JACK ABRAMOFF SENTENCED-- ROUND ONE

Although neither Abramoff nor any of his partners have as yet been charged with the murder of Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis, he has been subpoenaed in the trial of the 3 Mafia hit men he hired. Meanwhile, today in Miami Abramoff and one of his cronies, Adam Kidan was each sentenced to between 5 and 6 years on the first batch of fraud cases against them-- this one just involving the Florida casino cruise line case. Abramoff pleaded guilty and aside from the prison time, he and Kidan have to pay over $20 million in fines and restitution. The much more serious fraud cases in DC are yet to come to trial.

Abramoff and Kidan were key figures in the creation and operation of Tom DeLay's Culture of Corruption which has completely perverted our national government. Many observers think Abramoff was given a light sentence because he is helping Federal law enforcement agents build cases against Bob Ney (R-OH), John Doolittle (R-CA), Conrad Burns (R-MT), Don Young (R-AK), Richard Pombo (R-CA), and, of course, the Republican Capo di Tutti Capi, Tom DeLay.

Other Republican lawmakers who have been involved with Abramoff's shady-- and in many cases illegal-- deals are J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ), David Vitter (R-LA), Tom Feeney (R-FL), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Eric Cantor (R-VA), Thad Cochran (R-MS), John Ensign (R-NV), Charles Grassley (R-IA), Dennis Hastert (R-IL), Ernest Istook (R-OK), Pete Sessions (R-TX), Trent Lott (R-MS) and John Cornyn (R-TX). Reads like a rogue's gallery of some of the most corrupt wheeler-dealers ever to stalk the hallways of Congress.

Abramoff has already pleaded guilty to conspiracy and fraud charges in Washington. In the infamous Vanity Fair interview, Abramoff said that he worked closely with many top Republicans and pointedly said that any who deny it, are lying-- and that he can prove it! Although Republicans and their media allies like Limbaugh and Hannity and O'Liely try to confuse the matter by claiming Abramoff gave to both political parties, this is a bold-faced lie. Not one dime that Abramoff contributed-- and there was over $100,000 worth of dimes-- went to a Democrat. Every single cent this lifelong Republican gave was to a Republican.


THURSDAY UPDATE: IT'S ABOUT TIME, MS. PELOSI!

Under attack from grassroots Democrats and other concerned citizens, the Inside-the-Beltway House Dems finally got off their duffs. Nancy Pelosi just introduced a Privileged Resolution requiring an ethics investigation of Members of Congress bribed by Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Here it is:


WHEREAS, it has been two years since credible reports of misconduct by Mr. Jack Abramoff and Members of Congress began appearing regularly in the public record, including reports closely linking Republican Members of Congress with the documented misconduct of Mr. Abramoff;

WHEREAS, in the first session of the 109th Congress, for the first time in the history of the House of Representatives, the rules of procedure of the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct were changed on a partisan basis, the Chairman of the Committee and two of his Republican Colleagues were dismissed from the Committee, the newly appointed Chairman of the Committee improperly and unilaterally fired non-partisan staff, and the Chairman attempted to appoint supervisory staff without a vote of the Committee in direct contravention of the intent of the bi-partisan procedures adopted in 1997;

WHEREAS, because of these actions, the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct conducted no investigative activities in the first session of the 109th Congress and has not yet conducted such activities;

WHEREAS, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and the Senate Committee on Finance have both undertaken investigations of Mr. Jack Abramoff's activities, yet no House Committee has begun any such investigation;

WHEREAS, on March 29th, 2006, Mr. Jack Abramoff was sentenced to five years and ten months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy and wire fraud;

WHEREAS, a Justice Department press release reported that Mr. Jack Abramoff "corruptly provid[ed] things of value to public officials … including, but not limited to, a lavish trip to Scotland to play golf on world-famous courses, tickets to sporting events and other entertainment, regular meals at Abramoff's upscale restaurant, and campaign contributions for [a] Representative, his political action committee, his campaign committee, and other political committees on behalf of [that] Representative."  (Department of Justice press release, January 3, 2006);

WHEREAS, Mr. Jack Abramoff's plea agreement states that he and his colleagues "provided things of value to public officials in exchange for a series of official acts and influence…including agreements to support and pass legislation (and) agreements to place statements in the Congressional Record."  (Abramoff Plea Agreement);

WHEREAS, on November 5, 2005, in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, a former Congressional staff member and business partner of Mr. Jack Abramoff pled guilty to conspiracy to violate federal laws and admitted that, beginning in January, 2000, he offered and provided things of value to public officials, including Members of Congress and staff, in exchange for a series of official acts;

RESOLVED, That the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct shall immediately initiate an investigation of the misconduct by Members of Congress and their staff implicated in the scandals associated with Mr. Jack Abramoff's criminal activity.

