How to Raise Cash... Disguise Its Sources... And Buy Influence

By Unmesh Kher

HOW TO RAISE CASH... Abramoff tended to pick clients far removed from the Beltway who were sometimes either too desperate or too unfamiliar with the lobbying trade to question his unorthodox tactics and exorbitant fees

Indian tribes: Abramoff lobbied on their behalf mainly to protect their casino interests--thwarting competing ventures and legislative moves to tax gambling revenues. He and partner Michael Scanlon, a former aide to Congressman Tom DeLay, were also secretly playing off their clients against one another and bilking them of millions.

eLottery: This Internet gambling firm hired Abramoff and invested some $2 million in an intricate campaign in 2000 to kill a bill that would have outlawed most online gambling. Abramoff used Christian groups to block the bill on the grounds that it didn't go far enough.

Mariana Islands: Abramoff's first major client paid him $9 million in fees. He helped block legislation, opposed by the U.S. protectorate's textile industry, that would have imposed a minimum-wage law. The Marianas were the venue of many junkets for lawmakers.

Russian oil and gas firms: As first reported by the Washington Post, two executives allegedly wanted to ensure that a U.S. bill that would enable the IMF to bail out the Russian economy in 1998 would not impose high taxes on their industry. Abramoff helped them cultivate DeLay.

Foxcom Wireless: This Israeli firm wanted a $3 million contract in 2002 to install cell-phone antennas in the House of Representatives.

...DISGUISE ITS SOURCES

Abramoff moved money in numerous ways--not just to cheat his clients but also to pay for brazen junkets and cloak the ethically (and legally) dubious machinery of his enterprise

Americans for Tax Reform: Founder Grover Norquist was a conduit of funds, and though he took commissions, he isn't accused of breaking the law. He sent $1.15 million from just one tribe to antigambling groups and funneled $150,000 sent by eLottery to the consultancy of Ralph Reed, former chief of the Christian Coalition.

Capitol Campaign Strategies: Scanlon's p.r. firm is where Abramoff routed much Indian-casino business without telling his clients that he was also sharing in its profits. Those kickbacks, from absurdly inflated fees, were the source of most of the $20 million Abramoff made by cheating the tribes.

Century Strategies: Reed's political consultancy mobilized Christian antigambling groups for Abramoff, without revealing that its funds came from gambling interests. Reed, now running for Lieutenant Governor of Georgia, says he did not know about the origins of the money.

National Center for Public Policy Research: Abramoff sat on the board of this think tank when, in 2000, he took DeLay and his aide Tony Rudy on a golfing junket to Scotland. Two checks of $25,000 to this entity from eLottery and an Indian tribe allegedly helped cover the $70,000 bill.

U.S. Family Network: Organized by Edwin Buckham, it was ostensibly a nationwide grassroots organization dedicated to "moral fitness" and social improvement. The group was supported almost entirely by Abramoff's clients, according to a Washington Post report: the $2.5 million it raised in the late 1990s mostly came from the Russian firms ($1 million), an Indian-casino tribe ($250,000) and the Mariana Islands textile industry ($500,000). Buckham allegedly made large sums consulting with the nonprofit he had organized, and his firm hired DeLay's wife, paying her $3,200 a month. Each client benefited from DeLay's subsequent votes and support.

Capital Athletic Foundation: Created to help inner-city kids, it was used by Abramoff as a kitty and a money laundry. Foxcom donated $50,000 to this entity on his instructions, and Abramoff hid money he and Scanlon had bilked from Indian tribes here. He channeled its funds to a sniper school for Israelis and an orthodox Jewish school he founded that his children attended.

... AND BUY INFLUENCE

Abramoff put the millions he conned or extracted from his various clients to work, buying the favors of lawmakers and power brokers. The steady flow of funds from clients' coffers also helped key partners as well as his own business

Funding politicians' PACs and campaign kitties If Abramoff contributed generously to members of Congress, his clients matched his largesse. The Indian clients donated millions until early 2004 and eLottery gave lots too as it battled the Net-gambling law.

Financing junkets for officials and lawmakers He harnessed funds from nonprofits, which often received curiously timed donations from his clients, to underwrite jaunts to the Mariana Islands and Scotland. He also gave officials meals at his restaurant Signatures and seats in his luxury boxes at sporting events.

Currying favor with power brokers Abramoff told his Indian clients to donate to Americans for Tax Reform and another advocacy group that Grover Norquist had founded with Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton. Norquist helped tribe officials get meetings with the President. He insists that had nothing to do with the donations.

Getting clients to give in other ways Funds from the U.S. Family Network--largely provided by Abramoff's clients, according to the Washington Post--financed the purchase of a town house near DeLay's congressional office. The lawmaker's PAC paid a modest rent to operate from there, as did Buckham's lobbying firm, Alexander Strategy Group. DeLay maintains he did nothing illegal in any of his dealings with Abramoff.

And enriching himself in the process Abramoff charged $750 an hour, but he was, above all, a master at self-dealing, lining his pockets with his clients' cash.