From: jean
Date: 10/2/2005
Time: 6:12:05 PM
Remote Name: 192.168.9.18
Untangling a Lobbyist's Stake in a Casino Fleet Abramoff, 40, was a study in contradictions. A smooth-talking political power player who was an Orthodox Jew, the former high school weightlifter produced movies in Hollywood before becoming one of the top lobbyists in town. He had built a lucrative practice by showing then-Democrat-dominated K Street and its corporate clients how to make friends in the new Republican Congress. He was especially close to Tom DeLay, then House majority whip. Abramoff had also convinced casino-rich Indian tribes that they should begin switching their copious campaign contributions to the GOP. COURT DOCUMENTS The Missing $23 Million Untangling a Lobbyist's Stake in a Casino Fleet Untangling a Lobbyist's Stake in a Casino Fleet The buyer Abramoff found for Boulis was Adam Kidan, a 36-year-old New York City businessman who had owned the Dial-a-Mattress franchise in Washington. Abramoff had known Kidan since the 1980s when Abramoff was at Georgetown Law Center and Kidan was an undergraduate at George Washington University. Both were active in the national office of the College Republicans. Abramoff and Kidan were already in business with a third partner, former Reagan White House aide Ben Waldman, who also had been a College Republican. The three men had gotten together in a fledgling venture that sought to sell advertising on water taxis that would travel the Potomac River. Dimopoulos took Kidan to Florida to meet Boulis. What was not disclosed to Preston Gates for at least eight months, according to a statement by the firm on Friday, was that Abramoff then joined Kidan in the SunCruz venture as a 50-50 partner. Such an arrangement would constitute a potential conflict of interest, because partners in the Preston Gates firm would be on both sides of the deal. The Preston Gates statement said that when the firm learned of the situation, it notified Boulis, who was already aware of it and did not object. Abramoff's plan was to have Kidan put up most of the money and Abramoff "would use his lobbying expertise and network to help expand the new company's markets both in the U.S. and abroad," Abramoff's lawyers later asserted. Abramoff would say later that Kidan told him he was looking to invest an "eight-figure" payoff he had made from the sale of his Dial-a-Mattress franchise. But even a cursory background check would have raised serious questions about whether Kidan had that kind of money. Kidan's business was in bankruptcy proceedings, and Kidan had declared personal bankruptcy in 1996. Nonetheless, in January 2000, Boulis agreed in a letter of intent to sell SunCruz for $145 million. A few weeks later, though, Boulis demanded a host of unwelcome additional terms, including a consulting deal. Suddenly, Boulis was being denounced in Congress. Michael Scanlon, a former DeLay spokesman Abramoff had just hired at Preston Gates, asked Ohio congressman Bob Ney to insert remarks into the Congressional Record that would put pressure on Boulis. "Mr. Speaker, how SunCruz Casinos and Gus Boulis conduct themselves with regard to Florida laws is very unnerving," Ney said in the March 30 Congressional Record. "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." Ney said later he was "furious" at Scanlon for not fully informing him about SunCruz. Scanlon, for his part, said he had been given bad information about SunCruz and regretted his request to Ney