First federal civil suit filed in influence peddling scandal
By Joel Seidman
Producer
NBC News
Updated: 1:06 p.m. CT July 12, 2006
WASHINGTON - A Texas Native American tribe filed suit Wednesday alleging that ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed and their associates engaged in fraud and racketeering to shut down the tribe’s casino.
The Alabama-Coushatta tribe, which contributed $50,000 to Jack Abramoff's non-profit, the Capitol Athletic Foundation (CAF), filed the first civil lawsuit in federal court in the influence peddling scandal, in Austin, Texas.
The lawsuit alleges Abramoff, former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed and their associates engaged in fraud and racketeering to shut down the tribe's casino and alleges the defendants defrauded the tribe, the people of Texas and the Legislature to benefit another of Abramoff’s clients — the Louisiana Coushatta tribe — and “line their pockets with money.”
“Ultimately, the defendants’ greed and corruption led to the Alabama-Coushatta tribe permanently shutting its casino. The funding for economic programs evaporated, over 300 jobs were lost in Polk County and the Alabama-Coushatta tribe has spent years struggling to recover and revitalize its economy through other means,” the tribe said in its lawsuit.
The court filing also names Abramoff's ex-business partner Michael Scanlon, a former aide to former Rep. Tom DeLay, R-TX; Neil Volz, a former aide to Rep. Bob Ney, R-OH; and Jon Van Horne, Abramoff's former colleague at his law and lobbying firm, Greenberg Traurig. Although the tribe alleges Greenberg Traurig was part of the scheme, it did not name the firm as a defendant.
Lawsuit charges
The tribe did not specify how much it was seeking, but asked for triple damages.
The Alabama-Coushatta said Abramoff and others conspired to defeat a bill in the 2001 Legislature that would have allowed it to operate gaming on its reservation. Reed helped to rally Christians against the bill with a group he formed, Committee Against Gambling, the tribe alleged.
The tribe, which says it has strong Christian values, alleges Reed’s group called state legislators, sent targeted mailings to voters and ran radio ads against the bill without revealing their true origins, preventing the tribe from fighting back.
“They pitted Christian against Christian, tribe against tribe and cousin against cousin,” the tribe said.
Lobbying connections
The $50,000 contributed by the tribe from Livingston, Texas, actually paid for a portion of an August 2002 golf junket to Scotland which included Abramoff, Rep Bob Ney, R-OH, Ralph Reed and recently convicted former White House procurement officer, David Safavian.
At the time of the trip, Ney was seeking a legislative solution to assist the Alabama-Coushatta and another Texas tribe, the Tigua of El Paso re-open their shut-down casinos. The legislation was never enacted.
Less than a week after the Scotland trip, representatives of the Tigua met with Ney at his office on Capitol Hill on August 14th.
Evidence obtained by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee indicates that Abramoff treated CAF as his own personal slush fund, using CAF for a number of activities wholly unrelated to its charitable mission and tax-exempt status.
Tribe against tribe
Abramoff and Scanlon said that if the Tigua succeeded in its efforts to keep open its casino, the State of Texas would have no choice but to allow the Alabama Coushatta to have a casino. But unknown to the two Texas tribes, Scanlon and Abramoff were representing another tribe in Louisiana pursuing anti-gaming efforts in Texas against the Tigua and the Alabama Coushatta.
Those anti-gambling efforts were spearheaded by Ralph Reed, the former director of the Christian Coalition and a leading Republican Party strategist. The Senate Committee portrays Reed as a central figure in the Abramoff scheme. Reed received more than $5 million in payments on behalf of Indian tribe casinos - clients of Abramoff.
Abramoff, Scanlon and Volz have pleaded guilty in a public corruption probe involving Abramoff's former tribal clients and possibly members of Congress. David Safavian was convicted by a jury last month in Washington. The Alabama-Coushatta never hired Abramoff.
The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court’s western district of Texas in Austin.
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