The Jack Abramoff CNMI scandal involves the efforts of Jack Abramoff, other lobbyists, and government officials to change and/or prevent Congressional action regarding the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI) and businesses on the main island of Saipan. This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... The Jack Abramoff Guam investigation involves an alleged plot by lobbyist Jack Abramoff and others to control the functions of the courts in Guam. ... The Internet Gambling Prohibition Act (IGPA) was a 1999 bill in the US Senate to ban Internet gambling defeated, in large part, by the lobbying efforts of Jack Abramoff. ... The monetary influence of Jack Abramoff run deep in Washington, as Jack Abramoff spent millions of dollars to influence and entertain Republican politicians. ... SunCruz Casinos is one of many cruise lines that offer cruises to nowhere, taking passengers into international waters out of reach of the federal and state gambling laws. ... Jack A. Abramoff (born February 28, 1958) is an American political lobbyist, a political activist and businessman who is a central figure in a series of high-profile political scandals. ... Adam Kidan is a former business associate of indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, having partnered with Abramoff in the purchase of SunCruz Casinos. ... Tony C. Rudy, with Ed Buckhams Alexander Strategy Group which shutdown January 9, 2006, served as Deputy Chief of Staff (and former counsel) to House Majority Leader Thomas D. DeLay (R-Texas) until 2001, when he took a job with Jack Abramoff. ... Michael Scanlon is a former communications director for Rep. ... Roger Stillwell (b. ... ‹ The template below has been proposed for deletion. ... David Hossein Safavian (suh-FAY-vee-an) was chief of staff of the United States General Services Administration (GSA), the procurement arm of the U.S. federal government and in 2004, an employee of the Office of Management and Budget. ... Edwin A. Buckham is an evangelical minister, former congressional staffer and lobbyist. ... Thomas Dale The Hammer DeLay (born April 8, 1947) is a former Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from Sugar Land, Texas, the former House Majority Leader, and a prominent member of the Republican Party. ... Robert William Ney (born July 5, 1954) is an American politician of the Republican Party who serves as a U.S. representative from the 18th District of southeastern Ohio (map). ... ‹ The template below has been proposed for deletion. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Grover Glenn Norquist (born October 19, 1956) is the president of the noted anti-tax lobbying group Americans for Tax Reform, and a well-connected conservative activist with close ties to business and the media. ... Ralph E. Reed, Jr. ... A list of organizations related to Jack Abramoff. ... List of Jack Abramoffs tribal clients: Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians Pueblo of Sandia Pueblo of Santa Clara Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe Tigua Indian Reservation Category: ... A listing of trips for politicians, lobbyists, and staffers funded by Jack Abramoff. ... This article belongs in one or more categories. ... Jack A. Abramoff (born February 28, 1958) is an American political lobbyist, a political activist and businessman who is a central figure in a series of high-profile political scandals. ... ‹ The template below has been proposed for deletion. ... Saipan (IPA: in English) is the largest island and site of the capital of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a chain of 15 tropical islands in the western Pacific Ocean with a total area of 120 km² (46. ...

Among the issues he worked on was keeping Congress from imposing the federal minimum wage for workers in the CNMI.

Abramoff took on the Northern Mariana Island of Saipan as a client in 1995. Abramoff and his law firm were paid at least $6.7 million by the island's government from 1995 to 2001.^[1] Saipan (IPA: in English) is the largest island and site of the capital of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a chain of 15 tropical islands in the western Pacific Ocean with a total area of 120 km² (46. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ...

The Northern Marianas is a US commonwealth and thus may apply the "Made in USA" label to goods manufactured there. In the terminology of the United States insular areas, a commonwealth is an organized territory that has established with the Federal Government a more highly developed relationship, usually embodied in a written mutual agreement. ...

Frank Murkowski, then Republican Senator from Alaska and chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, submitted a bill to extend the protection of U.S. labor and minimum-wage laws to the workers in the U.S. territory of the Northern Marianas. Francis Hughes Murkowski (born March 28, 1933) is a Polish-American politician who is the current Governor of Alaska and a member of the Republican Party. ... Official language(s) English Capital Juneau Largest city Anchorage Area  Ranked 1st  - Total 663,267 sq mi (1,717,854 km²)  - Width 808 miles (1,300 km)  - Length 1,479 miles (2,380 km)  - % water 13. ... Wikinews has news related to: Ordinance in Chicago requiring big box stores to pay higher wages passes The minimum wage is the minimum hourly amount which workers must be paid by their employers. ...

