Hit man is dead, says Abramoff partner

Jun 9, 2:00 PM EDT

Ex-Abramoff partner: shooter in Boulis murder died 3 years ago

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) -- An associate of John Gotti killed three years ago was the person who fatally shot SunCruz Casinos founder Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis in 2001, a partner in the purchase of the gambling boat company told investigators.

Adam Kidan, who bought SunCruz from Boulis with lobbyist Jack Abramoff in 2000, told authorities in a taped interview May 1 that John Gurino was the person who shot Boulis, said Art Carbo, an investigator with the Broward County State Attorney's office and a former Fort Lauderdale detective on the case.

"He came up with all of this information," Carbo told The Associated Press on Friday. "That name had never come up before that."

Earlier this year, Kidan and Abramoff pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges stemming from the SunCruz purchase.

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FL_BOULIS_KILLING_SHOOTER_FLOL-?SITE=FLPET&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=state.shtml&CTIME=2006-06-09-14-00-00

There is no doubt that trips to the CNMI (islands) are one of the most effective ways to build permanent friends on the Hill and among policymakers in Washington," the firm wrote the island government in a lobbying plan in February 1998.

Some of the lawmakers Abramoff arranged to travel to the islands included Reps. Dana Rohrabacher and Brian Bilbray, both California Republicans, and Ralph Hall, a Texas Democrat.

If lawmakers weren't interested in traveling, Abramoff found other ways to reach out to them.

Boulis Investigation Dredges Up Big Names

US authorities charge alleged gangsters with murder, probe lobbyist connections

by Timothy Appleby
CommonDreams

EXCERPT...

When three men were charged last month with killing him in 2001, the most familiar name on the indictments belonged to 67-year-old Anthony (Big Tony) Moscatiello, an associate of New York's Gambino crime family. John Gotti, once overheard on a wiretap threatening to do Mr. Moscatiello some serious harm if he did not show more respect, headed the Gambino clan.

SNIP...

That is would-be Washington mega-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who once raised $100,000 for U.S. President George W. Bush and is a close friend of Republican Congressman Tom DeLay, the House majority leader until last month when a Texas prosecutor accused Mr. DeLay of conspiracy and money laundering.

Mr. Abramoff, 45, has his own legal troubles. So much so, that on Friday, lawyer Timothy Flanigan withdrew his nomination for U.S. deputy attorney-general -- the nation's No. 2 law job -- because of congressional concerns over his dealings with Mr. Abramoff.

Casino Jack, as Mr. Abramoff is known, has for months been under investigation by a federal grand jury and the Senate's Indian affairs committee after receiving at least $66-million from six Indian tribes to lobby for their casino interests; the tribes later said the fees were excessive.

But more recently, his difficulties multiplied.

In August, he and his former business partner, disbarred New York lawyer and fellow Republican fundraiser Adam Kidan, 41, were charged with fraud and conspiracy over their September, 2000, purchase of Mr. Boulis's 11 SunCruz gambling boats for $147-million.

Those charges accuse Mr. Abramoff and Mr. Kidan of faking a wire transfer that made it appear that they had put up $23-million of their own money in the SunCruz sale. Based on that transfer, two banks agreed to lend the pair $60-million, the charges allege.

CONTINUED...

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1010-06.htm