Abramoff Firm Indicted on Theft, Conspiracy

[tpsbmam]

Source: ABC News

Jack Abramoff's old lobby firm has been slapped with its first indictment stemming from his misdeeds.

The attorney general for Guam issued an indictment Monday against the Greenberg Traurig firm, Abramoff and a former Guam government official on nine felony counts of theft, conspiracy and misconduct.

From 2001 to 2003, the indictment alleges, Guam Superior Court official Anthony P. Sanchez funneled $324,000 in public funds to Abramoff and Greenberg Traurig in a series of $9,000 checks, disguised as payments to a third party. The court reportedly wanted Abramoff to keep it from becoming subject to rulings by the Guam Supreme Court. Abramoff agreed to represent the court at a meeting at his Washington, D.C. restaurant, Signatures, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The payments, which were publicly reported in U.S. papers in 2005, had formed the basis of a 2002 investigation by the U.S. attorney for the region at the time, Frederick Black.

Read more: http://www.abcnews.go.com/print?id=4445847

[truthisfreedom]

1. I guess that didn't turn out too well for them.

$324,000 received $9K at a time? 36 checks.

[annabanana]

2. More. More. More! Get that stuff that McCain is sitting on!!

[flashl]

3. K&R nt

[Senator]

4. WH intervened in furtherance of ongoing criminal activity

"From 2001 to 2003, the indictment alleges..."

On Nov. 19, 2002, Black obtained a grand jury subpoena to force Sanchez to release records about the payments. The next day the White House announced it was replacing Black, who had served in an acting capacity for 10 years, with a permanent U.S. attorney. The investigation ended without indictments.

Rove may not have been joking about being indicted before the end of the year.

Law firms are not famous for "taking the fall" for crooks -- even WH crooks. It tends to eat into the profits.

---

[Robbien]

5. If anyone was hurt by Abramoff, Guam would be on top of the list of most harm suffered

Good news. Glad to see Guam going after the crooks.

[EFerrari]

6. Siegelman was ousted to accomodate Abramoff. n/t

[Robbien]

7. Okay, Guam will move over and allow Siegelman room on the number one spot

They can share.

Guam was trying to stop their sweatshops and sex slave shops. Due to Abramoff, Guam is still loaded down with both. The crooked politicians of Guam actually paid Abramoff to keep them open, while activists in Guam were paying Abramoff to close them down. Abramoff paid Tom Delay who make sure they stayed open.

[xxqqqzme]

9. I thought those, sweat & sex shops, were on Saipan.

[Robbien]

10. Saipan doesn't hold a monopoly

In the American territory of Guam we are the proud guardians of the sordid and hopelessness businesses.

[xxqqqzme]

11. I know the area well - lived there for four years.

I was upset to learn that Saipan had been turned into an indentured servant haven. It was so beautiful there. Then to learn abramoff & delay had their grubby hands all over it just wrecked all my good thoughts. I would probablt be sickened by what has happened there.

[hootinholler]

12. Ah, the confusion is that Abramoff had sweat shop clients on the CNMI...

From a Boston Globe :

Guam court officials have never explained the contractual arrangement. At the time, Abramoff was a well-known lobbying figure in the Pacific islands because of his work for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and Saipan garment manufacturers, accused of employing workers in what critics called sweatshop conditions.

The scandal is over a different client the superior court in Guam. The first major abuse of political appointments in the DOJ USA corps.

How ya been? :hi:

-Hoot

[xxqqqzme]

16. Hi, back at ya

up to my ears in political stuff as usual. But we're gonna get rid of dana whorbacher this year!

[EFerrari]

13. All this time we kept talking about Rove, there was Abramoff

working away.

[bluesmail]

8. K& R

[SunnyNobility]

14. Betcha DOJ isn't happy about this.

They've been sitting quietly on him for a long time.

[leveymg]

15. Greenberg Traurig and the Tan Family are also major HRC campaign contributors.

GT were Bush's Campaign Lawyers During the 2000 Florida Recount

You have to wonder why a big GOP law firm and lobbying shop is giving so much money to Hillary.

Open Secrets: http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.asp?id=N00000019&cycle=2008

HILLARY CLINTON (D)
Top Contributors
DLA Piper $490,800
Goldman Sachs $426,100
Morgan Stanley $368,670
Citigroup Inc $353,900
EMILY's List $283,142
Lehman Brothers $254,400
JP Morgan Chase & Co $231,220
National Amusements Inc $217,500
Skadden, Arps et al $198,610
Greenberg Traurig LLP $185,400
Kirkland & Ellis $182,550
PricewaterhouseCoopers $173,650
Merrill Lynch $165,750
Time Warner $163,650
University of California $161,318
Microsoft Corp $152,570
Latham & Watkins $148,788
Cablevision Systems $146,013
Bear Stearns $145,090
Patton Boggs $142,550

What Does John McCain Have Up His Sleave About Hillary & the Tan Family?

