Blog: Abramoff comes back to haunt Mashpee tribe

Thursday, October 11, 2007  

"According to well-placed sources, the United States Attorney in Boston sent a letter last week to the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council demanding that it produce council records. The letter arrived in Mashpee late in the week. Today is the deadline for production of the records.

The letter from the U.S. Attorney's office is eight pages long and lists specific documents to be delivered as well as specific areas of inquiry. One such area of inquiry, according to a source within the tribe, is correspondence to, from or about Jack Abramoff. Abramoff (on right above), who was convicted of defrauding clients of his Washington lobbying firm, is now waiting to serve a federal prison sentence. He has been linked to the lobbying efforts mounted by the Mashpee to gain federal recognition. Specifically, while he was employed by the Washington law firm Greenberg Traurig, two of his protégés -- Kevin Ring and Michael Smith -- worked directly with the tribe in their lobbying efforts before Congress and the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Jack Abramoff has been imprisoned for the tax and fraud cases but is awaiting sentencing on another charge. He and his crony, Mike Scanlon are cooperating with federal officials in a very wide and very deep probe of various things... including the whole Indian gaming business. Remember, in several cases so far with these two, bribe rhymes with tribe. Abramoff and Scanlon have been given three months more to work with the feds. I wonder how much trouble Marshall, Strather and Kirzner et al might be in by the time this all over....oh my."

Get the Story:
Fed letter demands 8 pages of tribe's letters to Abramoff, others (Cape Cod Today 10/9)
Yesterday's heroes (Cape Cod Today 10/11)

Mashpee Casino Agreement:
Intergovernmental Agreement (July 2007)

Relevant Documents:
DOI Final Determination | Summary of Acknowledgment Cases | R. Lee Fleming Declaration

Only on Indianz.Com:
Federal Recognition Database V2.0 (May 2005)

Relevant Links:
Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe - http://mashpeewampanoagtribe.com

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