Saturday, September 06, 2008

Abramoff Sentenced today....4 years ( he got lucky) and he will probally be one of the first to get pardoned by Bush....

just one more criminal and corruption era thug meets his fate...When Will Tom Delay go to jail for his Money Laundering problem...Do read above his people are connected to Palin...( Veco, Teddy Stevens etc etc.) ( originally posted 9.04.08)

13 comments:

Unknown said...

Shit, that's all? Damn.

Enigma4ever said...

In a funny way- it is a good sign...means he spilled the beans on ALOT of people...stuff....time will tell if he did...

Unknown said...

I like the way you think!

enigma4ever said...

1995 -2000
Abramoff ran a small ( cough) Law Firm that handled Many things....Native American Land Deals, Water Bonds...and yes, even the funds for MrBush;s 2000 Campaingn....

Preston Gates and Elllis was the name of the firm....
and his special assistant was Susan Ralston....who later was Rove's Special Assistant....

ahem...the people who worked toghether in Seattle...well....they know things....

Abramoff went on to help organize campaign events and parties for Bush and his cronies..and limos were ordered and hookers supplied....( cue Dale Guckhart...aka as Jeff Gannon...)

All the Other Abramoff associates have already gone off to jail...( oh do read the Palin story below)....

Mr Abramoff made over 200 visits to the WH the first 4 years...and nobody could find the records...hmmm.....oh well....

enigma4ever said...

more:::Jack Abramoff (born February 28, 1959) is a former lobbyist,[1] and a businessman who was a central figure in a series of high-profile political scandals. He is serving time at a minimum security federal prison in Maryland.
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.[2] The following day he pled guilty to two criminal felony counts in a separate federal court, in Miami, related to his fraudulent dealings with SunCruz Casinos.[3] On September 4, 2008, a Washington court found Abramoff guilty of trading expensive gifts, meals and sports trips in exchange for political favors and he was sentenced to a four year term in prison which will be served concurrently with his previous sentences.[4][5]
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.
Abramoff was a top lobbyist for the Preston Gates & Ellis and Greenberg Traurig firms and a director of the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank, and Toward Tradition. He was College Republican National Committee National Chairman from 1981 to 1985. He was a founding member of the International Freedom Foundation.

enigma4ever said...

more:
Abramoff spent 10 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.[14][15] In the early '90s Abramoff helped try to raise funds for a remake of the unreleased Jerry Lewis film The Day the Clown Cried, about a circus clown at Auschwitz.[16]
On April 27, 1998, Abramoff wrote a letter to the editor of The Seattle Times rebutting an article critical of him. 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.[17] Lapin later claimed that he did not recall the introduction.
[edit]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, Washington. 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 Gates to access a higher pedigree of clientele.[18]
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.[19] DeLay has called Abramoff "one of his closest and dearest friends".

Unknown said...

Great stuff... thanks.

ANd here's a fun fact: If you do a google search for his image, my wonderful photoshop job comes up within the first couple of rows.. just google "abramoff" mine's the one w/the yellow bg and the talk bubble. LOL!

I just forgot a lot about his scandal. I should go revisit my own damn posts!

enigma4ever said...

Lawmakers, lobbyists, Bush administration officials, congressional staffers and businessmen caught up in the Jack Abramoff public corruption probe:[51]
Adam Kidan (former Abramoff business partner), was 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.
Bob Ney, (former Rep.) 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 Safavian.
David Safavian, (former White House official), 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.
Italia Federici, co-founder of the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, pled guilty to tax evasion and obstruction of a Senate investigation into Abramoff's relationship with officials at the Department of Interior.
Mark Zachares, former aide to Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, pled 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.
Michael Scanlon, a former Abramoff business partner and DeLay aide, pled 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.
Neil Volz, a former chief of staff to Ney who left government to work for Abramoff, pled guilty in May 2006 to conspiring to corrupt Ney and others with trips and other aid.
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.
Steven Griles, (former Deputy Interior Secretary) the highest-ranking Bush administration official convicted in the scandal, pled guilty to obstruction of 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.
Tony Rudy, lobbyist and one-time aide to DeLay, pled guilty in March 2006 to conspiring with Abramoff. He is cooperating with investigators.
William Heaton, former chief of staff for Ney, pled 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.

enigma4ever said...

MORE:::
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. 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.
[edit]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 seven were tribes.
[edit]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.[28] 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."[29]
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".[29]

Unknown said...