And, then, there's this item that shows that Hillary Clinton has long been getting big money from the corrupt Chinese-based Tan family, who are at the center of the Abramoff Marianas sweatshop scandal: http://thehill.com/byron-york/hillary-clinton-and-the-sweatshop-tycoon-of-saipan-2006-03-16.html

Hillary Clinton and the sweatshop tycoon of Saipan
By Byron York
Posted: 03/16/06 12:00 AM

You may remember news reports a few weeks ago about the nationwide reach of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s fundraising network.

The nonpartisan website PoliticalMoneyLine reported that her biggest political action committee, Friends of Hillary, has raised more than $20 million since the beginning of 2005.

Some of that money came, as it does in any campaign, from donors who gave less than $200. Such contributions do not have to be reported to the Federal Election Commission, and thus we have no information about them.

But of the more than $13 million that came from individuals whose contributions were reported, $5.63 million came from Mrs. Clinton’s “home” state, New York.

Donors in California gave $1.54 million. Washington, D.C., accounted for $603,360. And donors in Sen. Clinton’s actual “home” state, Illinois, gave $554,088.

The list goes on and on. Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan — until it gets to something called “MP.”

Do you know what “MP” is? Neither did I.

It stands for Marianas Protectorate, and it refers to the Northern Mariana Islands.

It turns out that Sen. Clinton has some big fans in Saipan. And most of them are in the family of one Willie Tan.

Last year, Tan gave $2,000 to Friends of Hillary. So did Raymond Tan, Siu Lin Tan and Josie Tan, all members of Willie Tan’s family.

FEC records indicate that the $2,000 checks from Willie, Raymond and Siu Lin were all received on Sept. 30, 2005, indicating they were sent together. The check from Josie was received Oct. 2.

Together, the Tan family’s $8,000 contribution to Friends of Hillary was more than the senator’s PAC received, separately, from residents of the entire states of Hawaii, Mississippi, Nebraska, Vermont, Utah, Kansas, Wyoming, Alaska, Idaho, South Dakota, Montana or North Dakota.

You might not have heard of Willie Tan, but he is quite well-known in the Northern Marianas as a garment-industry tycoon. Sometimes he’s also described as a sweatshop operator.

He is also well-known in the U.S. Congress, where some of Sen. Clinton’s fellow Democrats have denounced him and his factories, which pay subminimum wages, for years, mostly because of his tireless efforts to make sure those factories are never subjected to U.S. labor laws.

SNIP

Why was Willie Tan paying Abramoff? Because Abramoff could provide access to U.S. lawmakers. Last year, ABC News reported that Abramoff “arranged a lavish overseas trip to the island of Saipan for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay over the New Year’s holiday in 1997.”

Correspondent Brian Ross reported that DeLay met with Willie Tan during the trip, and ABC played a surreptitiously recorded tape in which Tan claimed that DeLay had promised to stop moves in Congress to reform the island’s garment factories.

Last year, National Journal reported that Tan also met with DeLay and Abramoff during DeLay’s 2000 trip to England and Scotland.

And a few months ago The Washington Post reported that “the owners of textile companies in the Mariana Islands” — that would include Willie Tan — contributed $500,000 to the U.S. Family Network, the big-money, secret-donor group linked to DeLay.

Now, normally one might expect Sen. Clinton to denounce someone like that — if only for his ties to all those terrible Republicans. (In 2000 and 2004, Willie Tan contributed to the Bush-Cheney campaigns.)

SNIP

Of course, he’s an old friend. Several years ago, the Post reported that Mrs. Clinton met with Tan and other like-minded supporters during a quick fundraising visit to Guam in 1995.

But these days Sen. Clinton is being quiet about all that. A spokesman for Friends of Hillary did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the Willie Tan contributions.

But at some point in the coming campaign(s), perhaps she’ll be asked about her friend in Saipan.

In early 2006, Hillary's campaign turned over $2000 of this to a NY State charity. But, she kept the rest.

I think the time to start asking questions about Hillary's more than decade old money ties to Tan has finally arrived. Surely, if we don't, McCain will. He had three-quarters of a million pages of unreleased Abramoff-related documents still under wraps in his committee files. As Chairman of the Senate commitee that investigated Abramoff, McCain managed to keep all but 8000 pages of documents under seal. I would wager that more than a few of those mention Mrs. Clinton and the Tans.