Oh that’s just great.
You know about the indictment of Jack Abramoff yesterday for his dealing relating to SunCruz, the casino boat operation down in Florida. And you also have heard about how Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio gave speeches on the floor of the House to help Abramoff (and his then-partner and now-fellow indictee) Adam Kidan squeeze Gus Boulis into selling them SunCruz. Boulis is the guy who later got whacked in the gangland hit after everything went sour.
But I at least didn’t know that Abramoff was apparently trying to expand the SunCruz operation to Saipan, the US Pacific Island protectorate where he was best known for protecting owners of sweatshops from congressional efforts to clamp down on their system of indentured servitude.
This article from The Saipan Tribune spells out the details, the exciting news that laborers in Saipan would get jobs on the casino boats (one of which was supposed to be “deployed” by August 2001) and the even more exciting news that SunCruz would “create job opportunities for local workers who may also ask to be transferred to other company-operated floating casinos in the mainland US, Asia or the Carribbean.”
I think the Brits had a system like that, didn’t they?
Anyway, take a look.
(ed.note: Props to TPM Reader RS for the catch.)
