WP on the cut-outs Abramoff used to bribe DeLay's staffers Ed Buckham, Tony Rudy and their wives, to entice DeLay to vote to benefit Abramoff's clients, Russian energy concerns and Indian tribes. DeLay's staffers' outfits, Alexander Strategy Group and the US Family Network were literally conceived of by Abramoff as vehicles to launder money from Abramoff's clients to buy DeLay's votes (presumably, if DeLay was willing to vote in ways that would have benefitted Abramoff's clients for free, they could have saved their cash). The Post piece by Jeff Smith shows Buckham and his wife Wendy personally raked in over a million dollars from one such cut out, the pro-family values 'non-profit,' the US Family Network. And the piece further details what the National Journal's Peter Stone reported last week: that Buckham started to collect from Abramoff's clients via the US Family Network in late 1997 while he was still chief of staff to DeLay -- a post he seemed to continue to de facto serve even when Abramoff sent him off to K Street to launder the money from his clients. Given the evidence that Buckham and Delay and Abramoff were engaged in the crimes associated with the mob -- conspiracy to commit bribery, money laundering, fraud -- it's hard to fathom that Buckham is a minister, described as DeLay's spiritual advisor who prayed with him daily. What were they praying for?

The piece demonstrates a breathtaking degree of complicity on Buckham's part to participate in a bribery and money laundering scheme engineered by Abramoff. As a friend commented to me, a good money laundering scheme would involve several layers of cut outs or front companies -- from three to twelve. These guys apparently stuck to the lower number -- a think tank here, a family values charity there, Chelsea bank accounts in the Cayman islands, a law firm in London funneling money from the Russians -- because they were too arrogant to think that anybody would look too hard.

Posted by Laura at March 26, 2006 12:07 AM