Associate of Abramoff Had 12 Meetings With Bush Staff
    By Stephanie Kirchgaessnerin
    The Finacial Times UK

    Monday 16 October 2006

    A lobbyist associated with Jack Abramoff, the convicted former "superlobbyist", met White House officials on 12 occasions in 2003 and 2004 on behalf of an association that represented PartyGaming and other online gaming websites, according to billing records released by Congress.

    White House officials' meetings with Shawn Vasell, a former associate of Mr Abramoff, were documented by the latter's former lobbying firm, Greenberg Traurig. The documents were released following a broader investigation into contacts between Mr Abramoff's team and the Bush administration by the House committee on government reform.

    A spokesman for Mr Abramoff, who pleaded guilty to corruption charges this year, declined to comment. As payment for Mr Abramoff's lobbying effort to scupper anti-gaming legislation, Gibraltar-based International Interactive Association (IIA) spent millions of dollars on fees to Greenberg Traurig. The effort was largely effective until recently, when Congress passed a bill that, in effect, criminalised gaming.

    IIA, represented by James Levy, of the Gibraltar law firm Hassans, has sought to distance itself from its ties to Mr Abramoff by asserting that, in common with his other clients, it was unaware of the lobbyist's shenanigans. These included the fact that IIA contributed $2m (£1.1m) to charities Mr Abramoff used to disguise payments to other organisations.

    Tax records and the documents released by Congress show that IIA made donations in 2003 to the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative group, and -Capital Athletic Foundation, a charity controlled by Mr Abramoff.

    Robert Litt, an attorney at Arnold & Porter, another law firm representing IIA, said the $2m was contributed to the charities without IIA's knowledge, from fees it paid Greenberg Traurig. "IIA retained Greenberg Traurig to do lobbying and, not to put too fine an edge on it, it appears Abramoff stole their money," he said.

    But in e-mails released by Congress, Amy Ridenour, the president of NCPPR, told Mr Abramoff in 2004 she intended to send a letter to IIA to confirm that the $1.5m her organisation had received had, in fact, originated from IIA.

    In an unsigned letter provided to the FT by IIA - which Mr Litt said it sent to Ms Ridenour in August 2004 in response to her query - IIA said it had "no information" about the payments.*Betcorp, the Australian online gaming company, said last night it was in talks with a number of parties interested in acquiring its gaming operations and infrastructure after suspending its US operations.