Mystery firm linked to US lobbyist scandal

[Little Star]

This article was in China's business newspaper "The Standard".
I did not see it posted and thought it was very informative.

snip>
US government investigators probing Washington's explosive Congressional bribery scandal centered on disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff recently visited Hong Kong, according to a witness interviewed by the authorities.
The investigators reportedly are chasing convoluted money trails leading to Abramoff and government officials he sought to influence.
snip<

snip>
Among the likely subjects of interest here is a previously unknown company called Rose Garden Holdings. In May 2002, Abramoff notified the US Senate that Rose Garden had hired him and Greenberg Traurig, his firm at the time, to represent Rose Garden's "interests before federal agencies and US Congress."
snip<

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=12&art_id=10441&sid=6326812&con_type=3

[SmokingJacket]

1. "Rose Garden"???

Could they be so unimaginative?

Or... a red herring? I mean, honestly... Rose Garden!

[NV Whino]

3. It probably sounds better in Chinese

:)

[Carni]

5. Crap like this is right up their alley

I think they get their jollies doing things that are in plain site.

Recall the bogus Enron subsidiaries named after the children of one of the Enron crooks.

[MrPrax]

18. Or recall Texan Poppa Bush

naming elements of the Bay of Pigs fiasco after things near and dear.

[Carni]

23. Yes I remember that also

These guys are so arrogant I think they like to leave small clues (sort of like a serial killer would)

[notadmblnd]

6. Blatant in their arrogance

this is what makes me so angry about this regime. Hopefully, their blatant arrogance will be their downfall.

[VegasWolf]

7. I guess they could have called it "White House Garden Take Over Tea

Party!"

:toast:

[Little Star]

28. Along with the sunshine.......

Theres gotta be a little rain sometimes. I hope it pours on those greedy crooks.

[katty]

35. Rosebud...every label is titled the opposite of what it really is

[hang a left]

2. See this thread...

news of this seeped out on Friday.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=200106

[SmokingJacket]

4. Goodness! or should I say, Badness! nt

[Carni]

8. Tan family (Abramoffs Saipan client) parent co's in Hong kong

*Luen Thai* is the parent company of Tan Holdings and Luen Thai is located in Hong Kong. The Tan family were very generous contributors to the Repubicans (I mean personally on top of what they were paying Abramoff)

LOOK! It's in the article:

"Hong Kong's Companies Registry has no record of Rose Garden Holdings; nor does the telephone directory. The apartment listed by Abramoff as Rose Garden's premises has been owned since 1992 by Luen Thai Shipping and Trading, according to the Land Registry.

Luen Thai Holdings and its controlling shareholders, the Tan family, were leading beneficiaries of Abramoff's Washington lobbying.

Luen Thai officials and spokesmen referred queries about Abramoff and Rose Garden to chief execut
ive Henry Tan, but Tan declined through his secretary to be interviewed, citing his travel schedule."


Edited because I can't type or spell lately!

[UpInArms]

25. Tan Family campaign contributions to Bush/Cheney and GOP

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Jack_Abramoff

excerpt:

"Abramoff and his wife each gave $5,000 to Bush's 2000 recount fund and the maximum $1,000 to his 2000 campaign. By mid-2003, Abramoff had raised at least $100,000 for Bush's re-election campaign, becoming one of Bush's famed 'pioneers.'

"Money also flowed from the Marianas to Bush's re-election campaign: It took in at least $36,000 from island donors, much of it from members of the Tan family, whose clothing factories were a routine stop for lawmakers and their aides visiting the islands on Abramoff-organized trips.

"Two Tan family companies gave $25,000 each to the National Republican Senatorial Committee for the 2002 elections. Greenberg Traurig, too, was a big GOP giver. Its donations included $20,000 to the Republican National Committee for the 2000 elections and $25,000 each to the GOP's House and Senate fundraising committees in 2000 and again in 2002."

...more...

[Carni]

26. Yep! And they were also pals with Dick Armey & Dan Burton

Remember THOSE creeps?

Additionally Hastert personally intervened on their behest regarding the minimum wage issue.

And as a last tid bit-- I read on a blog the other day that Saipan is thought to be a major center for moving crystal meth (that would play in well with the shipping companies that Tan Holdings owns)

[wordpix2]

32. I wonder if investigators can get the Tan family to talk about * deals

[xchrom]

9. thanks for this

and the link from friday.

[rodeodance]

10. looks like "Rose Garden Holdings" was a front for Jack

.........

Abramoff recorded Rose Garden's address as a luxury flat in Tai Hang, above Causeway Bay, and its business as international trade. Over the next year and a half, the records show, Rose Garden paid Greenberg Traurig US$1.4 million (HK$10.92 million) for putting its case to the Senate, House of Representatives and US Department of Labor.

.........



