Associate of Abramoff had 12 meetings with Bush staff [View All]

[deminks]

A lobbyist associated with Jack Abramoff, the convicted former "superlobbyist", met White House officials on 12 occasions in 2003 and 2004 on behalf of an association that represented PartyGaming and other online gaming websites, according to billing records released by Congress.

White House officials' meetings with Shawn Vasell, a former associate of Mr Abramoff, were documented by the latter's former lobbying firm, Greenberg Traurig. The documents were released following a broader investigation into contacts between Mr Abramoff's team and the Bush administration by the House committee on government reform.

A spokesman for Mr Abramoff, who pleaded guilty to corruption charges this year, declined to comment. As payment for Mr Abramoff's lobbying effort to scupper anti-gaming legislation, Gibraltar-based International Interactive Association (IIA) spent millions of dollars on fees to Greenberg Traurig. The effort was largely effective until recently, when Congress passed a bill that, in effect, criminalised gaming.

IIA, represented by James Levy, of the Gibraltar law firm Hassans, has sought to distance itself from its ties to Mr Abramoff by asserting that, in common with his other clients, it was unaware of the lobbyist's shenanigans. These included the fact that IIA contributed $2m (£1.1m) to charities Mr Abramoff used to disguise payments to other organisations.


http://www.ft.com/cms/s/b3b6a4e6-5cb2-11db-9e7e-0000779e2340.html