Lobbyist's former partner pleads guilty

WASHINGTON — A former partner of embattled lobbyist Jack Abramoff entered a guilty plea Monday to a charge that he and Abramoff, once a top aide to GOP congressional leader Tom DeLay, conspired to bribe public officials, including a senior Republican member of Congress, and defrauded Indian tribes of millions of dollars.

Michael Scanlon, who like Abramoff once worked for the Seattle-based firm Preston Gates, also acknowledged that he has been cooperating in a widening criminal investigation of members of Congress since June.

Scanlon agreed to pay back more than $19 million he fraudulently charged Indian tribal clients in Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Michigan.

Scanlon, a 35-year-old former public-relations executive, faces a maximum five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, but the penalty could be reduced depending on the level of his cooperation with prosecutors. He was released on a $5 million unsecured bond agreement.

His help is expected to be crucial to the Justice Department's wide-ranging Abramoff investigation, which began early last year after the revelation that Scanlon and the lobbyist took in tens of millions of dollars from Indian tribes unaware of their secret partnership to jack up fees and split profits.

The investigation also has resulted in the indictment of David Safavian, who was the Bush administration's top procurement official at the White House Office of Management and Budget.

In a criminal complaint filed last week, the Justice Department said Scanlon collected nearly $53 million from 2001 to 2004 from three Indian tribes, promising them lobbying and public-relations services. Most of the money went instead into the pockets of Scanlon and Abramoff, the complaint said.

Abramoff was not named in the complaint, but Scanlon's partnership with him has been revealed in a series of hearings in the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, where e-mails between the two described a financial scheme they called "Gimme five."

In a 2001 memo, for example, Scanlon proposed a $3.2 million project for the Louisiana Coushatta tribe that he said would make the tribe "a politician's best friend — or worst political nightmare." The program was to include political research, polling and building a political database, but there is little evidence the work ever was done.

Investigators are looking at half a dozen members of Congress, current and former senior Capitol Hill aides, a former deputy secretary of the interior, and Abramoff's former lobbying colleagues, according to sources familiar with the probe who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The plea agreement between prosecutors and Scanlon, a former press secretary to DeLay, R-Texas, indicated the nature of testimony Scanlon is prepared to offer against a congressman identified by attorneys in the case as Rep. Robert W. Ney, R-Ohio.

Ney spokesman Brian Walsh said the congressman was defrauded by Scanlon and Abramoff and his official actions had nothing to do with improper influence.

The plea agreement lists gifts Ney was offered or received, including a golf trip to Scotland in 2002, $4,000 to his campaign committee, $10,000 to the National Republican Campaign Committee made with credit to Ney, regular meals and drinks at Abramoff's Signatures restaurant, sports tickets, and frequent golf and related expenses at Washington-area courses.

The document states the gifts were "in exchange for a series of official acts." These included providing legislation, agreeing to put statements into the Congressional Record, contacting federal officials to influence decisions, meeting with Abramoff's clients and endorsing a wireless telecommunications company that wanted to install antennas in House office buildings.

According to the plea agreement, Ney made the Congressional Record statements in support of Abramoff's efforts to buy a fleet of Florida casino ships "calculated to pressure the then-owner to sell on terms favorable to Lobbyist A [Abramoff] and his partners."

The filing also refers to a trip that Ney was offered to attend the Super Bowl in Tampa in 2001 that sources have told The Washington Post the Ohio congressman backed out of at the last minute. That trip was paid for by SunCruz Casinos Inc., which Abramoff acquired in 2001. Abramoff is facing fraud charges in Florida in connection with the acquisition of that company.

Ney also provided help to two Texas tribal clients of Abramoff that wanted permission to open casinos, the plea agreement said. In one case in December 2002, Ney sought help from another unidentified House member for one of the tribes, the prosecutors said. Ney also met with a member of a California tribe doing business with Abramoff and agreed to help pass tax legislation affecting the tribe, the documents said.

Compiled from The Associated Press, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today and Bloomberg New.