Jewish Exploitation of American Indians
Who
Gets the Money? Needy Native Americans, you'd think. But Indian casinos are
making millions for their investors and providing little to the poor,
Time, December 8, 2002
"So how, exactly, is Hollow Horn prospering from the $12.7 billion Indian
gaming industry? Like most Native Americans, not at all. Last year the Oglala's
Prairie Wind Casino, housed in a temporary, white, circus-tent-like structure
smaller than a basketball court, turned a profit of $2.4 million on total
revenue of $9.5 million. Most of the money went to fund general programs, such
as services for the elderly and young people, as well as education and economic
development. But even if there had been profit sharing instead, the payout would
have worked out to a daily stipend of just 16˘ for each of the 41,000 tribe
members. That's not to say that members of a few small tribes near big cities
aren't doing very well from gaming. In Minnesota, 300 members of the Shakopee
Mdewakanton Sioux community reportedly take home more than $1 million a year.
But bands like that are the exception. Only 25% of gaming tribes distribute cash
to their members, usually no more than a few thousand dollars each. So
if the overwhelming majority of Native Americans like Hollow Horn aren't
benefiting from the Indian casino boom, who is? In many cases, the big winners
are non-Indian investors, some of whom pocket more than 40% of an Indian
casino's profits. Actually, calling these people investors understates
their role. They often serve as master strategists who draw up the plans and
then underwrite the total cost of bringing a casino online: ferreting out an
amenable tribe, paying a signing bonus, picking up tribal expenses and paying
the salaries of the tribe's officials, all of this before a spade of dirt is
turned. If an Indian band isn't federally recognized as a tribe and is thus
ineligible for a gaming venture, these full-service backers will bankroll
genealogists to construct a family tree, then hire lawyers and lobbyists in
Washington to help change the band's status. And if a reservation isn't prime
real estate for a casino, the investors sometimes purchase a more suitable patch
and instruct their lawyers and lobbyists to persuade the government to designate
the land as a trust, as reservation property is called ... Say what you will
about Lyle Berman—and people have called him a lot of things: a pit
bull, an intimidator, a fearsome competitor—but no one has ever accused him of
modesty. Of his casino-development company, Lakes Entertainment Inc., Berman
once told reporters, 'We're the most successful company in
Indian gaming' ... By his account, as of September 2001, he was worth
almost $69 million."
October
30, 2001 Casino case raises issues of money, politics Contributions coincide
with favorable decisions,
By Sean P. Murphy, Citizens Alliance (from Globe),
October 30, 2001
"Arthur Goldberg, owner of Caesars, Bally's, and other casinos in
Atlantic City, knew a threat when he saw one: When an Indian tribe, the St.
Regis Mohawks, announced plans last year to build a casino in Monticello - an
hour closer to New York City than his casinos - Goldberg knew his
business would suffer. But Goldberg, a fund-raiser for the Democratic
Party, had friends in high places. Pretty soon he was arranging meetings with
President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore. Then came a cascade of ''soft
money'' contributions to the Democrats. Over a five-month period following the
April 2000 announcement of the Mohawk casino deal, Clinton's Bureau of Indian
Affairs made several unusual decisions helpful to Goldberg. First, the
bureau withdrew the federal government's longstanding support for the group of
Mohawks who planned the casino in Monticello; instead, the bureau backed a group
of tribal leaders allied with Goldberg; and finally, the bureau
intervened to help prevent the enforcement of a Mohawk tribal court's $1.8
billion judgment against Goldberg for interfering in tribal affairs. On
the very day - Oct. 6, 2000 - that the Bureau of Indian Affairs issued a letter
declaring that the tribal court had no authority, Goldberg's company
contributed $10,000 to the Democratic National Committee. It was the second time
a Goldberg contribution was registered on the day of a decision favorable
to him ... ''Arthur Goldberg reached right into the government to protect
his Atlantic City casinos by controlling gaming in New York state,'' said Robert
Berman, a businessman who headed the group planning the Mohawk casino at the
Monticello Raceway."
Kerzner's
son lobbying for casino,
Las Vegas Sun, January 23, 2002
"Howard Kerzner is keeping his hopes alive to build a major resort
casino in Hawaii. Kerzner, president of Sun International Hotels Ltd.,
has spent the past two weeks lobbying lawmakers in Hawaii for an exclusive
gaming license ... Howard Kerzner is the son of Sol Kerzner, the
chairman and chief executive of Sun International. Sol Kerzner is best
known in Las Vegas for his aborted bid to acquire the Desert Inn on the Las
Vegas Strip from then-owner Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. Steve
Wynn acquired the D.I. shortly after Kerzner backed out of the $275
million deal in March 2000. In gaming circles, Sol Kerzner is also well
known for a lucrative deal in which a partnership he headed developed and for a
time managed the giant Mohegan Sun Indian casino in Connecticut. The Boston
Globe reported the partnership, Trading Cove Associates, will
have received an estimated $1 billion from the tribe that owns the casino over
the life of the partnership -- apparently hundreds of millions of dollars more
than allowed by federal law. Critics charge that amount is exploitative and well
above the 30 percent limit on profits non-Indians are allowed to earn from
Indian casinos. Trading Cove and Mohegan officials have defended
their arrangement as appropriate, though that deal has prompted Congress to
consider tightening the law to ensure tribes are not exploited by non-Indian
developers."
