Date: August 30, 2005 8:06:23 AM PDT
Subject: Abramoff
Lobbyist Abramoff Indicted On Fraud Charges
Posted by: elderban
On: Tue August, 16 2005 @ 04:12 GMT
In what could be the opening of a big can of worms for the Bush Administration, the Department of Justice has indicted Jack Abramoff, one of Washington's most influential lobbyists, and his former business partner, Adam Kidan on fraud chrages stemming from a 2000 purchase of a casino boat fleet in Florida.
original news source:
news.ft.com
Jack Abramoff, one of the most influential Washington lobbyists, with close ties to senior Republicans, yesterday appeared before a federal judge in Los Angeles charged with wire fraud and conspiracy in the purchase of a casino boat in 2000.
The formal charges cap a year in which Mr Abramoff has been forced on the defensive, as details have emerged from a year-long investigation by the Senate Indian affairs committee about the more than $60m he may have over-charged in fees to six Indian tribes, his lavish personal spending and sponsorship of luxury trips for lawmakers.
Mr Abramoff, 47, a former chairman of the College Republican Committee and a “pioneer” for President George W. Bush who helped raise $100,000 towards his re-election campaign, has denied the charges through his lawyer. He is accused with a partner, Adam Kidan, of using a fake wire transfer of $23m to try to buy a fleet of casino boats from Konstantinos “Gus” Boulis, an entrepreneur, for $147m. In 2001, Mr Boulis was shot dead as he drove home.
Please visit the link provided for the complete story.
This is going to get ugly, and may go all the way (or almost all the way) to the top.
I've dug a little deeper into this story and have found links to the Al-Qaida, the Gotti and Gambino crime families, and even to Karl Rove, Bush's right hand man.
It turns out that, according to TheRawStory.com (and a few other sources), the woman who answers the phones for Karl Rove also used to screen all the calls for Mr. Abramoff.
Additionally, according to an article that will appear in next weeks Newsweek edition, the reason they're doing this is to "pressure Abramoff to cooperate in a broader, D.C.-based probe that could touch members of Congress and Bush administration officials."
And, a key suspect in Mr. Boulis' murder (the guy that was shot to death in 2001), according to another news story, is Tony Ferrari - who has ties to convicted crime boss John Gotti. Not to mention the fact that Adam Kidan, one of the others indicted in this case, has ties to the Gambino crime family.
To top it off, according to an Associated Press story, Mohammed Atta (the pilot of the first plane to hit the WTC) and company had hopped aboard a SunCruz casino ship on September 5, 2001 - SIX DAYS before the 9/11 attacks.
