

On March 29, 2006, Abramoff and co-defendant Kidan were both sentenced in the SunCruz case to the minimum amount, 70 months, and to pay US$21.7 million in restitution. According to the "memorandum in aid of sentencing", the sentencing judge, U.S. District Judge Paul C. Huck, received over 260 pleas for leniency from various people, including "rabbis, military officers and even a professional hockey referee."^[49] The defendants are still cooperating with federal investigators and will be sentenced later in the Indian lobbying case.

On November 15, 2006, Abramoff began serving his term in the minimum-security prison camp of Federal Correctional Institution, Cumberland as inmate number 27593-112. The Justice Department requested that he serve his sentence there so as to be accessible to agents in Washington for cooperation as the investigation related to his associates intensifies.^[50]

Guam grand jury investigation

Main article: Jack Abramoff Guam investigation

In 2002, Abramoff was retained under a secret contract by the Guam Superior Court to lobby against a bill proposing to put the Superior Court under the authority of the Guam Supreme Court. On Nov. 18, 2002, a grand jury issued a subpoena demanding that the administrator of the Guam Superior Court release all records relating to the contract. On Nov. 19, 2002, U.S. Attorney Frederick A. Black, the chief prosecutor for Guam and the instigator of the indictment, was unexpectedly demoted and removed from the office he had held since 1991. The federal grand jury investigation was quickly wound down and took no further action. In 2005, Public Auditor Doris Flores Brooks initiated a new investigation of the Abramoff contract which is continuing.

Abramoff organizations

Main article: List of Jack Abramoff-related organizations

Abramoff has founded or run several non-profit organizations, including Capital Athletic Foundation and Eshkol Academy; as well as lobbying firms and political think tanks such as American International Center, GrassRoots Interactive, and the National Center for Public Policy Research. While these organizations had varying degrees of legitimate activities, it has come to light that Abramoff used these organizations to channel millions of dollars to recipients not related to the organizations.

Capital Athletic Foundation and Eshkol Academy

Main articles: Capital Athletic Foundation, Eshkol Academy

Although Federal tax records show that various Indian tribes donated more than $6 million to the Capital Athletic Foundation, less than 1% of the money went to athletic programs, the stated purpose of the foundation. The majority of the funds went to the Eshkol Academy in Maryland, an Orthodox Jewish school founded by Abramoff in 2002. Hundreds of thousands of dollars from CAF were also spent on golf trips to Scotland for Abramoff, Bob Ney, Ralph Reed, and David Safavian, as well as purchases of Camping and outdoors equipment sent to a high school friend. Abramoff solicited Safavian's help in looking for property deals for Eshkol Academy and tribal clients, leading to Safavian's conviction.^[51][52]

GrassRoots Interactive and Kay Gold

Main article: GrassRoots Interactive

GrassRoots Interactive, now defunct, was a small Silver Spring, Maryland, lobbying firm controlled by Jack Abramoff. Millions of dollars flowed into GrassRoots Interactive in 2003, the year it was created, and then flowed out again to unusual places. At least $2.3 million went to a California consulting firm that used the same address as the law office of Abramoff's brother, Robert. A separate check for $400,000, from GrassRoots, was made out to Kay Gold LLC, another Abramoff family company.^[53]

See also

• Category:Jack Abramoff scandals
• Jack Abramoff timeline
• List of trips funded by Jack Abramoff

Footnotes

Some of this article was originally derived from material at SourceWatch ([4]), available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Cited notes and references