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

• Share

(2 of 2)

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.