Posted on 01/07/2006 6:28:08 PM PST by blam
British lawyers linked to $1m payment for favours at US Congress
By Philip Sherwell in Washington and David Harrison in London
(Filed: 08/01/2006)
A British law firm is at the centre of the investigation into America's biggest influence-buying scandal in decades.
The London-based solicitors, James & Sarch, channelled $1 million (£565,000) into a conservative United States pressure group linked to Jack Abramoff, the disgraced lobbyist.
The firm, which was dissolved in 2000, made the payment by a single cheque in June 1998 to the US Family Network, a now-defunct organisation that had close ties to the embattled Republican Congressman, Tom DeLay, and was largely funded by groups associated with Abramoff.
The revelations that the $1 million is thought to have originated from Russian oil and gas executives seeking to shape US legislation have fuelled pressure for a shake-up in the Republican leadership in Congress.
Abramoff, until recently the most prominent Republican operative in the lucrative lobbying industry, pleaded guilty last week to fraud and conspiracy charges after agreeing to work with federal prosecutors.
The deal has sent shock waves through Washington and is expected to lead to further charges against prominent political figures.
Christopher Geeslin, the then president of the US Family Network, has said that he was told by Ed Buckham, who was the group's organiser and who was Mr DeLay's former chief of staff, that the $1 million was paid on behalf of Russian energy entrepreneurs.
They were, Mr Buckham reportedly said, seeking Mr DeLay's support for legislation backing an International Monetary Fund bail-out of the Russian economy. The Congressman denies any wrongdoing. Mr Buckham did not return a request to comment.
The role of James & Sarch in the transfer of funds is believed to have been handled largely by its former partner, David Sarch, who died aged 57 in May 1998, a month before the payment was made.
The $1 million payment to a small advocacy group from a foreign source, although not illegal, is "extremely unusual" and "would raise several red flags" for investigators, according to Marcus Owens, a senior former US Internal Revenue Service official.
The Law Society in London said it had no knowledge of the payment. "It is a large amount and would certainly raise eyebrows and cause questions to be asked," a spokesman said.
Mr Sarch became a solicitor in 1963 and was a senior partner at James & Sarch from at least 1970.
"It was not a firm that had come to our attention or given us any cause for concern," the Law Society spokesman added.
The list of contributors to the US Family Network, which was obtained from tax records by The Washington Post, is understood to have been studied by federal prosecutors investigating how Abramoff sought to dispense favours to influence votes in Congress.
The payment through James & Sarch is the biggest single entry on the network's donor list. The original source of the donation is not recorded.
Mr DeLay, Mr Buckham and Mr Abramoff met Russian gas and oil entrepreneurs before and after the payment. But the Congressman's spokesman insisted that he made decisions only "based on good policy and what is best for his constituents and the country".
Philip McGuirk, a former partner in James & Sarch, declined to answer any questions when contacted by the Sunday Telegraph.
Mr Sarch's previous work reveals a link to the Abramoff circle. In the early 1990s he worked on a case with Julius Kaplan, a well-known Washington lawyer and lobbyist who received payments from a firm that helped organise Mr DeLay's visit to Moscow in 1997.
Other contributors to the US Family Network included textile owners from the Pacific island chain of the Marianas and the Choctaw tribe of Native Americans. Mr DeLay, who was charged with money laundering in an unrelated case last year, spoke out in favour of both groups during legislative battles.
He denies the money-laundering charges and insists that his speeches were never influenced by contributions from interested parties. There is no suggestion that he gained personal benefit from his links to the group.
Mr Abramoff, 46, was at the forefront of the campaign by Republican activists to take over Washington's powerful lobbying industry in the 1990s.
From his position in Congress, Mr DeLay was a strong supporter of this so-called "K St project" - named after the street that is home to lobbying firms. The number of registered lobbyists has more than doubled in the past five years to nearly 35,000.
There was nothing in the least that makes Jack worthy of being called conservative.
He laid it out there to anyone wearing pockets on both sides of the aisle.
Here is the WHOLE Open Secrets list for those who "Want to be fair".
http://www.capitaleye.org/abramoff.asp
List of Democrats who got Abramoff's money
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Cmte $121,500
Democratic Congressional Campaign Cmte $354,700
Democratic National Cmte $65,720
Patrick J. Kennedy (D-RI) $42,500
Patty Murray (D-Wash) $40,980
Charles B. Rangel (D-NY) $36,000
Harry Reid (D-Nev) $30,500
(By way of comparison here is that "EVIL Republican" Tom Delay-Tom DeLay (R-Texas) $30,500
Byron L. Dorgan (D-ND) $28,000
Tom Daschle (D-SD) $26,500
Charles H. Taylor (R-NC) $25,750
Democratic Party of Michigan $23,000
Brad R. Carson (D-Okla) $20,600
Dale E. Kildee (D-Mich) $19,000
Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md) $17,500
Why Look here is the Progressive's Idol TOM HARKIN!!! Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) $15,500
Democratic Party of Oklahoma $15,000
Chris John (D-La) $15,000
Frank Pallone, Jr (D-NJ) $13,600
Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo) $12,000
Mary L. Landrieu (D-La) $11,500
And LOOKIE the other Liberal Icon, Barney Frank is here TOO!!! Barney Frank (D-Mass) $11,100
Max Baucus (D-Mont) $11,000
Maria Cantwell (D-Wash) $10,000
Democratic Party of North Dakota $10,000
Nick Rahall (D-WVa) $10,000
What's this The Campaing Fiance Reform GOD of the Hate the Establishment types, JOHN MCCAIN, made the list too!!!
