Abramoff + murder in Florida?

[FlaGranny]

For your reading pleasure. Please forgive me if this has been posted before. I did a quick search and did not find it, so here goes. Even if it has been posted before, it does no harm to "refresh" the memory.

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3 Charged in Killing Of Fla. Businessman
Boulis Slain After 2000 Abramoff Deal

By Susan Schmidt and James V. Grimaldi
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, September 28, 2005; Page A03

Fort Lauderdale police said yesterday that they charged three men in the 2001 gangland-style slaying of a Florida businessman who was gunned down in his car months after selling a casino cruise line to a group that included Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis was killed on a Fort Lauderdale street on Feb. 6, 2001. Two of the three men charged had been hired as consultants by Adam Kidan, one of Abramoff's partners in the SunCruz Casinos venture.

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and

Abramoff is at the center of a federal investigation into lobbying for Indian tribes and influence-peddling in Washington. Abramoff used contacts with GOP Reps. Tom DeLay (Tex.) and Robert W. Ney (Ohio) and their staffs as he worked to land the SunCruz deal, interviews and court records show.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/27/AR2005092700980.html?sub=AR


Much, much more interesting info in this article.

[buzzsaw_23]

1. More on Abramoff

Just to refresh everyone's memory about what happened last week, three reputed mob soldiers were arrested in Florida for the February 2001 gangland-style murder of Gus Boulis, founder and one-time owner of Sun Cruz, the Florida casino boat line. Jack Abramoff and Adam Kidan muscled Boulis into selling them Sun Cruz. And it is for fraud in that acquisition that both were indicted last month. That's all known.

<snip>

 Articles on this subject almost always throw in a line to the effect that no one suspects Abramoff himself of knowledge or involvement in Boulis's death. And I know of little tangible to contradict that. But he was the co-owner, with Kidan, of the company which made the tainted payments. And Abramoff and Kidan were in pretty close and regular contact in how they used Sun Cruz's money for the DC lobbying operations. At a minimum Abramoff might be able to shed some light on whether there is some innocent explanation for the money that went to the guy who's been indicted for Boulis's murder.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_09_ ...

And This:

And This:


In the case of Abramoff's work for Flanigan and Tyco, Abramoff ended up sending the greater part of their $2 million lobbying fee to an astroturf outfit called Grassroots Interactive -- an outfit allegedly controlled by Abramoff and run by a guy who now works as the Deputy Chief of Staff to the Governor of Maryland.

<snip>

The Republican machine built by DeLay, Norquist, Abramoff, et al. and pulled into high gear after 2001, is a pay-for-play political machine. This is just another part of the operation, like the diktat for trade associations to hire only Republicans. Big political machines need their soldiers taken care of -- jobs on K Street which also discipline the trade associations under Hill leadership. Just so, they need big sums of money to move around off the books. How does Rove keep the millions moving to Norquist? To Reed? To all the other operatives whose names you don't know about?

Indian tribes bursting with millions who need very focused sorts of legislative intervention -- that's one good source of money. Corrupt Pacific Island governments who need similar help -- another good source.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_09_ ...

[FlaGranny]

2. What webs they weave.

What we need is a "flow chart" to keep track of who's who. It's hard to keep it straight, but one thing is certain - if you are not a criminal, you do not go very far up the ladder in the Republican power structure.