Tribal
Gamble. The Lure and Peril of Indian Gambling,
Boston Globe, August 26, 2001
One of a series of Globe articles on this subject:
"Focusing on the huge profits some investors now take from Indian-owned
casinos, an angry Senator John McCain yesterday grilled two government officials
on the deal-making behind the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut and on the
Clinton administration's last-minute recognition of the Nipmuc tribe of Central
Massachusetts. In his questioning, McCain made clear his concern that non-Indian
investors at the Mohegan Sun casino dodged federal law to get hundreds of
millions of dollars in extra profits that rightfully belonged to the tribe.
"Do you find that disturbing? Outrageous, even?" McCain asked Montie
Deer, the chairman of the National Indian Gaming Commission, a panel established
to enforce a strict limit on casino profits for non-Indian investors ... McCain
pinpointed the Mohegan tribe's relationship with a group of investors known as Trading
Cove Associates, a syndicate headed by international gambling mogul Sol
Kerzner, creator of Sun City in South Africa. In 1988, Congress recognized
that some tribes were so poor that they might agree to give as much as 90
percent of any profits to their non-Indian investors. Congress set 30 percent as
the maximum profit margin for those investors, though in exceptional
circumstances the tribes could grant up to 40 percent. The Indian Gaming
Commission was charged with enforcing that limit by approving contracts between
tribes and investors who would also act as casino general managers. The Mohegan
tribe made its deal with Trading Cove Associates, which originally
proposed to develop both a casino and an on-site hotel in exchange for the
development rights. But before submitting the proposal to the National Indian
Gaming Commission, Trading Cove withdrew the hotel component. The
commission approved maximum compensation for Trading Cove in 1995 anyway -- an
arrangement worth close to $500 million, to be paid over seven years. After the
casino opened, Trading Cove and the tribal leadership agreed on a 'buyout'
whereby the tribe would take over direct management of the casino. Nevertheless,
the tribe promised to pay Trading Cove in full, as if Trading Cove had
continued as general manager. But with Trading Cove no longer managing the
casino, the National Indian Gaming Commission lost authority to enforce
restrictions on Trading Cove's share of profits. That was the ruling of
the commission's general counsel in 1998. As a result, Trading Cove could
then negotiate for profits above the maximum set by Congress. And it did so by
selling the hotel rights back to the tribe for as much as $450 million,
according to interviews and documents reviewed by the Globe. Trading
Cove, in all, will receive an estimated $1 billion from the tribe."
Casino operator offers
to buy, donate massacre site,
by Deborah Frazier, Rocky Mountain News (at
mytwobeadsworth.com),
September 3, 2002
"The wandering spirits of 163 Arapaho and Cheyenne slaughtered and
mutilated at Sand Creek on the rolling prairie of southeastern Colorado in 1864
have another chance at resting in peace. There's a Dec. 2 closing date for
rancher William Dawson to sell the 1,456 acres at the heart of the Sand Creek
Massacre National Historic Site, where 700 Colorado militia soldiers killed and
mutilated Cheyenne and Arapaho, mostly women, children and the elderly. 'It will
be a big win for everyone,' said Victoria Livingston, Dawson's real estate
agent. 'It has been sacred ground for the Indians since the massacre. It should
end up with the Indians.' Election year tribal politics have delayed the closing
three times in 2002. Jim Druck, a Minnesota-based casino operator, will
pay $1.5 million for the land. He runs a casino for the Cheyenne and Arapaho in
Oklahoma and will donate the property to the tribes ... Druck, owner of
the Minnesota-based Southwest Entertainment Inc., heard the story and
offered to pay Dawson's price in late 2001. That same year, he had taken his
family to the Nazi death camp at Dachu, where his father, an Army captain, had
helped evacuate the starving survivors at the end of World War II. The Drucks
are Jewish, but none of their close relatives
died in the concentration camps, he said ... Druck, who calls himself a
'recovering attorney' who did well in real estate, also did pro bono work for
Native Americans in Minnesota until he closed his law practice in 1976. Years
later, some of his Indian clients approached him to run a casino. Druck went
to work for the Arapaho and Cheyenne in Oklahoma in 1992 on the first Indian
bingo casino approved by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Druck also owns
the Gold Rush Casino in Cripple Creek."