WOW!! Thanks!!

enigma4ever said...

Jack Abramoff was a member of the Bush Administration's 2001 Transition Advisory Team assigned to the Department of the Interior.[35] 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.[36]
In the first 10 months of 2001, the Abramoff lobbying team logged almost 200 contacts with the Bush Administration.[35] 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.[6]
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).[37] This may have assisted him in lobbying for textile interests in the islands. U.S. Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) and DeLay also heavily lobbied the CNMI for opposing the minimum wage.[38][39]
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.[40] Bongo did meet with President Bush in the Oval Office on May 26, 2004.[40] 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.[40]
White House and State Department officials described Bush's meeting with Bongo, whose government is regularly accused by the United States of human rights abuses, as routine.[40] The officials said they knew of no involvement by Abramoff in the arrangements. Officials at Gabon's embassy in Washington did not respond to written questions.[40]
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 Abramoff and Reed.[6][41]
According to former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Abramoff was paid $1.2 million to arrange a meeting between Mahathir and Bush, allegedly at the direction of the Heritage Foundation. Mahathir insisted that someone unknown to him had paid for the meeting.[42]
On May 9, 2001, Chief Raul Garza of the Kickapoo tribe of Texas met with Bush, with Abramoff and Norquist in attendance. Abramoff was identified in the background of a photo taken at the meeting.[43] Days before the meeting, the tribe paid $25,000 to 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 Bush sponsored by ATR. On the same day, the chief of the Louisiana Coushattas also attended an ATR-sponsored gathering with 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.[44]
Other photos have surfaced of Abramoff and 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.[45] The owner of the site gave thousands of dollars to the Bush campaign and Republican National Committee, according to public FEC contribution records.[46]
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".[47]
[edit]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, 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."[48] 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, and before Congress authorized Bush the authority to invade Iraq with the Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq.
[edit]Signatures, skyboxes, and Scotland



Signatures restaurant, in the Penn Quarter neighborhood of Washington, D.C., once owned by Jack Abramoff, is under new ownership and will be renamed.
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.[49]
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.[50]
[edit]Overview of criminal and political investigations

[edit]People convicted in Abramoff probe (as of June 9, 2007)
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. For the mail fraud, conspiracy and tax evasion charges stemming from the influence-peddling scandal in Washington, Abramoff was sentenced to 4 years in federal prison on September 4, 2008 by U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle. He had faced up to 11 years in prison.
Abramoff is cooperating in a bribery investigation involving lawmakers, their aides and members of the Bush administration.

Lawmakers, lobbyists, Bush administration officials, congressional staffers and businessmen caught up in the Jack Abramoff public corruption probe:[51]
Adam Kidan (former Abramoff business partner), was 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.
Bob Ney, (former Rep.) 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 Safavian.
David Safavian, (former White House official), 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.
Italia Federici, co-founder of the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, pled guilty to tax evasion and obstruction of a Senate investigation into Abramoff's relationship with officials at the Department of Interior.
Mark Zachares, former aide to Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, pled 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.
Michael Scanlon, a former Abramoff business partner and DeLay aide, pled 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.
Neil Volz, a former chief of staff to Ney who left government to work for Abramoff, pled guilty in May 2006 to conspiring to corrupt Ney and others with trips and other aid.
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.
Steven Griles, (former Deputy Interior Secretary) the highest-ranking Bush administration official convicted in the scandal, pled guilty to obstruction of 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.
Tony Rudy, lobbyist and one-time aide to DeLay, pled guilty in March 2006 to conspiring with Abramoff. He is cooperating with investigators.
William Heaton, former chief of staff for Ney, pled 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.
[edit]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 bilk 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 pled 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 Ney.[52] 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.[53]
Later in 2006 Abramoff lobbyists Neil Volz and Tony Rudy pled guilty to conspiracy charges; in September 2006 Ney himself pled guilty to conspiracy and making false statements.
[edit]SunCruz Casinos fraud conviction
Main article: SunCruz Casinos
On August 11, 2005, Abramoff and 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.[54] 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. 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 Mafia-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 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."[55] 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.[56]
[edit]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 November 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 November 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.
In 2006 California attorney and Marshall Island lobbyist Howard Hills, who worked with Abramoff, and Tony Sanchez, a former administrator of the Guam Superior Court were indicted for unlawful influence, conspiracy for unlawful influence, theft of property held in trust, and official misconduct for allegedly authorizing thirty-six payments of $9,000 each written out to Hills, but funneled to Abramoff. In 2007 superseding indictments were issued against Hills and Sanchez, and in 2008 further related indictments were handed down against Abramoff and Abramoff's firm at the time, Greenberg Taurig. The charges against the Abramoff firm have since been dismissed.
[edit]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.
[edit]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, Ney, Reed, and 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.[57][58]
[edit]GrassRoots Interactive and Kay Gold
Main article: GrassRoots Interactive
GrassRoots Interactive, now defunct, was a small Silver Spring, Maryland, lobbying firm controlled by 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.[59]
[edit]See also