In testimony before the Senate, it was described that 91 percent of the workforce were immigrants, and were being paid barely half the U.S. minimum hourly wage. Stories also emerged of workers forced to live behind barbed wire in squalid shacks without plumbing. A Department of the Interior report found that "Chinese women were subject to forced abortions and that women and children were subject to forced prostitution in the local sex-tourism industry." ^[2]The Senate passed the Murkowski worker reform bill unanimously. The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is a Cabinet department of the United States government that manages and conserves most federally-owned land. ...

Abramoff later arranged an all-expenses paid trip to Saipan for Tom DeLay on New Year's Eve in 1997. Although House ethics rules at the time prohibited House members from accepting such gifts from lobbyists, the trip was funded directly by Saipan and thus was technically allowable. An internal memo from Preston, Gates, and Ellis stated that these sort of trips are "one of the most effective ways to build permanent friends on the Hill." ^[3] While on the trip, at a benefit dinner for Willie Tan of Tan Holdings Corporation, DeLay was quoted as saying: Thomas Dale The Hammer DeLay (born April 8, 1947) is a former Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from Sugar Land, Texas, the former House Majority Leader, and a prominent member of the Republican Party. ... New Years Eve is a celebration held the day before New Years Day, on December 31, the final day of the Gregorian year. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Tan Holdings Corporation (THC) is a globally-competitive holdings company located in United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). ...

"When one of my closest and dearest friends, Jack Abramoff, your most able representative in Washington, D.C., invited me to the islands, I wanted to see firsthand the free-market success and the progress and reform you have made."

An undercover investigation by ABCNews captured Willie Tan speaking on a hidden camera about a conversation with DeLay about labor reform laws. According to Tan, "[DeLay] said, 'Willie, if they elect me majority whip, I make the schedule of the Congress, and I'm not going to put it on the schedule.' So Tom told me, 'Forget it, Willie. No chance.'" ^[3] Nickname: DC, The District Motto: Justitia Omnibus (Justice for All) Location of Washington, D.C., with regard to the surrounding states of Maryland and Virginia. ... A free market is a market where price is determined by the unregulated interchange of supply and demand rather than set by artificial means. ...

After the trip, Abramoff helped DeLay craft policy that extended exemptions from federal immigration and labor laws to Saipan industries, though the island is part of the U.S. Commonwealth. Brian Ross at ABC News for 20/20 on March 13, 1998 pointed out that factories in Saipan have forced their workers to have abortions in order to keep their jobs. This article is in need of attention. ... For other uses of Commonwealth, see Commonwealth. ... This article is about the American news organization. ... 20/20 is an American television newsmagazine broadcast on ABC since June 6, 1978. ... March 13 is the 72nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (73rd in leap years). ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ...

Abramoff also negotiated for a $1.2 million no-bid contract from the Marianas for 'promoting ethics in government' to be awarded to David Lapin, brother of Daniel Lapin. ^[4] A no-bid contract is a military or government contract that is made directly with a corporation, bypassing the standard process of bidding. ... David Lapin was born in South Africa to a Jewish family of Lithuanian descent. ... Daniel Lapin (born 1950?) is an American Orthodox rabbi living in Mercer Island, Washington, and the founder of Toward Tradition (a conservative Jewish-Christian organization). ...

Abramoff also allegedly paid the expenses for at least two other trips to the Marianas. In both cases, Abramoff was reimbursed by Preston Gates & Ellis, which was then being paid by the Marianas government. ^[5]

The first trip involved two aides to Tom DeLay, Edwin A. Buckham and Tony Rudy, both who later joined the lobbying firm Alexander Strategy Group. Buckham and Rudy traveled with Abramoff from December 4 to December 12, 1996. Abramoff paid at least $3,000 of the costs, according to a memo written by his assistant Jennifer Senft Hamann. ^[5] The second trip involved James E. Clyburn (D-SC) and Bennie Thompson (D-MS). In a letter dated December 17, 1996, the National Security Caucus Foundation invited the lawmakers to attend a trip to the island in January 1997, saying that the government would incur no expense. Non-profits are allowed to pay for lawmaker travel, and Clyburn and Thompson said they believed the NSCF was doing so. Greg Hilton, the director of the NSCF at the time, has said that Preston Gates & Ellis sent him the airline tickets and told him the government had paid for them. The cost of the trip was, according to an Abramoff memo, $15,657. The lawmakers said that they never met Abramoff nor knew of his involvement. ^[5] Edwin A. Buckham is an evangelical minister, former congressional staffer and lobbyist. ... Tony C. Rudy, with Ed Buckhams Alexander Strategy Group which shutdown January 9, 2006, served as Deputy Chief of Staff (and former counsel) to House Majority Leader Thomas D. DeLay (R-Texas) until 2001, when he took a job with Jack Abramoff. ... Alexander Strategy Group was a lobbying firm involved in the K Street Project. ... December 4 is the 338th day (339th on leap years) of the Gregorian calendar. ... December 12 is the 346th day (347th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 19 days remaining. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... James Enos Jim Clyburn (born July 21, 1940) is an American politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives for the 6th District of South Carolina. ... Rep. ... December 17 is the 351st day of the year (352nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... A nonprofit organization (abbreviated NPO, or non-profit or not-for-profit) is an organization whose primary objective is to support some issue or matter of private interest or public concern for non-commercial purposes. ...