At $500 an Hour, Lobbyist's Influence Rises with G.O.P.,
New York Times (posted at gtlaw.com), April 3, 2002
"In the last six months of 2001, the Coushatta Indians, a tribe with 800
members and a large casino in southwestern Louisiana, paid $1.76 million to the
law firm of Jack Abramoff [law firm: Greenberg Tausig], a
Republican lobbyist here. Last month, the Bush administration handed the tribe a
big victory by blocking construction of a casino by a rival tribe that would
have drained much of the Coushatta's business. William Worfel, vice chairman of
the Coushattas, views the administration's decision as a direct benefit of the
eye-popping lobbying his tribe paid Mr. Abramoff, more money than many giant
corporations like AOL, Time-Warner and American Airlines paid lobbyists in the
same period ... Mr. Abramoff, 43, has used his close ties to Republican
Tom DeLay of Texas, the Republican whip, and other conservatives in the Hose to
become one of the most influential -- and, at $500 an hour, best compensated --
lobbyists in Washington ... Unlike many lobbyists who take almost any client who
is willing to pay their fee, Mr. Abramoff says he represents only those
who stand for conservative principles. They include three Indian tribes
[actually five noted in this article: the Chitimacha Tribe of
Louisiana, the Coushetta Tribe of Lousiana, the Sagninaw Chippewa Tribe, the
Hopi Tribe, and the Missississippi Choctaw] with big casinos and, until
recently, the Northern Mariana Islands ... [Abramoff] is an Orthodox Jew whos
ays that even more than politics, his religion is a cnetral element of his life
... The Mississippi Choctaw paid Greenberg Traurig more than $1 million in the
last half of 2001 ... The other big issue for Mr. Abramoff in 1995 that
promoted his career was a bill pased by the Senate that would have stripped the
Norhern Mariana Islands of their exemption from the United States minimum wage
and immigration laws ... Representative George Miller, a California Democrat who
sponsored the legislation in the House, is still furious about Mr. Abramoff's
action. In a recent interview, Mr. Miller said, '[Abramoff] spent a lot
of time, effort and money to protect a system that was a growth industry for sex
shops, prostitution, abuse of women, slavery, illegal immigration, worker
exploitation and narcotics, and he did it all in the name of freedom.'"
One little, two little, three little Indian casinos,
by Kenny Pearlman, Game Master Online,
October 1, 2002
"Southern California is inundated with Indian casinos. When the idea of
building casinos on Indian reservations came up in the California legislature it
would have been soundly defeated except for the fact that the Indian tribes
contributed millions of dollars to the Governor's race, as well as to the
various Senate races in the state. The Indian's land was sovereign and so
couldn't be regulated by any state agency ... The Indians promised there woud be
no hanky-panky, that they would run their casinos just like the Nevada casinos;
in fact, since most of their start-up money was coming from the Nevada casinos [Who
owns these?] anyway, they would their 'investors' check their operations.
That's like sending the fox to the chicken shed to count the chickens. When it
came time to do any checking, the Indians had their Jewish lawyers claim
soverignty and it was a done deal. The books could be cooked and no one was
allowed in the k itchen to even see what they hell they were putting in the
food."
