It’s a really long article from WaPo. First, let’s review what’s happened so far in the saga of Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay, etc.
- DNC’s Case File. Scandal Man: A Guide to the Ethics Violations, Abuses of Power, and Corruption of DeLay
- Tom DeLay’s House of Scandal
- Jack Abramoff and Friends
- Drop the Hammer on DeLay
- The Daily DeLay
The WaPo story linked to above is very long. I’ve excerpted quite a bit of it, but much of the story, you’ll have to get from reading the whole thing. From that lengthy WaPo story on another Abramoff investigation (they start out by referencing Goodfellas…great movie, BTW):
The dead man was Konstantinos “Gus” Boulis, a volatile 51-year-old self-made millionaire, a Greek immigrant who had started as a dishwasher in Canada and ended up in Florida, where he built an empire of restaurants, hotels and cruise ships used for offshore casino gambling. Boulis’s slaying, still unsolved four years later, reverberated all the way to Washington. Months earlier he had sold his fleet of casino ships to a partnership that included Republican superlobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Abramoff is best known as a target of a federal investigation in Washington into the tens of millions in fees he and a partner collected from casino-owning Indian tribes. But the wreckage from his brief and tumultuous time as owner of the gambling fleet threatens to overtake his Washington legal troubles.
Not long after Abramoff and his partners bought SunCruz Casinos in September 2000, the venture ran aground after a fistfight between two of the owners, allegations of mob influence, dueling lawsuits and, finally, Boulis’s death on Feb. 6, 2001. Now, Abramoff is the target of a federal investigation into whether the casino ship deal involved bank fraud. According to court records, the SunCruz purchase hinged on a fake wire transfer for $23 million intended to persuade lenders to provide financing to Abramoff’s group.
Although the outlines of the tale have become part of South Florida lore, what has not been disclosed are the full details of the alleged fraud at the heart of the transaction and the extent of Abramoff’s role — including his use of contacts with Republican Reps. Tom DeLay (Tex.) and Robert W. Ney (Ohio) and members of their staffs as he worked to land the deal.
WHOA. Oh, and Bob Ney better start feeling the heat for his involvement.
[…] In 1999, federal prosecutors charged Boulis with violating the Shipping Act by purchasing his vessels without being a U.S. citizen. Boulis agreed to pay a $1 million fine and sell his cruise line. The government gave him 36 months to do it and agreed to keep the settlement secret so Boulis would not lose money in a fire sale.
To sell his business, Boulis turned to his lawyers in the D.C. office of Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds LLP. Art Dimopoulos, a maritime lawyer, looked for buyers. Jack Abramoff, one of Dimopoulos’s partners at Preston Gates, said he could find one.
[…]
He had built a lucrative practice by showing then-Democrat-dominated K Street and its corporate clients how to make friends in the new Republican Congress. He was especially close to Tom DeLay, then House majority whip. Abramoff had also convinced casino-rich Indian tribes that they should begin switching their copious campaign contributions to the GOP.
The buyer Abramoff found for Boulis was Adam Kidan, a 36-year-old New York City businessman who had owned the Dial-a-Mattress franchise in Washington. Abramoff had known Kidan since the 1980s when Abramoff was at Georgetown Law Center and Kidan was an undergraduate at George Washington University. Both were active in the national office of the College Republicans.
Abramoff and Kidan were already in business with a third partner, former Reagan White House aide Ben Waldman, who also had been a College Republican. The three men had gotten together in a fledgling venture that sought to sell advertising on water taxis that would travel the Potomac River.
Bold is my doing, because I wanted to highlight all of the players.
[…] Suddenly, Boulis was being denounced in Congress.
Michael Scanlon, a former DeLay spokesman Abramoff had just hired at Preston Gates, asked Ohio congressman Bob Ney to insert remarks into the Congressional Record that would put pressure on Boulis.
“Mr. Speaker, how SunCruz Casinos and Gus Boulis conduct themselves with regard to Florida laws is very unnerving,” Ney said in the March 30 Congressional Record. “I don’t want to see the actions of one bad apple in Florida, or anywhere else . . . affect the business aspect of this industry or hurt any innocent casino patron in our country.”
Ney said later he was “furious” at Scanlon for not fully informing him about SunCruz. Scanlon, for his part, said he had been given bad information about SunCruz and regretted his request to Ney.
As the SunCruz negotiations warmed up again that spring, Boulis found out that Abramoff and Kidan had another friend on Capitol Hill.
On June 9, DeLay’s office sent Boulis a flag that had flown over the U.S. Capitol, according to records kept by the architect of the Capitol’s office. The gift from DeLay’s office was issued six days fter DeLay and his deputy chief of staff, Tony Rudy, returned from a golf trip to Scotland with Abramoff.
DeLay spokesman Dan Allen said the congressman did not remember Boulis. A DeLay aide said the office handles many requests for flags.
Oh, but there’s more!
On the plus side for the would-be borrowers were Abramoff’s glowing press clippings, including a July 3 story on the front page of the Wall Street Journal that described the millions he was bringing in to his lobbying firm. The article, which Kidan faxed to lenders, called Abramoff Washington’s “GOP stalwart” because of his pull with Republican leaders such as DeLay, who praised Abramoff for getting Indians to donate to Republicans.
