Thursday, August 11, 2005

Busted

Bye Jack:

FBI agents were seeking to arrest a once-powerful Washington, D.C., lobbyist on Thursday after a Fort Lauderdale federal grand jury charged him and a New York businessman with scheming to defraud two lenders in a $147.5 million purchase of SunCruz Casinos.

Agents were to take Republican insider Jack Abramoff into custody on Thursday afternoon in the Baltimore area. His partner in the controversial 2000 SunCruz acquisition, Adam Kidan, was expected to surrender to authorities, according to sources familiar with the probe.

The South Florida indictment charging the duo with defrauding $60 million from two lenders that financed the sale instantly rocked the nation's corridors of power. Indeed, rumors of their imminent arrests circulated during the past week.