Tribal
Gamble, The Lure and Peril of Indian Gambling,
A Big Roll at Mohegan Sun,
Boston Globe, December 10, 2000
First of four parts,
"It rises out of the rolling hills with the promise of grandeur, its
massive glass towers designed to loom 440 feet over the reflected countryside,
an instant landmark, a beacon to a palace built for gamblers. At a cost of $1.1
billion, this expansion of the Mohegan Sun Casino is one of the country's
largest private construction projects, a steel testament to the extravagant
profits in the rapidly expanding Indian gaming industry. But it also stands as a
monument to a classic American deal, a latter-day version of Indian treasure
being carried off by non-Indians, despite a federal law designed to keep Indian
gaming money firmly in tribal hands ... In all, the investor group headed by
Sol Kerzner, developer of the Sun City Casino in South Africa, will take at
least $800 million out of the Mohegan Sun Casino. The Mohegans were almost
penniless and landless and relying on lawyers apparently financed by the Kerzner
group when they struck the deal that cost them so dearly. Since then, the terms
of the deal have largely been kept quiet by the Mohegans and the investors. At
least two of the three members of the regulatory agency responsible for
reviewing the finances of Indian casinos only learned of the lucrative hotel
component when contacted by the Globe. The heavy share of profits being
carted off by non-Indian businesses like Kerzner's is only one failure of the
federal Indian gaming system. Born partly of a desire to apply the '80s faith in
free enterprise to the nation's poorest ethnic group, the story of Indian gaming
is now one of congressional intentions gone awry. The gaming act has failed to
broadly improve the living conditions of most Indians. A Globe analysis
revealed that just 2 percent of the country's Native Americans earn 50 percent
of the country's $10 billion in Indian gaming revenues, and two-thirds of
Indians get nothing at all ... The explosion in Indian gaming casinos, already
allegedly infiltrated in some places by underworld figures, is occurring with
little government oversight. The commission responsible for policing more than
241 Indian gaming operations has a budget of only $8 million and a staff of 70.
By contrast, the commission supervising the 12 Atlantic City casinos spends $58
million and employs a comparative army of 800 regulators While hundreds of
millions of Indian dollars are being spent on lobbying and campaign
contributions in states where gaming is prime - including more than $100 million
in California alone - tribes have witnessed per capita government spending on
Indian health, education, and housing drop in real dollars, while human service
spending for all Americans has soared. ... Kerzner and two other
businessmen spent freely for lawyers and other professionals to negotiate the
tribe through a labyrinth of federal and state regulations, Mohegan leaders say.
... In 1998, Trading Cove cashed out. Their take: a flat five percent of all
money spent at Mohegan Sun, not just profits, for every year until 2015, without
doing any further work. Based on the tribe's estimate, it's worth $675 million
to Kernzer and his two partners. The remaining years of the management contract
- the subject of all the commission's wrangling - was worth $245 million,
according to federal disclosures by the tribe. The largely unnoticed hotel
portion of the deal was worth $430 million. Combined with the $145 million
already paid out on the management contract, the Kerzner group will leave the
deal with more than $800 million ... Leonard Wolman, one of Kerzner's
partners, said ''All the agreements were properly filed.' Wolman, a South
African native who has become one of Connecticut's leading developers, said he
and his Trading Cove partners were ''fairly compensated'' for the ''incredible
risk'' they took in the deal."
Genting
MD lending US $80mil to tribe to build Niagara Falls casino,
The Star, November 15, 2002
"GENTING Bhd managing director Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay will lend US$80mil to
the Seneca Nation of Indians to build a casino at Niagara Falls, according to a
report in The Buffalo News. The five-year loan from Lim’s family
investment company, carrying an interest rate of 29% per annum, would provide
the fuel for the plan to turn the New York side of Niagara Falls into a gambling
haven, said the report dated Nov 12. Several other Indian tribes had approached
Lim seeking financing for casino projects around the United States but Steven
G. Horowitz, a New York attorney representing Lim, said his client had
turned them down because they did not have what the Senecas have – a Niagara
Falls address ... The report said that while most US bank real estate
development loans were going for about 5%, the interest rate Lim would get from
the Senecas was more than two-and-a-half times the rate paid on junk
bonds."
Corruption of
Indian casinos no surprise,
by Bill Steigerwald,
Jewish World Review, Dec. 13, 2002
"Gee, here's a real shocker. It turns out a government program to help
American-Indian tribes become more self-sufficient by allowing them to run
casino gambling operations on their reservations is a failure, a fraud, a joke,
a scandal. Imagine that! In theory, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 was
supposed to raise Indians up from poverty, wean them off government handouts and
teach them how to run their own businesses. In fact, what we created, says Time's
special report, 'Wheel of Misfortune,' is a craps table of chaos, unfairness,
greed and abuse. Very few Indians - there are 1.8 million of them, 85 percent
still living on or near reservations - have benefited from the $12.7
billion-a-year Indian casino industry on tribal lands, says Time. Most of
that gambling revenue goes to a small number of now very rich tribes and to the
non-Indian big-bucks investors who bankrolled or manage their casinos. The
country's 337 Indian tribes are, as a group, still a socio-economic basket case,
thanks in large part to 150 years of being owned and operated by the Great White
Fathers in Washington, D.C. Half of reservation Indians today are unemployed,
and a third live beneath the official poverty level ... But the folks who put
out Forbes - America's best, most gleeful and most consistent booster of
free-market capitalism, would only have yawned and said, 'So what else is news?'
For 85 years, Forbes has made its living reporting and studying the bad
things government does when it sticks its politicized nose into the people's
business. Its special anniversary issue is, as usual, generously crammed with
smart, well-written, readable and completely biased articles that, as its
editor, William Baldwin, says, 'celebrate the success of capitalism in spreading
prosperity by spreading innovation.' Forbes knows the obvious and never
tires of repeating it: Capitalism and economic freedom improve lives. As proof,
it profiles 85 innovations created by inventors and entrepreneurs of all levels
of savviness and craziness - from sneakers, frozen food and wallboard to FM
radio, cell phones, Pampers, three-point seatbelts and Viagra - that we either
take for granted or can't live without."
