Washington – Jack Abram- off, the once-powerful lobbyist at the center of a wide-ranging public-corruption investigation, pleaded guilty Tuesday to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials in a deal that requires him to provide evidence about members of Congress.
The plea deal could have enormous legal and political consequences for the lawmakers on whom Abramoff lavished luxury trips, skybox fundraisers, campaign contributions, jobs for their spouses and meals at Signatures, the lobbyist’s own upscale restaurant.
In court papers, prosecutors refer to only one congressman, Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio. But Abramoff, who built a political alliance with House Republicans, including former Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, has agreed to provide information and testimony about half a dozen House and Senate members, officials familiar with the inquiry said. He also is to provide evidence about congressional staffers, Interior Department workers and other executive-branch officials, and other lobbyists.
“The corruption scheme with Mr. Abramoff is very extensive,” Alice Fisher, head of the Justice Department’s criminal division, said at a news conference with other high-ranking officials of the Internal Revenue Service and the FBI. “We’re going to follow this wherever it goes.”
Fisher declined to identify the officials under scrutiny. “We name people in indictments,” she said, adding, “We are moving very quickly.”
Among the allegations in the court documents is that Abramoff arranged for payments totaling $50,000 for the wife of an unnamed congressional staffer in return for the staffer’s help in killing an Internet gambling bill. The Washington Post has previously reported that Tony Rudy, a former top aide to DeLay, worked with Abramoff to kill such a bill in 2000 before going to work for Abramoff.
Abramoff’s appearance in U.S. District Court came nearly two years after his lobbying practices gained public notice because of the enormous payments – eventually tallied at $82 million – that he and a public-relations partner received from casino-rich Indian tribes.
Tuesday, he admitted defrauding four of those tribal clients out of millions of dollars. He also pleaded guilty to evading taxes, to conspiring to bribe lawmakers and to conspiring to induce former Capitol Hill staffers to violate the one-year ban on lobbying their former bosses.
Under terms of his plea agreement, Abramoff can expect to receive a jail sentence of 9 1/2 to 11 years, and he is required to make restitution of $26.7 million to the IRS and to the Indian tribes he defrauded. Today he is to plead guilty to fraud and conspiracy counts in a related case in Florida involving his purchase of a casino cruise line.
Standing before U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle in Washington on Tuesday, Abramoff looked sheepish and sad. “I only hope that I can merit forgiveness from the Almighty and from those I have wronged or caused to suffer,” he said.
Ney, chairman of the House Administration Committee, is among the first of those expected to feel the fallout. In the court documents – which identify him only as “Representative 1” – Ney is accused of meeting with one of Abramoff’s clients in Russia in 2003 to “influence the process for obtaining a (U.S.) visa” for one of the client’s relatives and of agreeing to aid a California tribe represented by Abramoff on tax and post-office issues.
Ney also placed comments in the Congressional Record backing Abramoff’s efforts to gain control of a Florida gambling company, SunCruz Casinos, and offered legislative language sought by Abramoff that would have reopened a Texas tribe’s shuttered casino.
The court papers said Ney advanced the prospects of an Abramoff client, a telecommunications company, which won a contract to wire the House.
Two of Abramoff’s former partners have pleaded guilty and promised to cooperate in the ongoing investigation of congressional corruption and are prepared to testify against Ney in connection with his aid in the SunCruz purchase.
Ney reiterated Tuesday that he had done nothing wrong and said he was misled by Abramoff.
One of Abramoff’s former associates, Michael Scanlon, a one-time press aide to DeLay, was a secret partner in Abramoff’s Indian tribal scheme. Abramoff not only charged the tribes lobbying fees but urged them to hire Scanlon’s public-relations firm at hugely inflated prices. Scanlon, in turn, kicked back half of the money to Abramoff, who was thus able to conceal the funds from public disclosure and even from the lobbyist’s law firm.
They spread tribal money around and sought legislative favors in return. Abramoff and Scanlon “offered and provided a stream of things of value to public officials in exchange for official acts and influence and agreements to provide official action and influence,” a statement of facts attached to the plea agreement said.
