Former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff and a consultant, Michael Scanlon, have reimbursed the Tigua Indian community of El Paso, Texas $200,000 of the estimated $4 million the Tiguas paid to the men a decade ago. Abramoff had promised to lobby on the Tiguas’ behalf and prevent the state of Texas from shutting down their Speaking Rock Casino. The bid failed, as then-Texas Attorney General John Cornyn led the charge to close the casino in March of 2002. The entire fiasco played out against the aftermath of the 09/11 terrorist attacks, so it didn’t get much national press. But, it culminated in jail terms for Abramoff and Scanlon; sullied the reputation of a well-known Christian leader; exposed the entrenched corruption in Washington politics; spawned a curious link to a mysterious murder; and solidified the belief of many Native Americans that America really hasn’t changed much since the “Battle of Little Bighorn.”
It’s pure irony. The state of Texas essentially legalized gambling with the approval of the state lottery in 1992; a move that came after lengthy court battles and howls of protest from Christian conservatives that gambling is bad for the soul. The Tiguas, however, took it as a positive sign – a proverbial green light – and immediately expanded Speaking Rock from a quaint bingo parlor into a full-fledged casino. Proceeds from the casino eventually lifted many Tiguas out of the poverty that has traditionally strapped Native Americans into lives of perpetual servitude to the federal bureaucracy. They were able to pay for new infrastructure in and around El Paso and provide health care and establish college scholarships for several members. Much of the community transitioned into a more self-sustaining existence; one they’d never experienced.
That apparently wasn’t good enough for Cornyn who filed suit to close the casino in 1999; then-Governor George W. Bush approved it. Even local Roman Catholic officials beseeched Cornyn to leave the Tiguas alone. I supposed it doesn’t help that evangelical Christians seem to possess a pathological hatred for Roman Catholics, but all of the pleas fell on the deaf ears of Cornyn’s office. When Bush ascended to the U.S. presidency in December 2000, Perry became governor and proceeded with litigation against the Tiguas. Desperate to save their casino – and ultimately their livelihood – the Tiguas enlisted Abramoff’s help.
The case got more complicated in 2001 when the Alabama-Coushatta tribe opened a small casino near Houston. Abramoff and Scanlon viewed that as a major competitive threat to a casino operated by another one of their clients, the Coushatta tribe of Louisiana. Much of the Louisiana tribe’s customer base came from the Houston area, and the new Alabama-Coushatta casino was much closer to the state’s largest city and therefore, potentially more profitable. Strangely, Abramoff didn’t seem to care about the Tiguas’ casino in relation to the Alabama-Coushatta enterprise. As far as he was concerned at the time, the Tiguas had a legal right to operate their casino, but the Alabama-Coushatta didn’t. Abramoff was leery of the financial impact the Alabama-Coushatta casino could have on the Louisiana Coushatta.
Abramoff and Scanlon hatched their plan in 2002, when tried to buy influence with Ohio Republican Congressman Bob Ney, then-Chairman of the House Administration Committee. They hoped to place a Tigua-friendly amendment in a bill called the Help America Vote Act, which was designed to correct some of the voting problems exposed in the 2000 presidential election. The amendment would have legalized gaming at Speaking Rock, but it had nothing to do with elections or voting. By then, Abramoff and Scanlon had collected tens of millions of dollars in consulting fees representing the Tiguas and other American Indian tribes.
Then, in a move that speaks truly to their greed and arrogance, Abramoff and Scanlon involved Ralph Reed; one-time boy wonder to the conservative Christian right and former head of the Christian Coalition, to lead a campaign in Texas supporting Cornyn’s efforts to close Speaking Rock. They began funneling some of the Tigua money to Reed whose efforts included organizing Texas pastors to support closing all Indian casinos in the state.
In a January 7, 2002, email exchange, Reed told Abramoff that an important court ruling on the future of the Tigua casino was expected soon. Abramoff responded: “It’s not shuttered yet. Let’s get this thing closed and then we’ll see what we can do. As we type, they are gambling away.”
On February 5, 2002, Reed emailed Abramoff that he had spoken to a source close to Cornyn, and they expected a federal judge to rule in the next couple of days that the Tigua casino should be closed. Abramoff forwarded Reed’s email to Scanlon, saying, “Whining idiot. Close the fucking thing already.”
The next week, a federal court ruling ordered Speaking Rock closed. The Alabama-Coushatta casino was closed shortly afterwards.
On February 11, 2002, Reed emailed Abramoff an Associated Press story about the Speaking Rock closure. Abramoff replied: “Ultimately, the main target is the (Alabama Coushatta). I wish those moronic Tiguas were smarter in their political contributions. I’d love us to get our mitts on that moolah!! Oh well, stupid folks get wiped out.”
Abramoff apparently didn’t tell Reed that he already had planned to scam the Tiguas. He urged the tribe to hire Scanlon, former aide to House Republican leader Tom DeLay, for his public relations expertise. Abramoff promised the Tiguas that he wouldn’t take any money for himself while he worked to reopen the casino, but he made more than $1.8 million off them. Scanlon had agreed to split half of his profits with Abramoff. The two had struck similar deals – which are illegal – on contracts Scanlon had received from other Indian tribes. But, they never informed the Tiguas or any of their clients.
The scheme began to unravel in June of 2002 when Abramoff asked Marc Schwartz, a Tigua consultant, for $50,000 to pay for a Scotland golf trip for Ney and others. Abramoff told the Tiguas that Ney had requested the trip, but Ney denies that and said the trip was Abramoff’s idea. In July, Schwartz advised the Tigua Tribal Council to make a $50,000 payment for the trip. He also suggested asking the Alabama-Coushatta to contribute the same amount. Even though Abramoff had specifically asked Schwartz for the $50,000 contribution, Schwartz said in a memo to the Tribal Council: “Neither the Tiguas nor the Alabama-Coushattas has been solicited to underwrite this educational trip abroad, but I would strongly recommend that both tribes consider a donation towards this effort.”