Abramoff's lobbying contract with the CNMI was suspended in late 1998 due to a change in administration and financial problems. In December 1999, allegedly at the request of CNMI politician Benigno Fitial, Edwin A. Buckham and Michael Scanlon visited the CNMI intending to convince two legislators to support Fitial for speaker of the CNMI's 18-member House of Representatives. Scanlon was still a member of Tom DeLay's congressional staff, and was on unpaid leave at the time. Buckham and Scanlon extended promises to help deliver federal aid to the legislators' districts, and succeeded in convincing the two Democratic legislators to vote for Fitial, a member of the rival Covenant Party. After Fitial was elected speaker in 2000, he wrote the governor insisting that the islands contract again with Abramoff at Preston Gates & Ellis. ^[6] Benigno Repeki Fitial (November 27, 1945) is the Governor of Northern Mariana Islands, elected on November 6, 2005. ... Edwin A. Buckham is an evangelical minister, former congressional staffer and lobbyist. ... Michael Scanlon is a former communications director for Rep. ... The Democratic Party is a political party in the Northern Mariana Islands. ... The Covenant Party is a political party in the Northern Mariana Islands. ...

In August 1999, Abramoff's firm, Greenberg Traurig (which, all told received $4.04 million from 1998 to 2002 from the commonwealth), hired Millennium Marketing (a division of the Ralph Reed-founded Century Strategies) to "sen[d] out a mailer to Alabama conservative Christians asking them to call then-Rep. Bob Riley (R-Ala.) and tell him to vote against legislation that would have made the U.S. commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands subject to federal wage and worker safety laws. "The radical left, the Big Labor Union Bosses, and Bill Clinton want to pass a law preventing Chinese from coming to work on the Marianas Islands," the mailer from Reed's firm said. The Chinese workers, it added, "are exposed to the teachings of Jesus Christ" while on the islands, and many "are converted to the Christian faith and return to China with Bibles in hand." ^[7] Ralph Reed may refer to: Ralph E. Reed, Jr. ... Robert Renfroe Bob Riley (born October 3, 1944) is an American politician in the Republican Party. ...

In January 2006, CNMI Governor Benigno Fitial demanded that Preston Gates & Ellis and Greenberg Traurig return much of the money originally paid for lobbying services, claiming that "the positive benefits of those services have been undone by the wide scandal brought on by the criminal charges against Abramoff."^[8]

In August 2006, Roger Stillwell, formerly an employee of the Department of the Interior, pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge of failing to report gifts received from Abramoff during the period that Abramoff was lobbying the Interior on behalf of the Commonwealth of the Marianas Islands.^[9] Roger Stillwell (b. ...

References

1. ^ M-01-05: Survey of CNMI-Contracted Lobbyist Activities, January 1994 through September 2001. Office of Public Auditor:Northern Mariana Islands (2001-11-09). Retrieved on 2006-08-17.
2. ^ Edsall, Thomas, "Another Stumble for Ralph Reed's Beleaguered Campaign", Washington Post, May 29, 2006, pp. A5.
3. ^ ^a b Ross, Brian. "DeLay's Lavish Island Getaway", ABC News, April 6, 2005.
4. ^ Zernike, Kate. "Associate of Lobbyist Tied to DeLay Is Questioned on Island Contracts", The New York Times, April 29, 2005.
5. ^ ^a b c Smith, R. Jeffrey. "Democrats' Travel Costs Linked to Lobbyist", The Washington Post, May 4, 2005.
6. ^ Roche, Walter F. and Neubauer, Chuck. "A Question of Influence", Los Angeles Times, May 6, 2005.
7. ^ Edsall, Thomas, "Another Stumble for Ralph Reed's Beleaguered Campaign", Washington Post, May 29, 2006, pp. A5.
8. ^ Ravelo, John. "'Return Abramoff money'", Saipan Tribune, January 31, 2006.
9. ^ Associated Press. "'Recipient of Gifts From Abramoff Pleads Guilty'", Washington Post, Saturday, August 12, 2006.