Jack Abramoff Indicted for Wire Fraud in SunCruz Casinos Purchase

Lobbyist Jack Abramoff and business partner Adam Kidan were indicted by a federal grand jury in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on charges of wire fraud and conspiracy related to their 2000 purchase of SunCruz Casinos, a fleet of Florida gambling boats. The indictment alleged that Abramoff and Kidan had faked wire transfers to make it appear they contributed $23 million of their own money toward the $147.5 million purchase, when in fact they had contributed almost nothing. The scheme involved creating fraudulent wire transfer confirmations showing that the pair had transferred $23 million from a bank in the Isle of Man, when no such funds existed or were transferred.

The indictment charged that Abramoff and Kidan fabricated financial documents and made false representations to lenders, including Foothill Capital Corporation and Citadel Equity Fund Ltd., to secure the $60 million in loans needed to complete the purchase. This indictment represented the first formal criminal charges against Abramoff, who had already been at the center of a Washington political scandal involving millions of dollars he collected from Native American casino interests.

The SunCruz case was separate from but related to the broader congressional corruption investigation that would eventually expose Abramoff’s bribery of multiple members of Congress. The SunCruz purchase became particularly notorious because the boat line’s original owner, Konstantinos “Gus” Boulis, was murdered in 2001 in what appeared to be a mob-style hit, though Abramoff and Kidan were never charged in connection with the killing. Abramoff would later plead guilty to fraud charges in the SunCruz case as part of his broader cooperation agreement with federal prosecutors.