Ex-FSIN
chief praises Hitler in speech
The StarPhoenix, December 14, 2002
[Note: the StarPhoenix is owned by Jewish/Zionist activist media mogul
Izzy Asper. This article is also highlighted here,
in his paper, the Leader-Post, in Regina, Saskatchewan, which Asper
also owns]
"A respected Saskatchewan Indian leader said Friday Hitler did the right
thing when he 'fried' six million Jews during the Second World War. In comments
one local Jewish leader described as unfortunate, David Ahenakew, a senator with
the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN), a former chief of the
organization and a former chief of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), said in
an interview Friday the Nazi leader was trying to clean up the world during the
war. 'The Jews damn near owned all of Germany prior to the war,' Ahenakew said.
'That's how Hitler came in. He was going to make damn sure that the Jews didn't
take over Germany or Europe. That's why he fried six million of those guys, you
know. Jews would have owned the goddamned world. And look what they're doing.
They're killing people in Arab countries' ... When asked how he could justify
the Holocaust, Ahenakew said: 'How do you get rid of a disease like that, that's
going to take over, that's going to dominate?" Ahenakew said when he served
in Egypt in 1964. he saw Jews kill people. When asked for details, he said mines
planted by the Israeli army killed civilians. 'All I know is what the Germans
told me. Of course, I believe them. I saw the Jews kill people in Egypt when I
was there. The Palestinians, Arabs. I saw them (Israel) f---ing dominate
everything ... I don't support Hitler. But he cleaned up a hell of a lot of
things, didn't he? You would be owned by the Jews right now the world over.
Look, a small, little country (Israel) like that and everyone supports them. Who
the hell owns many of the banks in the states, many of the corporations? Look at
here in Canada. Izzy Asper (chair of CanWest Global, the owner of The
StarPhoenix). He controls the media. What the hell does that tell you?
That's power. That's f---ing power.' Ahenakew, who was FSIN chief from 1968-78
and AFN chief from 1982-85, grew impatient when told non-Jews own media
companies, as well. 'The hell with the Jews. I can't stand them. And that's it.
I don't want to talk about them.'"
[Stating that Jews dominate the mass media is true. In Canada, saying this
is apparently punishable as a "hate crime."]
Ahenakew claims
'racial control' of media,
CBC (Canada), August 14, 2003
"An aboriginal leader who faces hate crime charges for comments about Adolf
Hitler and the Jews has made controversial new comments about racial control of
the media, a Toronto-based magazine says. David Ahenakew In its July/August
edition, This Magazine quotes David Ahenakew as saying no one race should
have control of the media. "When a group of people, a race of people, can
control the world media, then there's got to be something done about that,"
Ahenakew is quoted as saying before hanging up the phone on reporter Alex Roslin.
The article says Ahenakew later told the reporter that he is frustrated that he
has to defend himself over his views on Jewish control of banks and the media.
"For me to keep defending myself in my own land is not going to
happen," This Magazine quotes Ahenakew as saying. It is Ahenakew's
first interview since his controversial comments last year about Hitler. FROM
JUNE 11, 2003: Ahenakew charged with spreading hate. In December, he told a
Saskatoon reporter at a conference that Hitler was trying to "clean up the
world" when he "fried" six million Jews in the Holocaust. World
domination Ahenakew said Hitler's rise to power was a response to the
"disease" of Jewish world domination. He was head of the Federation of
Saskatchewan Indian Nations senate at the time but later quit the post. In June,
the Saskatchewan Justice Department charged him with promoting hatred. He later
apologized for his comments and said he doesn't hold the views expressed in the
December interview. But the article in This Magazine quotes sources
familiar with the former native leader who say he has long held racist views
which have been largely shielded
from the public."
[What does the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl
have to do with Canadian Indians? Nothing. But the Jewish Lobby bends everything
into their orbit of pro-Israel fanaticism.]
Cree
chief supports fight against anti-Semitism,
CTV (Canadian Press), June 1, 2003
"Shared experiences of oppression and racism bind Canada's Jews and native
people in a common battle to fight hatred, the grand chief of Quebec's northern
Cree told a conference on Sunday. "Part of a shared experience between
aboriginal peoples and Jews is a history of oppression, of marginalization, and
of struggling to retain our identities as societies within larger, often hostile
and hateful societies," Grand Chief Ted Moses told an anti-Semitism
conference organized by the Canadian Jewish Congress. The event attracted the
father of slain American reporter Daniel Pearl, Canadian political
leaders, human rights experts and a variety of Quebec political commentators. In
an emotional speech, Judea Pearl denounced the growing global scourge of
anti-Semitism and discussed his family's efforts to address the root causes of
hate that resulted in his son's death. Pearl was a Wall Street Journal
reporter who was kidnapped and killed last year in Pakistan while researching
militants and terrorism in Pakistan. In a videotape of his killing, Pearl
defiantly told his captors that he was Jewish ... A series of conference
speakers described the worsening anti-Semitism that has arisen around the world
since the attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in
Washington. "We are entering a new, escalating, virulent, global and even
lethal anti-Semitism," said Irwin Cotler, a renowned human rights
professor and Liberal MP. Traditional anti-Semitism against Jews in Canada, the
U.S. and elsewhere has been replaced by increasing attacks against the Jewish
people and the right of Israel to survive among nations, he said."