WILL ABRAMOFF ALSO GET NAILED FOR MURDER? AND IF HE DOES, WILL HE IMPLICATE DELAY AND NEY?

There are several strands of the Abramoff/DeLay/Cunningham scandals that you never hear about on TV-- and rarely if ever see in newsprint either. Two of them involve Greek-Americans nicknamed "Gus." Back last summer I did a series of articles about how Cunningham was peddling presidential pardons for Bush for $400,000. Although the major media outlets were aware of Republican operative Thomas "Gus" Kontogiannis and his relationship to Cunningham (which looks like it also involved serious national security matters)-- and although Kontogiannis testified in open court that he gave Cunningham $400,000 to buy a pardon from Bush-- no one wanted to cover that aspect of the Cunningham saga.

The other "Gus" wound up even worse off than Kontogiannis. This guy, Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis, was the founder of the Florida sandwich chain, Miami Subs and, unfortunately for him, the multimillion dollar owner of SunCruz Casino cruise ships. He was brutally murdered, gangland style, by 3 Mafia thugs working (as "caterers" and "consultants" for Abramoff and his partners (only hit that photo link if there are no small children around). This is a murder that involves Tom DeLay and Robert Ney, two senior Republican congressmen. And it's finally starting to get some coverage outside of the blogosphere.

This week IN THESE TIMES ran a story by Richard Fricker that lays the whole mess out: "A Florida hit man. A high-powered lobbyist. A pair of disgraced Republican congressmen. The ingredients for a potboiler novel? No-- this is what passes for political news in the age of Abramoff." That's because the 3 galoots whose mugs you linked to above, go on trial for murder next week.

Fricker writes that Abramoff and Adam Kidan, one of his many partners, were defrauding Boulis, who reacted badly and got into a fist fight with Kidan. He "was driving his car in Ft. Lauderdale on February 6, 2001, when two cars boxed him in. A third car going in the opposite direction pulled up to his side and its driver shot Boulis three times in the chest. Charged with the murder are Anthony Ferrari, James Fiorillo and former Gambino family bookkeeper Anthony Moscatiello. Also under investigation is Moscatiello's daughter, Jennifer, who along with her father received $145,000 from Kidan for catering and 'other' services. There is no evidence that food or services were ever provided." [Except the body with the 3 bullets in it, of course.]

"What does Abramoff--the dapper fixer from Capitol Hill--have to do with three mugs and a moll?" asks Fricker. "He's already admitted to using his powerful lobbying firm to bribe politicians, defraud Native American tribes out of millions and help to ensure that migrant workers in the Marianas Islands earn slave wages. Around that same time, in 2000, he was also tricking Gus Boulis out of his SunCruz Casino gambling ships. The roots of this scam go way back: Abramoff and Kidan had known each other since the '80s as active members of the College Republicans national office. According to Kidan's deposition, he was nearly broke when Abramoff brought him into the deal to buy SunCruz. After a contentious negotiations period that drew on for months, in September 2000, the pair finally managed to persuade investors to go along with the arrangement by claiming they had put up $23 million of their own money for the deal, offering phony wire transfers as evidence. But when it came time to pay Boulis, Abramoff and Kidan were $23 million short."

A violent fracas between Kidan and Boulis "sparked a federal investigation, and within a few months Abramoff and Kidan were charged with fraud regarding the SunCruz purchase. During a 2001 civil case, Kidan also admitted that he paid the men now charged with Boulis' murder $250,000, including the $145,000 paid to Anthony and Jennifer Moscatiello. Because of Abramoff's connections, the SunCruz purchase had been of great interest to some members on Capitol Hill. In March 2000, Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio)-- at the urging of Michael Scanlon, a former spokesman for Tom DeLay, and a business partner of Abramoff-- placed a scathing attack on Boulis in the Congressional Record."