Category:Jack Abramoff scandals
Jack Abramoff timeline
List of trips funded by Jack Abramoff
Norman Hsu
[edit]Footnotes

Some of this article was originally derived from material at SourceWatch ([3]), available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
[edit]Cited notes and references
^ House Sets Limits on Palestinian Aid As DeLay Defies Calls of Bush, Rice, Ori Nir, The Forward. March 18, 2005
^ Abramoff Pleads Guilty, Will Help in Corruption Probe, Bloomberg News Service, January 3, 2006.
^ "Abramoff Pleads Guilty, Will Help in Corruption Probe", CBS News, January 4, 2006.
^ "US lobbyist jailed for corruption", BBC News, September 4, 2008.
^ Del Quentin Wilber; Carrie Johnson (2008-09-04). "Abramoff Sentenced to 4 Years in Prison for Corruption", The Washington Post. Retrieved on 2008-09-04.
^ a b c Schmidt, Susan and Grimaldi, James V. (2005-12-29). "The Fast Rise and Steep Fall of Jack Abramoff", Washington Post, p. A01. Retrieved on 2006-08-17.
^ Via Associated Press. "As Congress sweats, Abramoff will tell all: The lobbyist's plea paves the way for him to name names in a scandal that may snare several lawmakers.", St. Petersburg Times, January 4, 2006. Accessed December 2, 2007. "Education: Beverly Hills High School, Brandeis graduate, Georgetown University law degree."
^ Morris, Rachel (April 2006). "Bad for the Jews, Worse for the Christians", Washington Monthly. Retrieved on 2007-06-28.
^ [1]
^ Chait, Jonathan (December 18, 2005). "Big on money, short on memory (commentary)", Los Angeles Times.
^ "Part III: DeLay's Godfather", AlterNet (May 14, 2002).
^ Kurtz, Howard and Babcock, Charles R. (October 4, 1984). "Two 'Nonpolitical' Foundations Push Grenada Rallies", The Washington Post.
^ "Appointment of Eight Members of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, and Designation of the Chairperson, Vice Chairperson, and Executive Director". Ronald Reagan Presidential Library (May 3, 1986). Retrieved on May 31, 2006.
^ Carlson, Peter (November 30, 2005). "Bitten by the Red Scorpion", The Standard (Hong Kong).
^ "Council for National Policy (CNP) -A- Member Biographies". Retrieved on May 27, 2006.
^ "The Clown, Still Crying," Looker, June 6, 2006
^ Anderson, Rick (May 11, 2005). "Meet the Lapin Brothers", Seattle Weekly.
^ Postman, David and Bernton, Hal (2006-02-07). "How scheming lobbyist operated in Seattle firm", The Seattle Times. Retrieved on 2006-08-17.
^ Bresnahan, John (November/December 2002). "Jack Doubles Down", Government, Inc., Washington Business Forward. Retrieved on 2006-08-15.
^ "Travel Record from House Committee on Resources", Talking Points Memo.
^ Paul Kiel (September 25, 2006). "For Abramoff, Lawmaker Slandered Teen Sex Slave", TPM Muckraker.
^ Marshall, John (2006-02-24). "$3,617,238.". Talking Points Memo. Retrieved on 2006-08-17.
^ R. Jeffrey Smith, James V. Grimaldi (staff writers) (April 6, 2005). "A 3rd DeLay Trip Under Scrutiny", The Washington Post.
^ Michael Crowley (June 23, 2005). "You've Got Mail - A Tour of Jack Abramoff's Email Account.", The New Republic.
^ "Elottery, Inc.". SourceWatch. Retrieved on May 31, 2006.
^ "Century Strategies". SourceWatch. Retrieved on May 31, 2006.
^ Schmidt, Susan and Grimaldi, James V. (October 16 2005). "How a Lobbyist Stacked the Deck", Washington Post, pp. 3.
^ Lichtblau, Eric (2005-09-24). "Democrats Press Justice Dept. Nominee Anew", New York Times, p. A16. Retrieved on 2006-08-17. (preview only)
^ a b Smith, R. Jeffrey (2005-09-23). "Tyco Exec: Abramoff Claimed Ties to Administration", Washington Post, p. A06. Retrieved on 2006-08-17.
^ Edsall, Thomas B. (April 17, 2005). "Think Tank's Ideas Shifted as Malaysia Ties Grew", The Washington Post.
^ Hamburger, Tom and Silverstein, Ken (2006-04-06). "Abramoff Offered to Aid Sudan, Envoy Says", Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on 2006-08-17.
^ Teinowitz, Ira (2006-01-10). "Primedia Employed Lobbyist Abramoff for Channel One". Commercial Alert. Retrieved on 2006-08-17.
^ "Lawmaker's Abramoff Ties Investigated", Washington Post (2005-10-18), p. A01. Retrieved on 2006-08-17.
^ "Ex-DeLay Aide In Corruption Plea". The Smoking Gun (2005-11-21). Retrieved on 2006-08-17.
^ a b "Controversial lobbyist had close contact with Bush team", Associated Press (2005-05-06). Retrieved on 2006-08-17.
^ [2][dead link]
^ "Northern Mariana Islands". The World Factbook (2006-08-08). Retrieved on 2006-08-17.
^ Ross, Brian (2005-04-06). "DeLay's Lavish Island Getaway", ABC News. Retrieved on 2006-08-17.
^ "Abramoff: The House That Jack Built". Think Progress. Retrieved on 2006-08-17.