If Abramoff reported "Rose Garden Holdings" as his client, using its name as a front for Luen Thai or other Saipan business interests, he may have violated the US Lobbying Disclosure Act. Jan Witold Baran, a Washington lawyer specializing in lobbying law, said the law requires identification of the entity directing and funding lobbying activity.

Juan Babauta, who was succeeded on January 8 as Northern Marianas governor by a former Tan Holdings executive, told the Saipan Tribune just before he left office: "The Jack Abramoff investigation is obviously turning in the direction of the CNMI."

According to an investigation published by The Washington Post three weeks ago, records obtained by the newspaper reveal that Saipan garment makers, including Tan, contributed US$500,000 to an organization called the US Family Network between 1996 and 2001. Much of the organization's funding was spent supporting other groups linked to Abramoff or indicted Congressman Tom DeLay.

[lovuian]

12. So now we know why Congress and Bush tryed to kill the US

textile industries they were in competition with the Tan family holdings

are these people in the White House Americans or just crooks selling America out to the Tan family and others over seas...

[0007]

29. The White House is organized crime at it's finest.

[wordpix2]

33. a front for Jack and Rethug campaigns: a money-making enterprise

[Peace Patriot]

11. Is that where the bodies are buried then? In the Rose Garden?

Wouldn't surprise me at all. Bodies of paid assassins. Bodies of Diebold programmers. Bodies of the 'disappeared' flown back from the torture dungeons of eastern Europe, and planted right under Bush's feet, where he greets the worst of the world's leaders, the ones nobody else can stand--the only ones permitted near the U.S. Charnel House.

And where the Red Queen is, even now, ordering the Playing Cards to paint the white roses red.

[MagickMuffin]

13. More to this that will force one into Tran•Spin•dental Trance

I have been doing extensive research into this affair.

Documenting the emails between Casino Jack, Mike Scamlon, Ralph Reed, etc.

Here's an interesting tidbit from USA Today:

In President Bush's first 10 months, GOP fundraiser Jack Abramoff and his lobbying team logged nearly 200 contacts with the new administration as they pressed for friendly hires at federal agencies and sought to keep the Northern Mariana Islands exempt from the minimum wage and other laws, records show.The meetings between Abramoff's lobbying team and the administration ranged from Attorney General John Ashcroft to policy advisers in Vice President Dick Cheney's office, according to his lobbying firm billing records.
In addition, two of Abramoff's lobbying colleagues on the Marianas won political appointments inside federal agencies.

"Our standing with the new administration promises to be solid as several friends of the CNMI (islands) will soon be taking high-ranking positions in the Administration, including within the Interior Department," Abramoff wrote in a January 2001 letter in which he persuaded the island government to follow him as a client to his new lobbying firm, Greenberg Traurig.

The records from Abramoff's firm, obtained by The Associated Press from the Marianas under an open records request, chronicle Abramoff's careful cultivation of relations with Bush's political team as far back as 1997.

In that year, Abramoff charged the Marianas for getting then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush to write a letter expressing support for the Pacific territory's school choice proposal, his billing records show.

"I hope you will keep my office informed on the progress of this initiative," Bush wrote in a July 18, 1997, letter praising the islands' school plan and copying in an Abramoff deputy.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-05-06-abramoff-bush_x.htm

Then this past Friday as I was working on the emails, I came across an interesting item that stuck out at me and made me realize just how the mind of this THUG worked.

Jack was paying for a Sniper School in the West Bank in Israel. This money came from the Capitol Athletic Foundation he set up that was suppose to go to funding of children here in America.

In this one particular email, someone from the Sniper School (pg 109-112) that talks about getting their equipment thru a Russian company Naftasib, the equipment in reference was for thermal vision equipment.

So, from that I have concluded that not only was Jack funding the Israelis, but he was only friendly with a Khaled Saffuri, a prominent Palestinian activist with connections to terror suspects, exerting undue influence on the Bush administration.

Jack was playing both sides against one another. Making MILLIONS off of other people's misery.

I still have several pages of emails to decipher, but this is some of the discoveries I have made thus far.

[UpInArms]

19. you might think about adding your info

to the research forum on Abramoff

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_oet&address=358x597

[MagickMuffin]

22. Thanks for the info

Like I mentioned in my earlier post, I have been decoding the emails and have the first one hundred pages documented with Names, Dates, Times, and Subject/Reference Titles.

I also have from pg 189-209, I suffer from a chronological syndrome disorder, so I skipped around. :evilgrin:

Will probably get around to finishing hopefully this week!

[Zan_of_Texas]

30. Wow. Keep us informed!

What will you do with the results?

[MagickMuffin]

31. I plan to publish them here at DU

as well as any other place that could benefit from my research!

[Carni]

27. This is a keeper

I cannot believe what these guys have been getting away with.