Ney, who has taken incredible amounts of bribes from Abramoff, his clients and his criminal associates, and is widely considered to be the congressman most tainted with corruption after DeLay himself, inserted this into the Congressional Record (on behalf of the citizens of Ohio he represents rips off:

"Mr. Speaker, how SunCruz Casinos and Gus Boulis conduct themselves with regard to Florida laws is very unnerving. 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." We should petition Webster's to put Ney's photo next to the definition of "scumbag."

Read Fricker's whole story. He gets into a lot of great stuff. He's a 2-time winner of the American Business Press Editors Award for Investigative Journalism. All this stuff is getting dangerously close to Bush. In November either the country will come to its senses and sweep the Republicans out of the Congress so that serious investigators like Henry Waxman can start looking into all this criminality, or it will all continue to be swept under the carpet... and no American will be any more safe from these predators than Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis was.

GOP MURDER SUSPECT ADAM KIDAN ROLLS OVER. IS THIS CURTAINS FOR THE LITTLE BUG MAN?

I think my art department is drunk under a table after a HOLIDAY PARTY they had while watching Howard Stern make an ass of O'Liely last night. In any case, the picture below can serve as the illustration for what you're about to read. Adam Kidan isn't a household name-- but a few months ago, neither was Tom DeLay consigliere Jack Abramoff. However, if you've been following DWT this year you probably have read at least something about this uber-corrupt Republican operative who has been in cahoots with Abramoff, DeLay, Ney and a shit-load of sleazy Republicrooks.

It always amazes me that the Republicans have managed to more or less keep this explosive story away from the lazy, pathetic mainstream media, but in Florida the Abramoff/Kidan/DeLay/SunCruz drama has been HUGE for a long time. Today's SUN SENTINEL is reporting that "Kidan is expected to plead guilty next week to federal conspiracy and wire fraud charges in connection with the purchase of the SunCruz gambling fleet from entrepreneur Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis." It is widely believed that DeLay, Abramoff and Kidan had Boulis murdered by 3 Mafia hitmen after their partnership soured. If Kidan's plea bargain takes effect, his 30 year prison term could be reduced to 10 years or less for testimony against his partners.

The SUN SENTINEL reports that the "case can be traced to 1999 when the government forced Boulis to sell his controversial SunCruz gambling fleet by using an obscure shipping law prohibiting non-U.S. citizens from owning maritime interests. One of Boulis' lawyers put him in touch with Abramoff to help find potential buyers. Abramoff met Kidan years earlier through a young Republicans club in Washington, D.C., while Kidan was a college undergraduate and Abramoff a law school student. Liking what he saw in the SunCruz deal, he asked Kidan if he wanted to become a partner. Prosecutors maintain that neither man had the financial wherewithal needed to buy SunCruz, especially Kidan, who was close to being broke, sources said. But authorities said that didn't stop them from diving into negotiations in January 2000. In Boulis, they found a man willing to go along with the agenda, if it meant he could secretly keep part of SunCruz, prosecutors contend. Six months later, a company Kidan and Abramoff formed struck a deal to buy SunCruz for $147.5 million. The funding they obtained through Foothill Capital Corp. and Citadel Equity Fund required that they pay, and show proof they paid, $23 million of their own money to Boulis at the closing." Congressmen DeLay and Ney were instrumental in both the financing and the pressure applied to Boulis to accept the bizarre deal that went down.

And when the deal soured Kidan contacted an old friend, John Gotti-associate Anthony "Big Tony" Moscatiello and 2 other Mafia hitmen, Anthony "Little Tony" Ferrari and James "Pudgy" Fiorillo (who have all been indicted for the gangland murder of Boulis). Kidan and Abramoff were conspicuously out of the country when the murder took place and claimed the Mafia hit men were only hired as "caterers," not for the skills they were best known for. I know it sounds like an episode from THE SOPRANOS but according to THE SUN SENTINEL, Moscatiello, after being arrested "told detectives that Fiorillo traveled to his Queens home two weeks after the murder and confided that Kidan reportedly told Ferrari to kill Boulis, according to court records. Moscatiello said Fiorillo also indicated that he and Ferrari carried out the hit, the documents show. Moscatiello told detectives, 'I told Adam what had happened, what I was told and he told me he never made no phone call and after Tony Ferrari told me it was a lie, I never discussed it anymore with Adam.'
Meanwhile Tom "The Hammer" DeLay and his chief financial associate, Jack Abramoff, refuse to comment, although Abramoff insists that the 3 Mafia hitmen were only caterers. Bob Ney says he was tricked into the whole mess by Abramoff and he regrets everything.