^ a b c d e Shenon, Philip (2005-11-10). "Lobbyist Sought $9 Million to Set Bush Meeting", New York Times. Retrieved on 2006-08-17.
^ Dickinson, Tom (2006-01-09). "Connecting the Dots: Abramoff and Rove", Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 2006-08-17.
^ "Fmr Malaysian PM: Abramoff Was Paid to Arrange Bush Meeting", Associated Press (2006-02-21). Retrieved on 2006-08-17.
^ Philip Shenon and Lowell Bergman (February 2, 2006). "Photograph Shows Lobbyist at Bush Meeting With Legislators", New York Times.
^ Philip Shenon (March 10, 2006). "$25,000 to Lobby Group Is Tied to Access to Bush", New York Times.
^ "Wind-Breaking News!". Thedoubles.com. Retrieved on 2006-08-17.
^ "Photograph Company President that "scrubbed" Abramoff photo with Bush gave to Bush". The Daily Delay (2006-01-26). Retrieved on 2006-08-17.
^ NPR: Lobbyist Abramoff Says GOP Elite Know Him Well
^ "Lobbyists: Sports Tickets and Springsteen—The E-Mail Trail"
^ Bookman, Jay (2005-06-28). "The lies of lobbygate", Rutland Herald. Retrieved on 2006-08-17.
^ Schmidt, Susan and Grimaldi, James V. (2005-11-26). "Lawmakers Under Scrutiny in Probe of Lobbyist", Washington Post, p. A01. Retrieved on 2006-08-17.
^ "Abramoff related convictions" (2006-06-09). Retrieved on 2006-06-09.
^ Torry, Jack and Riskind, Jonathan (2006-01-04). "Lobbyist admits he gave Ney bribes", The Columbus Dispatch. Retrieved on 2006-08-17.
^ "Abramoff complaint" (PDF) (2006-01-03). Retrieved on 2006-08-17.
^ Staley, Krista-Ann (2005-08-19). "Abramoff will plead not guilty to fraud charges, lawyer says". JURIST. Retrieved on 2006-08-17.
^ "Abramoff gets 5 years, 10 months in fraud case" (HTML) (2006-03-29). Retrieved on 2006-09-04.
^ Jack Abramoff Reports to Md. Prison, AP
^ Hearn, Josephine (2005-06-23). "Indian Affairs panel hears 'tale of betrayal'", The Hill. Retrieved on 2006-08-17.
^ Isikoff, Michael (2006-05-02). "Fund-Raising: Take It to the (West) Bank", Newsweek. Retrieved on 2006-08-17.
^ Shenon, Philip (2005-11-10). "Lobbyist Sought $9 Million to Set Bush Meeting", New York Times. Retrieved on 2006-08-17.
[edit]Uncited references
Roche, Walter F. (August 8, 2005). "Bush removal ended Guam investigation", The Boston Globe.
Byrne, John. Abramoff, lobbyists linked to troubled multibillion-dollar Homeland Security contract, rawstory.com. Accessed February 3, 2006.
How many conservative columnists did Jack Abramoff rent for his clients?, Media Matters for America. Accessed February 3, 2006.
Kurtz, Howard and Babcock, Charles R. "Two 'Nonpolitical' Foundations Push Grenada Rallies", The Washington Post, October 4, 1984.
Taibbi, Matt, "Meet Mr. Republican: Jack Abramoff, Rolling Stone, March 24, 2006
A Jackpot From Indian Gaming Tribes, Washington Post, February 22, 2004.
Jack Abramoff at the Internet Movie Database
Abramoff's secret 20 mil
Abramoff may strike deal with prosecutors; Plea could mean lobbyist would implicate members of Congress, MSNBC, December 21, 2005
www.jackinthehouse.org
"A Lobbyist in Full" New York Times, May 1, 2005.
Transcript of PBS Now episode with snippets of Senate Indian case testimony
Abramoff's associations with various organizations
Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell's statement on Abramoff
Committee on Indian Affairs hearing transcript
A Look at Jack Abramoff's Ties to the South Pacific Island of Saipan... from Democracy Now
"Committee Asks Justice Dept. To Broaden Inquiry of Lobbyist" New York Times.
"Democrats Also Got Tribal Donations" Washington Post
"Lobbyist, rabbi talk of tricking the Cosmos"
"Abramoff in Court on Charges of Fraud", Financial Times, August 12, 2005.
Abramoff's Federal Campaign Contributions, NewsMeat.com
Statement of Sen. Byron Dorgan
Abramoff, Scanlon and the Influence of Money -- on Fresh Air/NPR with Terry Gross
Op-Eds for Sale, Business Week
Abramoff and al-Arian: Lobbyist's "Charity" a Front for Terrorism Informed Comment
The Jack Abramoff Story collected news and analysis from the Washington Post
Copy of January 4, 2006, plea agreement
Copy of January 3, 2006, plea agreement
Cleveland Plain Dealer, January 15, 2006, "What you should know about Abramoff case" Excellent, simplified, summary. Good intro to the situation.
"Roots of a lobbyist", The Boston Globe (January 15, 2006).
Indian Affairs panel hears 'tale of betrayal' The Hill
"Case Bringing New Scrutiny To a System and a Profession", Washington Post (January 4, 2006), p. A01.
'Dear Judge': Religion-tinged Letters Praise Good Deeds of Felon Lobbyist, Forward April 7, 2006