[Abramoff is Jewish. Scanlon? More on the many Jewish-run rip-off
"Indian casinos," here.
(See Native American section down the page)]
U.S. Investigating GOP Lobbyists
with Ties to Indian-Run Casinos,
BY JACK NEWFIELD, New York Sun, September 8, 2004
"A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., is hearing testimony and
analyzing thousands of banking and billing records connected to two
prominent Republican lobbyists and strategists as part of a racketeering
probe involving Indian-run casinos. The men, Jack Abramoff and
Mike Scanlon, have received a total of more than $45
million since 2001 from 11 tribes with gambling casinos ranging from
Louisiana to Mississippi, to California to Michigan, and to Texas. They
are under investigation for possible money-laundering, racketeering, and tax
fraud, federal law enforcement and Senate sources say. The investigation is
opening a window on the murky world of Indian gambling, Washington lobbying,
money washing, and campaign finance. It also is a cautionary tale for New York,
which has four Indian-run casinos and is considering adding at least four more.
A task force that includes the FBI, IRS, and the Justice Department's public
integrity section is running the criminal probe. Indictments are expected this
fall, according to sources close to the task force. Mr. Abramoff was
ousted from his prominent law firm - Greenberg Traurig - in March,
reportedly after his partners discovered he took more than $10 million in
payments from Mr. Scanlon without the firm's knowledge. Investigators say most
of the $45 million was paid to Mr. Scanlon as a public relations consultant,
meaning he did not have to make public disclosure. Mr. Abramoff, one
of Washington's top lobbyists, must report such payments. Mr. Scanlon,
33, is the former press secretary to the House majority leader, Tom DeLay. Mr. Abramoff,
45, who was the registered lobbyist for the dictatorship of the late Mobutu Sese
Seko of Zaire, received $7 million from the government of the Mariana Islands to
keep the protectorate exempt from American minimum-wage laws ... The federal
prosecutors, who have amassed a "war room" of more 100,000 documents,
have subpoenaed the banking records of a foundation created by Mr. Abramoff and
his wife and of a campaign consulting company and a "think tank" in
Delaware run by Mr. Scanlon. These institutions are
suspected of laundering large sums of money "donated" by the tribes
for personal and political use by the lobbyists ... Mr. Scanlon's think
tank - the American International Center - received a $556,000 donation from the
800-member Coushatta tribe of Louisiana. The AIC, was run by a former lifeguard
and a former yoga instructor, produced no policy work, and went defunct after a
year. The AIC, located on property owned by Mr. Scanlon, paid Mr. Abramoff $1.5
million in fees, much of it after it after it closed. Mr. Abramoff's
Capitol Athletic Foundation received $1 million each from the Coushatta tribe of
Louisiana, and the Choctaw tribe of Mississippi. This
foundation then made a $1.8 million donation to an Orthodox Jewish private
school founded by Mr. Abramoff. The school closed when Mr.
Abramoff was expelled from his law firm. A 2003 audit of the Coushattas by the
tribe's former controller, Erick LaRoque, found the tribe had a $40 million
deficit, and that "operating equity and cash reserves have suffered
significant decline. "The audit reported that $24
million had been taken from the tribe's education, health care, and housing
funds, and, "There is no documented plan for reimbursement."
Three dissident leaders of the tribe - secretary treasurer Harold John, tribal
council member David Sickey, and Ben Langley - have told The New York Sun they
were excluded from all meetings and decision-making involving the lobbyists,
their fee structure, and what the men did to earn these fees. Mr. Sickey said he
is "disgusted" by the donation of "sacred tribal education
funds" to the foundation and think tank "without proper
documentation." Law enforcement sources have told the Sun that one aspect
of the "hydra headed" grand jury probe is that the Coushatta tribe
paid Mr. Scanlon's company to spy on dissidents and their lawyers ... The Agua
Caliente tribe of California, which has been resisting a union organizing drive,
gave $100,000 to the Republican National Committee shortly after hiring Mr.
Abramoff. The Agua Caliente tribe paid Mr. Abramoff $1.6 million in
lobbying fees for one year and hired Mr. Scanlon to run a $7.4 million
letter-writing campaign to then-governor, Gray Davis, a Democrat, for more slot
machines. This failed effort generated 2,000 letters, at a cost of $3,700 per
letter, according to tribal dissidents."
[Yet another in the kaleidescope of professional Jewish scamsters and
it's the usual: skimming off millions somewhere to fund a private Jewish
school.]