John McCain (R-Ariz) $10,000
Democratic Party of South Dakota $9,500
Democratic Party of Minnesota $9,000! What this, the Progressive Minnesota DFL, that bastion of virtue got $9,000 from Jack???
Ron Kind (D-Wis) $9,000
Peter Deutsch (D-Fla) $8,500
Joe Baca (D-Calif) $8,000
Look Here is Al Qeda's favorite Senator!!!! Sen. Turbin.
Dick Durbin (D-Ill) $8,000
Xavier Becerra (D-Calif) $7,523
Tim Johnson (D-SD) $7,250
Democratic Party of New Mexico $6,250
Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) $6,000
Fritz Hollings (D-SC) $5,000.
Democratic Party of Montana $5,000
Jay Inslee (D-Wash) $5,000
Tomas P. Keefe Jr. (D-Wash) $5,000
Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md) $5,000
Jon S. Corzine (D-NJ) $5,000. Corzine? Isn't he the one worth like $60 MILLION? What the hell does HE need Jack's money for?
Deborah Ann Stabenow (D-Mich) $5,000
David E. Bonior (D-Mich) $5,000
Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) $4,500
Look at this the Sexually Confused Senator from SC, the Senator who cannot make him mind which side to play for, made the list!!! Lindsey Graham (R-SC) $4,500
Kent Conrad (D-ND) $4,000
Chuck Hagel (R-Neb) $4,000
Oh No not "Mr Incorruptible". The Junk Media second favorite Republican!!!
Tom Carper (D-Del) $4,000
Robert T. Matsui (D-Calif) $4,000
George Miller (D-Calif) $4,000
Sander Levin (D-Mich) $4,000
Jerry Kleczka (D-Wis) $4,000
Kalyn Cherie Free (D-Okla) $3,500
James L. Oberstar (D-Minn) $3,500
Charles J. Melancon (D-La) $3,100
Ed Pastor (D-Ariz) $3,000
Cal Dooley (D-Calif) $3,000
David R. Obey (D-Wis) $3,000
Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) $3,000
Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) $3,000
San Fran Nan? Ms. "Republican Culture of Corruption" herself knows Jack!!!!HAAAAAAAA!
Tom Foley (I-Minn) $3,000
John B. Larson (D-Conn) $3,000
Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss) $3,000
Brad Sherman (D-Calif) $3,000
Richard M. Romero (D-NM) $3,000
Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif) $2,500
Not Wax AND Max! The twin HEROS of "Untouchables" wing of the "incorruptible" Democrat Party know Jack!!!!
Max Cleland (D-Ga) $2,500
Grace Napolitano (D-Calif) $2,500
Bill Luther (D-Minn) $2,250
Gene Taylor (D-Miss) $2,250
John Neely Kennedy (D-La) $2,000
Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn) $2,000
Dan Boren (D-Okla) $2,000
Robert Menendez (D-NJ) $2,000
Ned Doucet (D-La) $2,000
Ronnie Shows (D-Miss) $2,000
Ken Bentsen (D-Texas) $2,000
Nita M. Lowey (D-NY) $2,000
Not NPR's personal Heroine NITA!!!!! Adam Smith (D-Wash) $2,000
Sam Farr (D-Calif) $2,000
Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) $2,000
Doug Dodd (D-Okla) $2,000
Adam Schiff (D-Calif) $2,000
Lane Evans (D-Ill) $2,000
Mike Thompson (D-Calif) $2,000
Maxine Waters (D-Calif) $2,000
Maxine???? Maxine knows Jack???? Oh this just get better and better.
Carl Levin (D-Mich) $2,000
John D. Dingell (D-Mich) $2,000
Ellen O. Tauscher (D-Calif) $2,000
Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark) $2,000 Norm Dicks (D-Wash) $1,500
Peter DeFazio (D-Ore) $1,500
John Kerry (D-Mass) $1,400 plus $98,000+ for his Presidential run!!!! Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif) $1,000 $0 $1,000 $1,000 $0
Ron Wyden (D-Ore) $1,000 $1,000 $0 $1,000 $0
Brian David Schweitzer (D-Mont) $1,000 $1,000 $0 $1,000 $0
Pete Stark (D-Calif) $1,000 $1,000 $0 $1,000 $0
Paul Wellstone (D-Minn) $1,000 NO! The Blessed St Wellstone KNEW JACK!!!!!!!
Joe Lieberman (D-Conn) $1,000
Derick B. Watchman (D-Ariz) $1,000
Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) $1,000 HILLARY? The great Democrat Party hope for 2008 HILLARY knows Jack!!!!
