Police want to talk with indicted lobbyist about Boulis slaying: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

By Paula McMahon
Staff Writer

August 17, 2005

Fort Lauderdale police said Tuesday they would like to interview Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff to learn whether he has any information about the February 2001 gangland-style killing of Gus Boulis.

Abramoff is not a suspect in the slaying, but he and his then-business partner, Adam Kidan, are facing federal fraud charges in the purchase of Boulis' SunCruz fleet of casino boats.

At a brief hearing in Miami on Tuesday morning, U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen T. Brown scheduled Abramoff's arraignment and initial court hearing in South Florida for Aug. 29.

After the hearing, Abramoff's Miami attorney, Neal Sonnett, said his client has been willing to meet with Fort Lauderdale homicide detectives since shortly after Boulis' death, but the interview never took place.

"My thinking was that he wasn't an important enough witness," Sonnett said.

Fort Lauderdale police said they have tried unsuccessfully to talk to Abramoff about the issue on several occasions. "We've attempted through the attorney to talk to Mr. Abramoff several times, and for some reason the attorney's schedule never was able to accommodate it," said Sgt. Tim Bronson, the head of Fort Lauderdale's homicide squad.

Boulis was killed a few months after Abramoff and Kidan became majority owners in his company. Boulis was gunned down in what investigators say was a professional hit as he drove down Miami Road near Port Everglades.

Fort Lauderdale police say they have suspects, but won't name them.

Bronson said his detectives hope to schedule an interview with Abramoff soon. Bronson and Sonnett said they have no reason to think that Abramoff knows anything about the fatal shooting, but the detective said they still have questions for him.

Detectives interviewed Kidan some years ago about the slaying.

Abramoff, 46, of Washington, D.C., and Kidan, 41, of New York, have pleaded not guilty to a six-count grand jury indictment charging them with conspiracy and wire fraud in the September 2000 purchase of the casino boats from Boulis.

Federal prosecutors say the two lied on financial statements and created a counterfeit document claiming that they had put up $23 million of their money in the deal, to trick lenders into providing most of the $147.5 million sale price of the Broward-based operation. Boulis and Kidan clashed about running the company and the terms of the sale. Tensions grew so bad that they accused each other of intimidating behavior, and Kidan hired a bodyguard.

Abramoff is under investigation by a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., and by the U.S. Senate's Indian Affairs Committee for deals in which six Indian tribes paid him and an associate tens of millions of dollars to lobby for tribal casinos and other interests. The tribes have suggested the charges were excessive.

Those twin investigations have received national interest because of Abramoff's links to, and friendship with, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas. The House Ethics Committee is reviewing allegations that Abramoff or his clients paid for some of DeLay's overseas travel expenses. DeLay denied knowing the expenses were paid by Abramoff, who has raised thousands of dollars for DeLay and other Republican members of Congress.

Paula McMahon can be reached at pmcmahon@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4533.