Records
Detail Spending By GOP Lobbyist Abramoff,
by R. Jeffrey Smith, Washington Post, September 28,
2004; Page A01
"T
Fleecing
the 'monkeys,'
by Jerry Reynolds, Indian Country Today, The
Nation's Leading American Indian News Source,
October 5, 2004
"Days after the week-long celebration of the new National Museum of the
American Indian, tribal members and Congressmen were fuming over revelations
about a new scandal in Indian country, the doings of lobbyist Jack
Abramoff and his associate, Michael Scanlon. At a Sept. 29 Senate
Indian Affairs Committee hearing on $66 million in lobbying fees that the two
received from several tribes, Sen. Daniel K. Inouye noted the contrast, saying
that attention now turns from the museum and its promise for the Native future
to ''another most unseemly manifestation of the
exploitation of the American Indian.'' In e-mail exchanges that the
Committee blew up on large panels in the hearing room, Abramoff
and Scanlon referred to tribal clients who paid them $66 million over three
years in terms of ''absolute contempt,'' said Chairman Ben Nighthorse Campbell,
R-Colo. Campbell said Abramoff on one occasion sent an e-mail
stating ''I have to meet with the monkeys,''
referring to his clients, the Mississippi Choctaw tribe. On other occasions,
Campbell said, the e-mails refer to tribal clients as ''morons,
stupid idiots ... troglodytes, losers.'' Campbell, the only Indian in the
Senate, said the words offended him personally. Witnesses and senators at the
hearing referred to the two men variously as ''vultures,''
''con men,'' ''crooks,'' ''charlatans'' and ''a pathetic, disgusting example of
greed run amok.'' No one called them guilty of criminal wrongdoing
though. The committee has issued at least 45 subpoenas and reviewed thousands of
documents in exposing an alleged pattern of business practice aimed by Abramoff
and Scanlon at ''impressionable'' tribal leaders, in Sen. John McCain's word.
During the years when the e-mails were exchanged, 2001 to 2004, the committee
alleges that Abramoff and Scanlon received or directed the spending of at least
$66 million from six tribes: The Mississippi Choctaw, the Louisiana Coushatta,
the Agua Caliente, Sandia Pueblo, the Saginaw Chippewa and the Tigua of Ysleta
del Sur Pueblo. Despite assertions from the committee that Abramoff and
Scanlon put minimal effort into earning their fees, newspaper accounts indicate
that some of their efforts went into keeping track of likely competitors for
casino tribes. In one incident, reported at length in the Washington Post, the
two along with Christian conservative Ralph Reed, worked to support efforts of
the state of Texas to shut down the casino of the Tigua in El Paso. (Reed, a
known foe of gaming, has not been implicated in the other Indian-specific
ventures of Abramoff and Scanlon.) Upon succeeding, the
e-mail trail shows, the two gloated over the unemployment of casino workers.
Having fulfilled the requirements of one tribal contract by lobbying to get the
Tigua casino shut down, they turned around and took $4.2 million from the Tigua
to lobby for its reopening. Along the way, in an exchange of e-mails, they
belittled the Tigua for needing their help. The casino has never reopened. In
securing lucrative contracts for themselves, Abramoff and
Scanlon may have interfered in at least two tribal elections by backing slates
of candidates favorable to them, said senators and witnesses. Agua Caliente
Chairman Richard Milanovich told the committee that the two tried to arrange his
defeat ... In addition, the committee alleged, Abramoff
directed tribal contributions to a charity he controlled."
Abramoff
Allies Keeping Distance. Lobbyist under scrutiny for dealing with Indian tribes,
by Thomas B. Edsall, Washington Post, November 8,
2004
"Shortly after Republicans took control of Congress in 1994, tribal leaders
of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians approached lobbyist Jack
Abramoff with a problem. The tribe's Silver Star Hotel & Casino had
barely opened and already legislation was moving forward in Congress calling for
Indian casinos to be taxed in the same manner as Las Vegas gambling facilities. Abramoff
knew how to take care of the Choctaws. He convinced the House
Republican leadership that it had violated a core principle of the new
conservative majority: It had raised taxes. The legislation was scuttled. With
Indian gambling revenue now exceeding $16 billion annually, Abramoff's
success saved the tribes hundreds of millions of dollars. Soon, he
was representing half a dozen other Indian tribes, some paying his firm $2
million or more a year. In less than a decade, Abramoff's
ties to Republican congressional leaders and powerbrokers in the conservative
movement catapulted him into the highest ranks of Washington lobbyists.
By 2003, Abramoff's clients -- including the Business
Roundtable, Atofina Chemicals, Humana, Primedia Inc. and tribal clients -- paid
his law firm $11.57 million in fees, one of the highest such sums in Washington.
