A Bad Day For Corruption; A Good Day For The Country

by hilzoy

I despise people who corrupt our democracy as much as I love our democracy itself. Therefore, I am singing glad hosannas at the following pieces of news: First:

"Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff was indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday as part of a wide-ranging fraud case stemming from the purchase of a Florida casino cruise line from a businessman later murdered in Fort Lauderdale, the U.S. attorney announced today. Abramoff, a key figure in ethics investigations into House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), was arrested in Los Angeles in late afternoon Eastern time and was expected to be taken to a U.S. magistrate there. He was indicted along with Adam Kidan, the former owner of the Dial-A-Mattress franchise in Washington. Kidan, 41, of New York City, will surrender to the FBI here by Friday morning, his attorney, Martin I. Jaffe, said in a written statement.

Abramoff and Kidan were indicted on five counts of wire fraud and conspiracy. The maximum penalty for each of the six counts is five years in prison and $250,000 fine. (...) Abramoff, 46, remains the subject of a separate federal corruption investigation in Washington stemming from his work for casino-rich Indian tribes. (...)

The heart of the alleged SunCruz fraud was a record of a $23 million payment to a Boulis holding company intended to persuade lenders to provide $60 million in financing to Abramoff's group toward the $147.5 million purchase of the fleet of floating gambling parlors. The record of the investment was a wire transfer, faxed by Kidan and Waldman to the partners' key lender -- Foothill Capital, a specialty lender now a division of Wells Fargo Bank, according to records reviewed by The Post in federal bankruptcy court in Fort Lauderdale. The money was never really sent. The account on the wire transfer had long been closed. Other papers in bankruptcy court suggest that Boulis knew the $23 million wasn't sent because he instead accepted $20 million in notes. Almost immediately after the purchase, management of the gambling company fell into chaos amid allegations of fraud, accusations of mob influence, lawsuits, a fistfight and warring between the Abramoff group and Boulis, who had remained a minority partner. (...)

In February 2001, Boulis was shot to death while driving home from work and no one has been arrested in the murder. In June 2001, SunCruz filed for bankruptcy protection. During this period, Abramoff had mixed his lobbying practice with his gambling company. Even as he closed a deal to purchase SunCruz, he flew his specialty lender to Washington to meet then House Majority Whip Tom DeLay in his FedEx Field sky box during a Redskins-Cowboys game. Just days before Boulis' murder, Abramoff had flown congressional staffers from Washington to Tampa on a jet leased by SunCruz for a night of gambling on SunCruz boats and a trip to the Super Bowl. Along on the trip was Tim Berry, now DeLay's chief-of-staff. Berry did not report the gift on his House disclosure forms at the time and people close to him said he thought it was paid for out of political donations."

Second:

"A political committee founded by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay may have improperly spent unregulated "soft money" on get-out-the-vote and fundraising activities, the Federal Election Commission says. A DeLay attorney said Thursday the money has been reimbursed. Americans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee "potentially" spent about $203,000 in soft money from its nonfederal account to pay for the political activities and administrative expenses, the FEC found in an audit. (...)

The FEC audit also found that DeLay's committee failed to report more than $300,000 in debts owed to 25 vendors and erroneously reported its finances. DeLay attorney Don McGahn said debts were paid but not in the time prescribed by the FEC. The expenses including spending on eight fundraising events, two each held at Four Streams Golf Club in Bealsville, Md., and Puerto Rico and others in Orlando, Fla., California, New York and Hackberry Creek Country Club in Irving, Texas."

Third, via TPM:

"Despite a zero-tolerance policy on tampering with voters, the Republican Party has quietly paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide private defense lawyers for a former Bush campaign official charged with conspiring to keep Democrats from voting in New Hampshire.

James Tobin, the president's 2004 campaign chairman for New England, is charged in New Hampshire federal court with four felonies accusing him of conspiring with a state GOP official and a GOP consultant in Virginia to jam Democratic and labor union get-out-the-vote phone banks in November 2002. A telephone firm was paid to make repeated hang-up phone calls to overwhelm the phone banks in New Hampshire and prevent them from getting Democratic voters to the polls on Election Day 2002, prosecutors allege. Republican John Sununu won a close race that day to be New Hampshire's newest senator. At the time, Tobin was the RNC's New England regional director, before moving to President Bush's 2004 re-election campaign.

A top New Hampshire Party official and a GOP consultant already have pleaded guilty and cooperated with prosecutors. Tobin's indictment accuses him of specifically calling the GOP consultant to get a telephone firm to help in the scheme. "The object of the conspiracy was to deprive inhabitants of New Hampshire and more particularly qualified voters ... of their federally secured right to vote," states the latest indictment issued by a federal grand jury on May 18. Since charges were first filed in December, the RNC has spent more than $722,000 to provide Tobin, who has pleaded innocent, a team of lawyers from the high-powered Washington law firm of Williams & Connolly."

I hope any of these people who are guilty spend a nice long time in jail reflecting on the system they helped to corrupt. I normally try to be a nice person, but I have my limits.

Comments

[Tad Brennan]

Yes, your willingness to see guilty people punished is undermining my belief that you are a nice person.

[hilzoy]

Tad: :PPPPPPPP

[Ugh]

Any chance we can amend the Constitution to guarantee divided government, with a clause providing for rabid special prosecutors with unlimited subpoena power?

[xanax]

"rabid special prosecutors"

Or, how 'bout letting some non-human primates at 'em?

[bob mcmanus]

I am not a nice person. Nevertheless I am usually constrained by the law, public opinion and posting rules.

[Ugh]

Or, how 'bout letting some non-human primates at 'em?

That too!

[xanax]

Not much to dispute here, hilzoy.
Another worthwhile post... thanks for bringing it forward.

[cleek]

$5 says it goes nowhere

[KCinDC]

I'm with cleek:

The Federal Election Commission has the option of pursuing enforcement action against Americans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee, but the report didn't indicate whether it would.

What's the point of having rules but not enforcing them?

[cleek]

What's the point of having rules but not enforcing them?

of course they're enforced! don't be silly. they're enforced by the people who are subject to them.

[Anarch]

On the other hand, here's Matt Taibbi on politics up-close-and-personal.

[And, as a special bonus: Slarti, check out Taibbi's description of Sensenbrenner. Pretty much accurate, too, from what I've heard tell.]