Abramoff provided Foothill Capital a financial statement stating his net worth as $13 million. He valued his lobbying practice at $7.5 million and family business interests at nearly $3 million, including a $1.4 million investment with his father in a company that owns parking lots in Atlantic City. The lobbyist also sent Foothill Capital a list of loan references that included Rudy and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.).
“I don’t remember it, but I would certainly have been happy to give him a good recommendation,” Rohrabacher said. “He’s a very honest man.”
Abramoff…honest?!
Would someone so honest be involved with these guys in this scheme?
In early November 2000, Abramoff flew to Miami to meet with Boulis and Kidan “to try to mediate their differences for the good of the business,” Abramoff’s attorney said later. “Abramoff met alone with Boulis and his representatives. Boulis recounted Kidan’s bad acts and at one point stated ‘Kidan stole my company.’ ” Abramoff said later in court documents he learned for the first time at this meeting with Boulis that Kidan had not given Boulis the $23 million. “Abramoff was flabbergasted by this news,” his attorney wrote. “He could not believe that it could be true, given Kidan’s representations to Abramoff.”
But Abramoff, along with Kidan, had signed sworn documents faxed to the closing in which he and Kidan attested that they had paid Boulis the $23 million. And in e-mails exchanged with Kidan and Wagner, Abramoff continued to support Kidan.
By late November, threats were flying. Boulis’s allies began to stir trouble, including a business associate who accused Kidan of having mafia connections at a community meeting in Mayport, Fla., where SunCruz docked one of its gambling boats. Kidan threatened to sue.
The conflict exploded on Dec. 5. Joan Wagner, Boulis’s chief financial officer, had called a meeting of the SunCruz principals except for Abramoff, who was traveling abroad. They met at the company’s offices in Dania Beach, Fla., to try to resolve the increasing acrimony. What happened there is in dispute.
Kidan later filed a police report stating that Boulis assaulted him with a pen, drawing blood. He claimed in court papers that Boulis “attacked [Kidan] in the face and neck and kicked his body,” before being pulled off by a SunCruz employee.
Police said that at least one other witness stated that Kidan provoked Boulis by calling Wagner names and making threats. According to this account, Boulis told Kidan to stop, but Kidan instead repeated an insult. Boulis then punched Kidan.
This really is like some mafia movie. I’m wondering who will write a book and sell the movie rights to a News Corp. subsidiary?
You’ll have to read the whole thing for more details on exactly what the scheme was and the fallout was, because it’s a very involved detail of the whole situation, but there are other juicy nuggets…
On Jan. 19, 2001, Boulis went to court, seeking an injunction to prevent Kidan from operating the boats and to force him to make his payments to Boulis.
The next day, Kidan and Scanlon were guests at a reception in DeLay’s Capitol Hill office celebrating the inauguration of George W. Bush, according to two people who were at the reception.
A week later, Abramoff and his partners leased a corporate jet to ferry congressional staffers down to Tampa for the Super Bowl game and a night of gambling aboard a SunCruz ship. Among those aboard were DeLay aide Tim Berry, who is now DeLay’s chief of staff, and two staffers to Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.). DeLay’s former deputy chief of staff, Tony Rudy, by then a newly minted lobbyist working for Abramoff, was there, too.
Berry failed to report the trip on his disclosure forms. A DeLay spokesman said Berry had no idea SunCruz paid for the trip. He thought it was a Republican fundraising trip allowable under House rules.
I hope those MT Dems are going to kick Burns’ ass in 2006.
After Boulis’s slaying, Kidan and Abramoff conducted business as usual at SunCruz. They asked Foothill Capital for another loan to clear up their debts. They stepped up plans to expand casino operations to the Northern Mariana Islands, where the government had been a client of Abramoff’s. They also hired Greenberg Traurig as their lobbyists in Washington.
In March 2001, SunCruz executives, including Abramoff and Kidan, attended a fundraiser in Abramoff’s box at MCI Center for Ney. The next month Kidan hosted a fundraiser in his apartment in Fort Lauderdale for his local congressman, Rep. Peter Deutsch (D-Fla.).
But the relationship between DeLay and Abramoff changed. DeLay told a group of conservatives last month “that he had no idea that Abramoff was involved in this and was absolutely shocked when he found out about it,” said Paul M. Weyrich, a conservative activist and longtime friend of DeLay’s. “Immediately he had Abramoff called in and told him, ‘I want no more dealings with you,’ and I think he felt blind-sided by Abramoff, that Abramoff was aware of Tom’s views on the subject and never bothered to tell him” about his stake in SunCruz.
DeLay, whose campaign committee had been one of the largest recipients of gambling money, has since stopped accepting contributions from Indian tribes that operate casinos.
Deutsch better have a good explanation.
Whether or not DeLay knew of the SunCruz scheme isn’t as relevant as that their relationship carried on for awhile
By [2002], Abramoff had already embarked on another enterprise — one that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) would later brand a “truly extraordinary” example of “exploitation and deceit.” During a three-year period, Abramoff and Scanlon took in $82 million in lobbying and public relations fees from six Indian tribes.