Paving the way for Abramoff's rise were his ties to House
Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), Americans for Tax Reform President Grover
Norquist and former Christian Coalition executive director Ralph Reed. Abramoff's
success lay in his ability to portray clients as exemplars of successful free
market competition under attack by overzealous Democrats. On behalf of Indian
tribes and other clients, Abramoff convinced the GOP majority
that Democrats were bent on regulating and taxing the entrepreneurial vitality
out of the U.S. economy. In effect, he turned conservative
orthodoxy into a cash spigot ... Now, however, the $66 million that Abramoff
and his business partner, public affairs consultant Michael Scanlon, charged
Indian tribes has become the focus of separate investigations by a federal grand
jury and Congress. The controversy has produced disclosures embarrassing to some
of Abramoff's political allies. Already, the inquiries have
revealed that Abramoff and Scanlon -- DeLay's former spokesman -- channeled
money to Reed and Norquist's organizations. Reed has been forced to explain
receipt of money channeled from casinos through Abramoff;
Norquist, in turn, has denied that the payments he received drove the pro-tribe
agenda of Americans for Tax Reform
... The 1994 Republican takeover of the House and Senate was a
crucial moment in Abramoff's transformation from a conservative
ideologue into an influential lobbyist. He became a valuable commodity, a
conservative K Street figure with direct access to the
newly powerful right wing of the Republican Party ... Two years later, Abramoff
and Norquist took over Citizens for America, a conservative advocacy
group created by drugstore magnate Lewis Lehrman. After the two
arranged a costly "summit meeting" of anti-communist leaders in
Angola, Lehrman, according to media accounts, let Abramoff
and Norquist go. In 1986, Abramoff became chairman of the
International Freedom Foundation, which was secretly
financed with $1.5 million a year from the white South African government,
according to sworn testimony to the South African Truth and Reconciliation
Commission. Mirijanian said Abramoff denies receiving money from the South
African government. Between 1986 and 1994, Abramoff was
president of Regency Entertainment Group, a company that financed ideologically
conservative movies, including the 1989 film "Red Scorpion' ... In 1995, Abramoff
took on another major client, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana
Islands, an American protectorate in the Pacific. Again, he capitalized on his
ability to exploit conservative ideology. The Marianas sought to retain
exemptions from U.S. immigration and labor laws to import
laborers from China at $3.05 an hour -- $2 under the federal minimum wage -- to
make garments labeled "Made in the U.S.A." Abramoff portrayed
the Marianas as a case study of the success of the free market unfettered by
wage and immigration laws."
"On May 20, 1981, in a unanimous en banc opinion, the Court of Claims awarded [Arthur] Lazarus, [Marvin] Sonosky, and Payne $10,595,943 in attorney fees, the maximum 10 percent. 'The result the attorneys have obtained for their clients has been extraordinary,' Chief Judge Friedman wrote in summary of the court's views. "Starting with a case that appeared doomed, they obtained an award of more than $100 million -- which is more than twice as alrge as any other made in an Indian claims case. Both the attaining of any award and the magnitude of the award made were attributable soley to the endeavors of the attorneys. Considering all the circumstancs -- the nature of the case, the obstacles the attorneys had to overcome, the low intial prospect of success, and the great skill and dedication with which the attorneys did their work -- we conclude that attorneys' fees of 10% of the award, or $10,595,943, are appropriate."
The fee decision, not surprisingly, made front-page news, as in the New York Times, which ran a long story and a photograph of Lazarus, Sonasky, and Payne under the banner headline 'Big Wampum for a Legal Tribe.' According to Stephen Glasser, publisher of the Federal Attorneys' Fee Awards Reporter, the $10.6 million Sioux fee ranked as one of the largest, if not the largest, fee ever awarded by a court.
The response in Sioux country was predictable. Having argued for years that Sonosky and Lazarus represented the Sioux soley out of financial self-interest, AIM leader Russell Means denounced the lawyers as 'parasites' and called the fee 'the largest rip-off of Indian claims money in the history of this country.' To [lawyer Mario] Gonzalez, the whole fee proceeding was a 'sham.' Other commentators concurred in the judgment of prize-winning author Peter Mathiessen, who wrote in his book In the Spirit of Crazy Horse (a Sioux history focused on the 1975 Pine Ridge murder of two FBI agents) that the Black Hills claim 'had been won by the wealthy lawyer [Lazarus] and lost by his poverty-stricken clients ...'
Sonosky shrugged off the criticism, most of which (because of the Ogalala contract expiration issue) was directed at Lazarus. In 1956, Sonosky had gambled that he could win the Black Hills claim and that gamble had paid off handsomely. The Court of Claims fee decision made Sonosky a rich man overnight. His personal share amounted to more than $4.8 million."
-- Lazarus, Edward. Black Hills White Justice. The Sioux
Nation Versus the United States from 1775 to the Present, HarperCollins
Publisher, 1991, p. 409-410
[Note: thisbook was written by the son of the head lawyer
for the Sioux nation, and is biased in this manner .]