Abramoff Sentenced to More Than 5 Years in Fraud Case
MIAMI _ Onetime powerhouse lobbyist Jack Abramoff is trading in his pin stripes for prison stripes.
Abramoff was sentenced Wednesday afternoon in Miami federal court to a prison term of five years and 10 months for a fraudulent loan deal to buy a South Florida fleet of casino ships in 2000.
His partner in the $147.5 million SunCruz Casinos purchase, New York businessman Adam Kidan, also received the same sentence before U.S. District Judge Paul Huck.
Both were charged last summer with lying to lenders about putting down $23 million to qualify for a $60 million loan to seal the SunCruz deal. But they never made the down payment, though they sent bogus documents to the lenders that showed they did _ the foundation of the wire-fraud conspiracy case.
Abramoff, 46, and Kidan, 41, respectively cut plea deals in January and December to win shorter sentences, but those agreements generally prevent them from appealing their sentences.
Both Abramoff and Kidan will be allowed to remain free on bail for the next 90 days and possibly longer, while they cooperate with state and federal authorities on two separate investigations related to the SunCruz fraud case, according to court records.
Both men are supposed to help Broward County, Fla., authorities in their investigation into the February 2001 mob-style murder of former SunCruz founder, Konstantinos “Gus” Boulis, who had been publicly feuding with Kidan over the future of the gambling-ship empire. The Broward State Attorney’s Office has charged three defendants with Boulis’ murder _ including two with organized-crime ties who were once on the SunCruz payroll.
Abramoff, who pleaded guilty to public corruption charges in January in a separate Justice Department probe partly linked to the SunCruz case, is helping both South Florida and Washington federal prosecutors with the broader influence-peddling investigation in the nation’s capital.
Abramoff admitted to allegations about a SunCruz bribery conspiracy as well as his collection of tens of millions of dollars in fraudulent fees from his Indian tribal clients and his payoffs to congressmen such as lavish meals, foreign trips and campaign donations.
Abramoff faces up to 11 years in Justice Department corruption case, but his deal with prosecutors allows him to serve the time concurrently with his SunCruz prison term.
The SunCruz deal allowed Abramoff and Kidan to pay themselves $500,000 salaries and to divert $310,000 in SunCruz money for Washington-area sports skyboxes for GOP fundraisers orchestrated by Abramoff. Among them: a fundraiser for Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, a target of the federal probe who could be indicted this spring, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
Prosecutors are putting pressure on Ney’s former chief of staff, Neil Volz, who went to work as a lobbyist with Abramoff, to turn on the congressman _ but Volz and his defense lawyers have been resisting the Justice Department’s overtures, sources said.
Ultimately, Volz could be indicted along with Ney, sources said. Both have denied wrongdoing.
The SunCruz deal, since the beginning, has cast a darkening shawdow from South Florida to Washington.
Indeed, it was the behind-the-scenes deal making in the SunCruz sale six years ago that provided a spark for the Justice Department’s public corruption probe.
In September, a trio of Miami federal prosecutors and an FBI agent briefed Justice lawyers about the alleged SunCruz bribery conspiracy involving a broader cast of political characters. They included Abramoff’s ex-lobbying partner, Michael Scanlon, who once served as House Republican leader Tom DeLay’s communications director. Scanlon pleaded guilty to corruption charges in November.
The Miami prosecutors disclosed this: After leaving DeLay’s office in early 2000, Scanlon arranged with Ney’s then-chief of staff, Volz, to have the Ohio congressman publicly disparage SunCruz’s owner, Boulis, in the Congressional Record. Ney obliged just as Boulis was trying to sell his floating casino empire to Abramoff and Kidan for about $150 million.
Prosecutors say their motive was to hurt Boulis’ image during his negotiations with Abramoff and Kidan. The Greek immigrant had been forced by the government to sell SunCruz because he had acquired the fleet of ships as a non-U.S. citizen.
Just weeks after the SunCruz sale in fall 2000, Ney praised Kidan, the new co-owner, in the Congressional Record. This time, prosecutors say, the purpose was to polish Kidan’s reputation as an entrepreneur at the helm of SunCruz, which would later file for bankruptcy.
The Miami prosecutors also have incriminating evidence of e-mails showing that Abramoff and Scanlon approved a $10,000 donation from SunCruz _ made on Ney’s behalf _ to a Republican campaign committee. Prosecutors say the money was an alleged illegal payback for the congressman’s “official act” in the SunCruz sale.
According to federal court records in the Abramoff-Scanlon plea deals, Ney allegedly requested the donation. Those records, however, don’t identify him by name, only as “Representative No. 1.”
Prosecutors say Abramoff and Scanlon credited Ney, then an obscure lawmaker, with the campaign contribution so he could elevate his stature among Republicans.
According to Federal Election Commission records, SunCruz made the donation on Nov. 1, 2000, to the National Republican Congressional Committee _ just six days after Ney publicly praised Kidan.
In addition, Abramoff, his wife, Kidan and Scanlon contributed a total of $4,000 directly to Ney’s congressional campaign in 2000.
Ney, who has not been charged, claims he was “duped” by Abramoff and Scanlon in the SunCruz affair.
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