“We need that moolah,” Abramoff e-mailed Scanlon on Jan. 16, 2002. “We have to hit $50M this year (our cut!).”
About Indian tribes…time for a trip back in time…
Indian tribes liked donating to TRMPAC in TX.
Salon 2004 article
When a Westar executive asked in an internal e-mail about the $25,000 donation to DeLay’s Texas PAC, a colleague told him it was to “get a seat at the table” in Washington and ensure that a deregulation provision was inserted in a key piece of legislation. Even the Mississippi Choctaw Indian tribe kicked in $6,000. The tribe does no business in Texas, but its Washington lobbyist was none other than the ubiquitous Jack Abramoff.
DeLay had a cozy relationship with Abramoff. That much is certain.
On March 3, Laylan Copelin, an Austin American-Statesman reporter, found another discrepancy certain to catch the attention of the district attorney: “The Republican Majority committee has said it didn’t report the $600,000 to state election authorities because it was spent on the committee’s administrative expenses … Yet the committee’s 2002 tax return lists $1.6 million — instead of the $900,000 — as ‘activities related to support for state Legislature and statewide offices in the state of Texas.'” The numbers don’t add up and lawyers and accountants for DeLay’s Texas PAC are going to have a hard time coming up with proof they had enough legal (hard dollars raised from individuals) money to cover all they spent on the 2002 Texas election.
All of this makes the notorious Sharpstown scandal look like a parochial pissing match in the political backwater Texas of 30 years ago. Tom DeLay is the majority leader of the U.S. House. He achieved that position by using his federal PAC to elect Republican representatives indebted to him because he provided the money that put them in office.
One of the reasons why Democrats can go so hard after DeLay is that DeLay can’t spin his way out of it. The numbers don’t add up, and the documents that are being compiled are not kind to his defense. He’s even called Jack Abramoff “one of his closest and dearest friends.” (link)
This isn’t just screwing up accidentally on the paperwork. Abramoff’s tentacles are everywhere, and it’s one confusing mess. The stuff about the SunCruz deal is newer to the mainstream than the TRMPAC and Indian Casino stuff, but it’s also seedier.
In addition, there are some other high profile Republicans who got in bed with Abramoff (figuratively speaking). In addition to Ney, you’ve got Rep. Richard Pombo, Senator Cornyn, Senator Vitter, Grover Norquist, Ralph Reed, Senator Burns, Rep. J.D. Hayworth, and Rep. John Doolittle.
That Jack Abramoff is a piece of work:
Abramoff Breaks Silence About Investigations
Abramoff is being investigated in connection with allegations of kickbacks and influence peddling by the Interior and Justice departments and by two Senate committees.
In another article, published in today’s New York Times Magazine, Abramoff called himself “an aggressive advocate for people who engaged me,” and said, “I did this within a philosophical framework, and a moral and legal framework. And I have been turned into a cartoon of the greatest villain in the history of lobbying.”
The Times article goes on to characterize Abramoff’s life as “in shambles.” A Washington delicatessen he opened in 2002 has closed. A private religious school he founded in 2001 in Columbia also has closed, and some of its teachers are suing him for unpaid wages. He also is being sued by a Louisiana tribe he represented, which seeks the return of $32 million it paid Abramoff and a business partner, public relations consultant Michael Scanlon.
DeLay was the one topic Abramoff would not talk about in any detail. Asked by the Times about his relationship with the man who once referred to Abramoff as “one of my closest and dearest friends,” Abramoff answered by talking in general terms about the life of a Washington lobbyist. “There are probably two dozen events and fund-raisers every night,” he said. “Lobbyists go on trips with members of Congress, socialize with members of Congress — all with the purpose of increasing one’s access to the decision makers.
Now, I don’t know what the writers and editors at NYTimes were smoking, but I’m not crying for this guy. Life in shambles? The tens of millions of dollars should soothe his nonexistant soul. I don’t really have much sympathy for bigots either.
In the messages, [Abramoff] referred to his Indian clients as monkeys, troglodytes, morons and the “stupidest idiots in the land.” Abramoff and an associate made $66 million off of six tribes. He’s accused of defrauding those tribal clients. That associate (Scanlon, a Ney aide) is a former DeLay aide.
Every single Republican who is defending DeLay in anyway (whether it’s through voting a certain way or through public statements) better pay for their association with these crooks in some way.
As for Michael Scanlon, link
DeLay was asked about two of his close associates billing Indian tribes a staggering $45 million in lobbying and consulting fees. DeLay said Jack Abramoff had never been on his staff. And he warned: “Anybody trading on my name to get clients or to make money, that is wrong and they [should] stop it immediately.” The warning was a little late. Mike Scanlon, the 33-year-old former press aide who helped coordinate DeLay’s impeachment of President Clinton in 1998, had pocketed a $30 million cut of the fees paid by the Indian tribes.
I don’t have to explain the hypocrisy here.
Cross posted: Bombshell: Yet Another Abramoff Investigation.