( sorry was updating wiki ;-)

enigma4ever said...

Arrests connected to Jack Abramoff: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. For the mail fraud, conspiracy and tax evasion charges stemming from the influence-peddling scandal in Washington, Abramoff was sentenced to 4 years in federal prison on September 4, 2008 by U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle. He had faced up to 11 years in prison.
Abramoff is cooperating in a bribery investigation involving lawmakers, their aides and members of the Bush administration.

Lawmakers, lobbyists, Bush administration officials, congressional staffers and businessmen caught up in the Jack Abramoff public corruption probe:[51]
Adam Kidan (former Abramoff business partner), was 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.
Bob Ney, (former Rep.) 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 Safavian.
David Safavian, (former White House official), 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.
Italia Federici, co-founder of the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, pled guilty to tax evasion and obstruction of a Senate investigation into Abramoff's relationship with officials at the Department of Interior.
Mark Zachares, former aide to Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, pled 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.
Michael Scanlon, a former Abramoff business partner and DeLay aide, pled 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.
Neil Volz, a former chief of staff to Ney who left government to work for Abramoff, pled guilty in May 2006 to conspiring to corrupt Ney and others with trips and other aid.
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.
Steven Griles, (former Deputy Interior Secretary) the highest-ranking Bush administration official convicted in the scandal, pled guilty to obstruction of 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.
Tony Rudy, lobbyist and one-time aide to DeLay, pled guilty in March 2006 to conspiring with Abramoff. He is cooperating with investigators.
William Heaton, former chief of staff for Ney, pled 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.
[edit]Indian tribes grand jury investigations

Unknown said...

HOLY CRAP!!!

sheeeesh!