Washington
Observers of American politics would do well to learn how to pronounce the name of a former Republican lobbyist, Jack Abramoff. The first syllable should be enunciated not, as is common, like the stomach muscle, but rather like the nickname of the 16th American president, Honest Abe. Of course, Abramoff was dishonest. And this has landed him — and the party of Lincoln — in a lot of trouble.
In early January, in a Washington DC courtroom, Abramoff pleaded guilty to charges of tax evasion, mail fraud and conspiracy. Looking like Al Capone in a black fedora and matching trenchcoat as he left the courthouse, Abramoff travelled to Miami the next day, where he pleaded guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy (again). The pleas were the result of a federal investigation into Abramoff’s business practices that has lasted almost two years and ranges from California to Michigan to Louisiana to Florida. He and his partner, Michael Scanlon, the former press secretary to the former House majority leader Tom DeLay of Texas, have admitted that they bilked six Indian tribes out of close to $90 million, bribing congressmen and staff along the way.
Abramoff and another business partner, Adam Kidan, have also admitted that they committed wire and mail fraud in their 2000 purchase of SunCruz Casino Line, a fleet of gambling yachts operating out of south Florida. A few months after he had sold majority control of his company to Abramoff and Kidan, the businessman Gus Boulis was gunned down in a mob-style hit. Last September three men connected with organised crime families in New York and Miami were arrested for his murder. Before the hit, it turns out, Kidan had put these men on the SunCruz payroll.
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