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Gold9472
08-11-2005, 09:00 PM
Washington Lobbyist Abramoff Charged

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050811/ap_on_re_us/lobbyist_fraud

By CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 10 minutes ago

MIAMI - Lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a key figure in investigations involving House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury on fraud charges arising from a 2000 deal to buy casino boats.

The indictment, returned by a grand jury in Fort Lauderdale, charges that Abramoff and an associate, 36-year-old New York businessman Adam Kidan, used a fake wire transfer to defraud two lenders out of some $60 million to finance the deal for SunCruz Casinos.

Abramoff and Kidan are charged with five counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud. Each count carries a penalty of up to 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Abramoff was negotiating his surrender Thursday with the FBI in Los Angeles, bureau spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said. Kidan's attorney in Florida, Martin Jaffe, said his client would surrender to authorities in Fort Lauderdale on Friday.

Abramoff's Miami attorney, Neal Sonnett, said he had not been informed of any charges but said that Abramoff, 40, did not commit fraud. Abramoff had previously been notified that he was a target of the investigation.

"We were hopeful we'd be able to convince the prosecutor not to file charges because he was not involved in fraud involving SunCruz," Sonnett said.

"I did nothing wrong and these allegations are totally unfounded," Kidan said in a statement.

The partners bought SunCruz, which runs a fleet of gambling boats, from entrepreneur Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis for $147 million in 2000, but the deal soon fell apart. Amid bitter legal fighting over the sale, Boulis was shot to death five months later in 2001 what police called a hit. The Fort Lauderdale killing has never been solved.

The indictment against Abramoff charges that he used income from SunCruz to finance political fund-raising activities, including events at private boxes at Washington-area sports venues such as the MCI Center and Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

The two lenders who were allegedly defrauded in the SunCruz deal were Foothill Capital Inc., a subsidiary of Wells Fargo, and Citadel Equity Fund Ltd., based in the Cayman Islands, according to court documents in a civil lawsuit.

Abramoff is also under federal investigation in Washington by a grand jury investigating whether he and a lobbying partner overcharged Indian tribes by millions of dollars for their work.

DeLay, R-Texas, was not mentioned in any lawsuits involved in the SunCruz deal.

DeLay has asked the House Ethics Committee to review allegations that Abramoff or his clients paid some of DeLay's overseas travel expenses. DeLay has denied knowing that the expenses were paid by Abramoff, whom he once described as "one of my closest and dearest friends."

Abramoff collected more than $100,000 for President Bush's 2004 re-election campaign and raised thousands of dollars for DeLay and other Republican members of Congress. He also was friends with former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed, now a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor in Georgia.

The SunCruz fleet of 11 ships had 2,300 slot machines and 175 gaming tables and sailed from nine Florida ports and Myrtle Beach, S.C., to international waters. The company continues to operate gambling cruises under new ownership after emerging from bankruptcy.

Boulis also founded the Miami Subs restaurant chain.

ehnyah
08-12-2005, 08:26 AM
trivia question:

What was the name of the guy that did not cooperate in this scheme and was "coinkydinky" gangland style murdered?

follow up:

http://citizensforethics.org/press/newsrelease.php?view=72

JACK ABRAMOFF INDICTED FOR BANK FRAUD IN CONNECTION WITH PURCHASE OF SUNCRUZ GAMBLING SHIPS
REP. BOB NEY DIRECTLY ASSISTED INDICTED LOBBYIST WITH PURCHASE - RECEIVED DONATIONS FROM ABRAMOFF AND KIDAN SHORTLY THEREAFTER

STAFFERS FOR REP. DELAY AND SEN. BURNS TOOK JUNKET ON SUNCRUZ

Washington, DC ? Earlier today, lobbyist Jack Abramoff was indicted for bank fraud in connection with his 2000 purchase of the SunCruz gambling ships from Greek millionaire Gus Boulis. To finance the purchase, Abramoff and his partner Adam Kidan were required by Foothill Capitol to put up $23 million in cash to secure the loan. Abramoff and Kidan signed sworn documents, provided to Foothill Capitol at closing, attesting that they had paid Boulis the $23 million. In fact, Abramoff and Kidan never paid Boulis and by October 2000, Boulis was threatening to sue. In January 2001, Boulis did file suit, but in February 2001, he was murdered in an unsolved gang-land style homicide.

Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) also played a role in the deal. On March 30, 2000, Ney inserted a statement into the Congressional Record, criticizing Boulis and his management of SunCruz. On June 30, 2000, Kidan, Abramoff, Abramoff?s wife and Michael Scanlon, a former DeLay aide, each made $1,000 contributions to Ney?s re-election campaign. On October 26, 2000, Ney again inserted remarks about SunCruz into the Congressional record. This time he praised the leadership of the new owners claiming that Kidan had a ?renown reputation for honesty and integrity.? In fact, Kidan had been disbarred in New York after misappropriating money in a business deal and he had ties to organized crime figures.

In addition, shortly after Kidan and Abramoff purchased the ships, Abramoff leased a corporate jet to ferry congressional staffers down to Tampa for the Superbowl and to gamble aboard a SunCruz ship. Among those on the trip were Tim Berry, then Rep. Tom DeLay?s chief of staff, DeLay?s former deputy chief of staff, Tony Rudy, and two staffers for Senator Conrad Burns.

Melanie Sloan, Executive Director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington stated, ?An indictment is just the first step in the ever-evolving scandal involving Abramoff and the GOP Leadership. Now, Rep. Ney has some explaining to do. Given that Rep. Ney knew enough about SunCruz, Adam Kidan and Gus Boulis to insert comments about them in the Congressional Record, the House ethics committee should find out what else Rep. Ney knew about Abramoff?s illegal activities.?

CREW has details on Members of Congress dealings with Abramoff on www.jackinthehouse.org.

***
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a non-profit, progressive legal watchdog group dedicated to holding public officials accountable for their actions. CREW drafted the complaint against Tom DeLay, filed by former Congressman Chris Bell, for which DeLay was admonished last year.

For more information, please visit www.citizensforethics.org or contact Naomi Seligman at 202.588.5565/press@citizensforethics.org.

ehnyah
08-12-2005, 09:15 AM
http://drivedemocracy.org/blog/index.php?p=368

8/11/2005

The Dam is Breaking
Filed under:
DeLay Scandals
? Nathan @ 2:55 pm

DeLay crony and GOP mega-lobbyist Abramoff has been indicted in Miami.

FBI agents were seeking to arrest a once-powerful Washington, D.C., lobbyist on Thursday after a Fort Lauderdale federal grand jury charged him and a New York businessman with scheming to defraud two lenders in a $147.5 million purchase of SunCruz Casinos.

Agents were to take Republican insider Jack Abramoff into custody on Thursday afternoon in the Baltimore area. His partner in the controversial 2000 SunCruz acquisition, Adam Kidan, was expected to surrender to authorities, according to sources familiar with the probe.

The South Florida indictment charging the duo with defrauding $60 million from two lenders that financed the sale instantly rocked the nation?s corridors of power. Indeed, rumors of their imminent arrests circulated during the past week.

There?s more to this story than just fraud. In fact it?s been compared to a bad Sopranos episode. Here?s how the Washington Post told the story:

It was a gangland-style hit straight out of ?Goodfellas.?

A man in a BMW was driving down a quiet side street after an evening meeting at his Fort Lauderdale office when a car slowed to a stop in front of him. A second car boxed the BMW in from behind, then a dark Mustang appeared from the opposite direction. The Mustang?s driver pulled alongside and pumped three hollow-point bullets into the BMW driver?s chest.

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.

Sleazy sleazy sleazy. This scandal has already spilled over onto a GOP Senator. And Abramoff was a long time DeLay associate. Will he rat out the Hammer? Only time will tell

More:Thanks to Plutonium Page on Kos, I caught this tidbit: DeLay in trouble with the FEC again.