The Alabama-Coushattas contributed $50,000, but the Tiguas never made a payment for the Scotland trip, according to an investigation by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. Abramoff, Ney, Reed and others headed to Scotland in early August 2002. When they returned, Abramoff set up an August 14 meeting between Ney and tribal leaders for the Tiguas and the Alabama-Coushattas to discuss the possibility of re-opening their respective casinos. Ney had consulted with Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut about inserting that aforementioned Tigua-friendly amendment into the Help America Vote Act and repeatedly mentioned Abramoff’s name. That caused Dodd to inquire further, which led the Senate Indian Affairs Committee to uncover all those emails and whereupon Abramoff’s and Scanlon’s plot disintegrated.
Scanlon pled guilty to corruption charges in November 2005, followed by Abramoff in January 2006. Ney also pled guilty in October 2006 to corruption charges and was released from prison in August 2008. Abramoff left prison in June 2010 and lived in a halfway house until December of that year. Scanlon is due to be released in September 2012. Schwartz is currently facing federal indictment on unrelated public corruption charges; accused of being part of a bribery scheme aimed at winning contracts from El Paso governments for another one of his clients.
I feel Abramoff’s greatest insult to the Tiguas is his claim that, as a Jew, he understood their plight of being an oppressed people. Never mind that Jews in the Western Hemisphere haven’t endured a fraction of the suffering as the region’s indigenous peoples; just the mere allusion to such horrors in the context of casino gambling is offensive to both groups. That an orthodox Jew would align himself with a bunch of evangelical Christians to defraud Native Americans is akin to Hitler conspiring with Stalin’s army to decimate the gypsies of Eastern Europe.
Reed was never charged in the Tigua scandal, but he got his proverbial “comeuppance” soon afterwards. In 2006, he lost his bid for the Republican nomination as Georgia’s Lieutenant Governor, losing to State Senator Casey Cagle by nearly 20 points in the primary. His association with Abramoff had come back to haunt him, costing him not only the nomination, but also support from his base. Perhaps, Georgia voters punished Reed for the same kind of duplicitous behavior he used to build campaigns against others. In other words, what goes around comes around!
There is one unresolved event related to this ordeal; an incident that – at best – has a tenuous connection to Abramoff, but is sinister nonetheless. On February 2, 2001, Konstantinos “Gus” Boulis, a Greek immigrant, was ambushed and killed near his Fort Lauderdale office, after an unknown vehicle ran his BMW off the road. Hit three times, Boulis, 51, drove a few blocks before crashing into a tree. He died an hour later at a hospital. Boulis was the founder and owner of the “Miami Subs” sandwich chain and founder of “SunCruz,” a cruise line venture, which boasted gambling casinos aboard its vessels. In September 2000, Boulis sold SunCruz for $147.5 million to 3 men: New York businessman Adam Kidan, a high profile Washington lobbyist; Ben Waldman, a 2-time congressional candidate and former aide to Ronald Reagan; and Jack Abramoff. Three months later things inexplicably soured between Boulis and Kidan; the latter even claimed Boulis tried to stab him with a pen. Two months after that, Boulis was dead. The case didn’t gain any traction until 2005, when Florida authorities convicted a man named Ralph Liotta for killing reputed mobster John Gurino in a Boca Raton deli in October 2003. Gurino owed Liotta money, but – more importantly – he allegedly had killed Boulis. After Liotta’s conviction, authorities arrested three men suspected in the Boulis murder: Anthony Moscatiello, Anthony Ferrari and James Fiorillo, all with reputed ties to John Gotti and the Gambino crime family. Records showed that cell phone calls were exchanged within 500 feet of the Boulis crime scene. Authorities traced the calls to Ferrari and Fiorillo. In August of 2006, a judge in Broward County, Florida granted bond to Moscatiello and Fiorillo, citing lack of evidence. In February 2007, a separate judge granted bond to Ferrari, but when his collateral failed, he returned to prison. By then, Adam Kidan had decided to cooperate with prosecutors and was sentenced to a five-year prison sentence in October 2006; he was released in May 2009. Boulis’ murder, however, remains unsolved.
And, the Tiguas remain poor and bitter. You really can’t make a living selling trinkets and pottery alongside the railroad tracks. Speaking Rock now offers what the tribe refers to as “sweepstakes machines,” which resemble slot machines and can pay out thousands of dollars in cash prizes. Tigua officials insist the machines are legal because they’re an electronic version of the popular Monopoly games offered by McDonald’s, but – not surprisingly – the state disagrees and is engaged in a continuing legal battle with the tribe.
Shortly after Speaking Rock was shut down, an acquaintance of mine said most Indian casinos actually are owned by people with “English, Italian and Russian surnames” and that the Indians act only as fronts for organized crime. When I asked him why the feds don’t go after the people with the English, Italian and Russian surnames instead of the Indians, he didn’t – or wouldn’t – answer. There must have been a bad connection, since he was in California, and I was in Dallas. I didn’t believe him and I don’t believe Abramoff was sincere when he apologized to the Tiguas recently. Tigua Lieutenant Governor Carlos Hisa, who worked with Abramoff, offered a blunt response, “I do not accept their apology. I do not find it sincere. The time to come back and apologize is when the investigation was going on.”
Chief Writing Wolf 