Feds probing SunCruz links to GOP

[UpInArms]

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/13260001.htm

Federal investigators are scrutinizing a $10,000 donation made five years ago by SunCruz Casinos to a Republican campaign committee on behalf of an Ohio congressman.

When U.S. Rep. Bob Ney assailed the owner of SunCruz Casinos in 2000, it seemed puzzling that an Ohio lawmaker would go out of his way to attack a South Florida businessman who was trying to sell his floating gaming empire.

It turns out, according to federal investigators, Ney publicly called SunCruz founder Konstantinos ''Gus'' Boulis a ''bad apple'' in exchange for the company's new owners contributing $10,000 -- in his name -- to a national campaign fund to help elect Republicans to Congress.

The latest disclosure is another South Florida link in a long-running Washington scandal that revolves around the influence-peddling of powerful lobbyists who collected tens of millions of dollars from their clients and also led investors to buy Dania Beach-based SunCruz Casinos.

<snip>

SunCruz's contribution to the National Republican Congressional Committee in November 2000 was made seven months after Ney had condemned the company's founder, Boulis, in the Congressional Record just as he was trying to sell his fleet of ships to resolve a legal dispute with the Justice Department.

...more...

[rzemanfl]

1. Self-delete. Failed to engage brain b/4 posting. n/t

[lostnfound]

2. Oh boy. nt

:popcorn:

[conyersman]

3. Sun Cruz Yellow Elephants

LOTS OF GOPers going down.

[WhiteTara]

4. This is great! I'm sorry Gus got killed

but it is wonderful that these guys are going down and taking a whole bunch of nasties with them.
Good Morning UIA!:hi: :hug:

[Demeter]

5. Abandon Ship! Women and Children First!

(Sorry, just couldn't resist--and that's women and children thrown into the deeps first, doncha know).

[leftchick]

6. isn't there a mafia connection here as well?

wasn't someone killed who was involved with SunCruz? I have not been following this story at all but seem to remeber a mafia hit?

edit: ah here it is from the end of the article...

<snip>

Boulis, the entrepreneur known for launching the Miami Subs chain, was slain in a mob-style hit on Feb. 6, 2001. Four months later, SunCruz sank into bankruptcy under the new ownership led by Abramoff and Kidan.


... what a bunch of greedy, filthy criminals. I hope Hastert and Delay go down as well. I wonder how many times they used those skyboxes?

[ck4829]

7. Yes, the guy who killed Boulis worked for the Gambino family.

He was also paid $100K by Kidan.

[Lindsay]

8. And as I recall, the money came

from the SunCruz checking account.

[mia]

9. Kidan paid Moscatiello's daughter, Jennifer, $30,000

The Bad Bet
It turns out murdered gambling boss Gus Boulis had plenty to hide

http://www.newtimesbpb.com/Issues/2005-11-10/news/feature.html



Last month, Fort Lauderdale police arrested alleged Mafia associates Anthony Moscatiello, Anthony Ferrari, and James Fiorillo and charged them with Boulis' murder. Two of them have documented ties to Kidan.

It's the stuff of Edna Buchanan stories: Kidan's mother was killed by mobsters in Miami Beach during a botched 1993 robbery. Despite the murder, Kidan befriended Moscatiello, who had an association with organized crime figures. Moscatiello worked as a caterer for Sun Cruz after Kidan took control of the company.

Kidan paid Moscatiello's daughter, Jennifer, $30,000 around the time of Boulis' murder. Boulis' attorneys have questioned the purpose of the payment.

http://www.newtimesbpb.com/Issues/2005-11-10/news/feature_6.html

[Peace Patriot]

10. And our election system was designed by...guess who...Rep. Bob Ney!

Sponsor of the so-called "Help American Vote Act" (HAVA), by which Bushite corporations--mainly Diebold and ES&S--gained controlled over the tabulation of our votes with "TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY programming code. Was there ever a worse racket than electronic voting, designed by felons and rightwing nutcases, to extort obedience from all elected officials--and to scam the taxpayers out of billions and billions and billions of unaccountable military and other porkbarrel dollars?

[hootinholler]

12. Worse than that, he's

held ammendments to HAVA that would fix a number of the problems with this law in committee. Never got a hearing, never got on the agenda, they simply have languished with the status referred to committee.

-Hoot

[petgoat]

13. Bob Ney as Chairman of the House Administrative Committee

was responsible for derailing the Rush Holt bill that would have
outlawed the black box voting machines.

The bill checked into his committee, and it never checked out.

[bvar22]

11. Yes. Virginia. There IS Organized Crime in the US!

The Republican Party!






NOTE:Some Democrats are corrupt, but NO ONE can call them "ORGANIZED".

[mia]

14. Scanlon: "Gambling doesn't destroy people -- people destroy people."

A Double Whammy Two top execs at the gaming company that Boulis built have deep ties to the Christian right

...There's an easy answer to the question of how the pair reconciles affiliation with both the Christian Coalition and the gambling industry, says company spokesman Mike Scanlon, also a GOP lobbyist. (Abramoff and Waldman declined to comment.) Both Abramoff and Waldman are Jewish, and the basic tenets of that faith don't preclude gambling, he says. "Jack is a deeply religious man himself; he's a conservative, Orthodox Jew," Scanlon says. "But there is no conflict in his religion with representing or owning gaming interests. Gambling is permissible by their religion."

...At press time Fort Lauderdale police hadn't yet interviewed SunCruz executives, but they are researching the company, says police spokesman Mike Reed. No one at SunCruz, though, seems particularly concerned. The company wants only to show Boulis' family respect and get on with business, says Scanlon. The marriage between Republican leaders and the gambling industry is perfectly natural, he adds. "I don't think gambling is antifamily at all," Scanlon says. "Gambling doesn't destroy people -- people destroy people. The gentleman or gentlewoman who decides to gamble makes that decision of his own free will.... It's a free-market industry, and that appeals to conservatives."


How touching, "The company wants only to show Boulis' family respect and get on with business". Perhaps Michael Scanlon meant what he said and was fooled by "the deeply religious" Abramoff. I hope his testimony will help to uncover some of those in Washington who have destroyed people in so many ways.


Scanlon Plea May Help Prosecutors Clear Legal Hurdle (Update2)

Scanlon's guilty plea yesterday gives prosecutors a witness who may be able to provide evidence that lawmakers worked to pass legislation in exchange for favors, said Jim Cole, a former attorney with the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section. The Justice unit is spearheading the federal probe of Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his former associate, Scanlon.