[VegasWolf]

14. "Rose Garden Holdings." Damn, they are blatently advertising their

White House infiltration/connections to their clients aren't they?

[peacetalksforall]

15. Where do these people get the cajxxxx to do all this? The answer

isn't just in the word - arrogance. Were they confident that they would never get caught because they would own Congress, the Executive, the Courts, the Media, the Intelligence divisions - that they could intimidate and blackmail everyone else and they could get everyone's focus on something else? I fear that they still don't want everything exposed and will cause some disaster or grand loss of rights to cover up the rest. Or are we due justice? Is this country of, for, and with the people or the crooks?

[Wilms]

16. kick

[bvar22]

17. This IS "The Republican Ownership Society".

A handful of Overloards OWN everything and everybody else.

FUCK THEM.
The guillotine is too quick for this scum.

[UpInArms]

20. I wonder if "Republican political activist Katrina Leung" is

in there anywhere?

Real-Life 'Spy Who Loved Me' Scandal

(CBS) The FBI has been hit with another scandal, this one involving sex, money and a double agent for the Chinese whose code name was "Parlor Maid."

Federal prosecutors said a former agent responsible for tracking down Chinese spies had an affair with an alleged Chinese double agent and allowed her access to classified documents.

<snip>

The married FBI man and Leung, from California, had a sexual relationship from that time until Smith's retirement in 2000, federal prosecutors alleged, saying the FBI paid her more than $1.7 million for services and expenses.

In documents unsealed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Smith was charged with "gross negligence in handling documents related to the national defense." Smith appeared in handcuffs before a federal magistrate who set bail at $250,000 and scheduled an initial hearing for April 29.

Leung, who worked covertly for the Chinese government, is charged with unauthorized copying of U.S. secrets with intent of providing them to Chinese intelligence services.

...more...

[boston bean]

21. this is very interesting kick and recommend for everyone to read...

these two parts interested me:

A syndicated US newspaper columnist last month admitted receiving payments from Abramoff for writing favorable stories about Saipan and other clients.


and this:

According to an investigation published by The Washington Post three weeks ago, records obtained by the newspaper reveal that Saipan garment makers, including Tan, contributed US$500,000 to an organization called the US Family Network between 1996 and 2001. Much of the organization's funding was spent supporting other groups linked to Abramoff or indicted Congressman Tom DeLay.

[UpInArms]

24. US Family Network

http://feedthefish.org/etsblog/archives/000786.html

excerpt:

The U.S. Family Network in turn had virtually no overhead -- one staff person and no program to speak of, odd for an alleged "grass roots" group -- but USFN did spend money. Oh, yes. It paid a regular $10,000 a month stipend to Buckham and Alexander Strategy Group, and purchased a townhouse, three blocks from DeLay's D.C. office, that was used as a "safe house" by DeLay and his staff for fundraising and other activities. Alexander, in turn, hired Christine DeLay, wife of Tom, and paid her $115,000 to determine the favorite charities of each member of Congress. If USFN was a "charity," and other Congresscreatures had similar setups, one can see how that information would be useful.

...more...

and then it gets even more interesting:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=U.S._Family_Network%2C_Inc.

U.S. Family Network, Inc. (USFN) was founded in 1996 by Ed Buckham, who also served as the organization's consultant. USFN is a tax-exempt 501(c)(4) corporation founded in Virginia, with its principal offices located in the District of Columbia.

<snip>

"Also named in the RICO suit was Robert Mills. Prior to running DeLay's 1996 campaign, Mills worked for the Council for Government Reform, from which he reportedly stole $35,000. Before that he had worked for United Conservatives of America, which was investigated by the Federal Election Commission who believed that UCA's huge debts were being used to hide illegal corporate donations. In 1998 Mills represented an organization called the US Family Network, registered as a 501(c)(4) 'social welfare' organization focused on Christian conservatives. The outfit shared office space with ARMPAC and the Alexander Strategy Group. Also on the staff of US Family Network was Ed Buckham's wife, at a salary of $59,000 a year.

"By 1999 Mills had left US Family Network, but Buckham, an ordained minister remained. The Network made headlines as the recipient of the largest single donation the National Republican Congressional Caucus ever made, $500,000. The check was cut by Virginia Congressman and DeLay crony Tom Davis, NRCC chair, but was never approved by the executive committee. The RICO suit alleged that US Family Network existed to hide the source and control of donated funds. The Washington journal Roll Call speculated that the group also existed to make statements and take actions on behalf of (or in opposition to) candidates that the NRCC would be embarrassed to do directly.

"The other 'associated organizations' named in the RICO suit were: the Republican Majority Issues Committee (RMIC), which, like US Family Network, was designed to provide (possibly) legal money laundering for political contributions, and Americans for Economic Reform. The suit alleged that DeLay and his cohorts were 'extorting' money from people with a stake in federal legislation."

...more...

[hang a left]

34. ......