Feds Appear To Be Closing In On DeLay And Abramoff On Marianas Island Activities

It appears as if the plea deal between DOJ and Michael Scanlon may already be paying off.  Press reports from the Marianas Islands suggest that prosecutors are picking up the pace in their probe of Rep. Tom DeLay and super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff's dealings with the Marianas.

Governor-elect Benigno R. Fitial was initially elected Speaker after intervention by top staffers of DeLay's.  The feds appear to be investigating whether DeLay promised funding for projects of concern to Marianas Island (CNMI) politicians in return for their support for DeLay's favored candidate for Speaker.

These actions took place at a time when Abramoff's lobbying contract for CNMI had been suspended.  Fitial was an ally of Abramoff.  After Fitial's election as Speaker, Abramoff's lobbying contract was restored.

Fitial is a former executive of Tan Holdings, a conglomerate owned by CNMI businessman, Willie Tan.  Tan has vast holdings in the CNMI, including garment manufacturing facilities that operate as sweatshops.  Concorde Garment Manufacturing is one of those facilities.

In March of 2000, 8 major U.S. retailers settled a class action lawsuit for $6.5 million for working conditions in CNMI manufacturing facilities, including those of Concorde Garment Manufacturing. (New York Times, 8 Retailers Settle Suit, March 29, 2000)

In April of 2000, Majority Leader Roy Blunt (R-K Street) accepted a $3,000 contribution from Concorde Garment Manufacturing into his Rely On Your Beliefs Fund (ROYB).  In the same reporting period, the ROYB Fund also received a massive $100,000 contribution from DeLay's ARMPAC Convention and an additional $3,000 from another client of Abramoff's, who advocated statehood for Puerto Rico.

The ROYB Fund employed Jim Ellis, who along with DeLay has been indicted for money laundering in Texas.  It also had close ties to the Alexander Strategy Group, the firm controlled by Ed Buckham which is now being closely scrutinized by federal investigators, for among other things, its financial arrangements with DeLay's wife, Christine.

The original source of the $100,000 that ARMPAC Convention donated is still unknown as DeLay has never publicly disclosed the contributors to that fund.  The full extent of the ties between Abramoff, DeLay, and Blunt will never be known, unless the DOJ digs all the way to the bottom of this.

Hat tip to The Stakeholder.