Abramoff Report Released

WASHINGTON, June 22, 2006 — -- The Senate Indian Affairs Committee released its final report today, and officially closed the Senate investigation into Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon's lobbying deals with American Indian tribes.

The committee was one of the first groups to publicly expose Abramoff's fraudulent lobbying deals with the Indian tribes, and the hearings spurred the Justice Department to open an investigation into Abramoff's lobbying contracts. The Justice Department investigations into Abramoff-related cases remain ongoing.

The report by the committee, which is chaired by Rep. John McCain, said the existing laws related to the investigation were sufficient and members were satisfied with how the Justice Department was handling the probe.

However, the committee offered advice for the tribe members scattered throughout the hearing room. The members recommended tribes across the country strengthen their election laws and contracting rules to prevent corruption from lobbyists such as Abramoff.

Abramoff Ties Heavily Mentioned in Report

By continuously contributing evidence throughout the Abramoff investigations, the Senate committee played a large role in prosecutors' investigations into Abramoff and three former Republican congressional staffers. All four men pleaded guilty and are awaiting jail time.

Two of the three staffers who pleaded guilty to corruption charges worked for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. DeLay resigned from Congress last month but has not been charged in the probe and claims he has done nothing wrong.

Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, watched his former chief of staff plead guilty to corruption charges last month. Ney's name is mentioned throughout the 373-page report, but Ney spokesman Brian Walsh told ABC on Tuesday, "...the congressman reiterates that he has never engaged in any improper, unethical or illegal activity. He is confident that the lies and deception of Jack Abramoff will continue to be exposed and that he will be vindicated when all of the facts are presented."

$66 Million Taken From the Tribes

When Abramoff became a lobbyist for several Indian tribes, he urged the tribal leaders to hire Michael Scanlon -- his partner -- to provide "grassroot support." The two men overcharged for their services and were laundering the money into imaginary nonprofit organizations.

The tribes did not know Scanlon was a partner of Abramoff's and the two men were secretly splitting the fees tribes paid Scanlon from 2001 to 2003. The report states, "Most of the money that the Tribes paid Scanlon appears to have been used by Scanlon and Abramoff for purely personal purposes -- purposes unintended by the Tribes."

McCain said, "Six tribes paid Mr. Scanlon $66 million from 2001 through 2003 and Mr. Scanlon paid about one third of that amount ... to Mr. Abramoff."

The Senate Indian Affairs Committee is urging the Senate Finance Committee to investigate the imaginary nonprofit groups that were used to launder money, avoid taxes and hide lobbying.

Sen. Kent Conrad of the Indian Affairs Committee said, "It is a tale of extraordinary greed, deception and exploitation. Abramoff and Scanlon wove an extraordinary web of deceit, and at the bottom showed a greed that is truly stunning. They used scare tactics to convince Tribes that their gaming operations were threatened and to induce them to pay huge sums of money for protection."