Well we can just skip all the small fry.
Susan A. Davis (D-Calif) $1,000 Charles S. Robb (D-Va) $1,000 Eliot L. Engel (D-NY) $1,000 Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif) $1,000 Jim Costa (D-Calif) $1,000 Barbara Boxer (D-Calif) $1,000 Rick Weiland (D-SD) $1,000 Gloria Tristani (D-NM) $1,000 Rick Clayburgh (R-ND) $1,000 Patrick Leahy (D-Vt) $1,000 Jim Maloney (D-Conn) $1,000 David Phelps (D-Ill) $1,000 Tim Holden (D-Pa) $1,000 Bob Borski (D-Pa) $720 Shelley Berkley (D-Nev) $500 Howard L. Berman (D-Calif) $500 Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif) $500 Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) $500 Barbara Lee (D-Calif) $500 Democratic Party of Washington $500
Keep that list handy...we're going to need it.
>>The $1 million payment to a small advocacy group from a foreign source, although not illegal, is "extremely unusual" and "would raise several red flags" for investigators, according to Marcus Owens, a senior former US Internal Revenue Service official.
A million mainly to Democrats from Russia which by the way is legal?
I wonder how much China has tossed into the pot for buying US legislators?
Who is this US Family Network? I haven't heard of them before.
Amazing how no one points out it is the Bush Justice Department that is hammering these guys and bringing all this out into the open.
December 31, 2005
Guest: Steve Benen
THE U.S. FAMILY NETWORK....To a limited extent, The U.S. Family Network, primarily a project of Tom DeLay, was already somewhat controversial. In April 2004, a Federal Election Commission investigation found that the group had illegally received $500,000 from the National Republican Congressional Committee. At the time, it just seemed like routine campaign shenanigans. The 2004 controversy, however, was but a footnote compared to the revelations from today's Washington Post.
The U.S. Family Network, a public advocacy group that operated in the 1990s with close ties to Rep. Tom DeLay and claimed to be a nationwide grass-roots organization, was funded almost entirely by corporations linked to embattled lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to tax records and former associates of the group.
During its five-year existence, the U.S. Family Network raised $2.5 million but kept its donor list secret. The list, obtained by The Washington Post, shows that $1 million of its revenue came in a single 1998 check from a now-defunct London law firm whose former partners would not identify the money's origins.
Two former associates of Edwin A. Buckham, the congressman's former chief of staff and the organizer of the U.S. Family Network, said Buckham told them the funds came from Russian oil and gas executives. Abramoff had been working closely with two such Russian energy executives on their Washington agenda, and the lobbyist and Buckham had helped organize a 1997 Moscow visit by DeLay (R-Tex.).
The former president of the U.S. Family Network said Buckham told him that Russians contributed $1 million to the group in 1998 specifically to influence DeLay's vote on legislation the International Monetary Fund needed to finance a bailout of the collapsing Russian economy.
Just when it seemed things couldn't much worse for DeLay, this blockbuster story is splashed all over the front page.
The poorly named U.S. Family Network was billed as an advocacy group focused on a conservative "moral fitness" agenda. The stated goals were basically a fraud. Indeed, the group hardly existed beyond its fundraising operation, USFN never actually advocated anything, and there was never a staff beyond one person. When DeLay wrote a fundraising letter for the group calling it "a powerful nationwide organization dedicated to restoring our government to citizen control" by mobilizing grass-roots citizen support, he was wildly misstating the facts.
The group was created to collect big checks from corporations, many of which were foreign, with lobbying ties to Abramoff. The story ties many of the Abramoff ends together, with this bogus nonprofit group at the middle.
[H]alf a million dollars was donated to the U.S. Family Network by the owners of textile companies in the Mariana Islands in the Pacific, according to the tax records. The textile owners -- with Abramoff's help -- solicited and received DeLay's public commitment to block legislation that would boost their labor costs, according to Abramoff associates, one of the owners and a DeLay speech in 1997.
A quarter of a million dollars was donated over two years by the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, Abramoff's largest lobbying client, which counted DeLay as an ally in fighting legislation allowing the taxation of its gambling revenue.
The records, other documents and interviews call into question the very purpose of the U.S. Family Network, which functioned mostly by collecting funds from domestic and foreign businesses whose interests coincided with DeLay's activities while he was serving as House majority whip from 1995 to 2002, and as majority leader from 2002 until the end of September.
As Josh Marshall explained, we're talking about "a slush fund," with "lots of secret money, often from overseas, that can get spread around off the books in DC."
Not incidentally, Abramoff is putting the "finishing touches on a plea deal" with federal prosecutors, the results of which could be announced as early as Tuesday.
As Michael Crowley noted, there will likely be several congressional Republicans drinking champagne tonight "for distinctly non-celebratory reasons."
"Nice you have opinions, too bad for you they are dumb ones."-MNJohnnie
Quit fooling yourself MNJohnnie, you don't want my dumb opinion.
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