MiamiHerald.com | 01/05/2006 | Abramoff pleads guilty to bogus purchase of SunCruz Casinos fleet

Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty Wednesday to fraud charges stemming from his scandal-shrouded purchase of Dania Beach-based SunCruz Casinos.BY JAY WEAVERjweaver@MiamiHerald.comSporting a beige baseball cap, disgraced Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff blew into Miami for a few hours Wednesday to plead guilty to federal fraud charges stemming from his controversial purchase of a South Florida fleet of gambling ships.
Abramoff arrived in a black Lincoln Town Car accompanied by his two lawyers. He took the cap off during his plea hearing, then donned it again as he dashed out the side door of the Miami federal courthouse.
Standing outside the James Lawrence King Justice Building in Miami were a phalanx of reporters, photographers and TV cameramen.
On this day, the one-time powerful lobbyist's biggest worry was not facing U.S. District Judge Paul Huck, but avoiding the media mob.
''Mr. Abramoff almost got knocked over this morning as he was coming in,'' his attorney, Neal Sonnett, told the judge.
To avoid the media, Abramoff was allowed to take care of a presentencing matter in the courthouse instead of having to cross the street to meet with the court's probation office.
Abramoff's brief court appearance in Miami followed his guilty plea on Tuesday in a separate Washington public-corruption case -- a widening Justice Department investigation in which he is the star witness.
The lobbyist, once close to former Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, is expected to name several lawmakers who received millions of dollars in campaign donations, luxury trips and gourmet meals from him and others in exchange for alleged legislative favors.
At his plea hearing in a Washington federal court Tuesday, Abramoff invoked God as he apologized for his corrupt dealings while representing Indian tribes that own casinos.
He wore a black fedora to the District of Columbia court hearing.
In Miami, Abramoff was mostly mum. He answered Huck's questions politely but did not express any remorse for conspiring with a business partner to defraud lenders in their $147.5 million purchase of Dania Beach-based SunCruz Casinos in 2000.
After the short hearing, Abramoff zipped out of the courthouse with his Washington lawyer Abbe Lowell to catch a flight back to the nation's capital.
Abramoff and New York businessman Adam Kidan were charged last summer with lying to lenders about putting up $23 million to qualify for a $60 million loan to seal the SunCruz deal. They never made the down payment, though they sent bogus documents to the lenders that showed they did.
The SunCruz deal allowed the partners to pay themselves $500,000 salaries and to divert $310,000 in SunCruz money for Washington-area sports sky boxes for GOP fundraisers.
''He will face the consequences of his actions,'' said interim U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta, crediting South Florida prosecutors Lawrence LaVecchio, Paul Schwartz and Guy Singer along with FBI agent Susan Sprengel. ``He faces significant jail time.''
In the SunCruz case, Abramoff faces up to seven years in prison and must repay the lenders, but he is expected to get a stiffer sentence in the Washington case -- up to 11 years. His deal with federal prosecutors allows him to serve the time concurrently.
Abramoff, 46, is freeon a $2.25 million bond. A sentencing hearing is set for March 16. Kidan, 41, out on a $500,000 bond, pleaded guilty last month. He faces up to seven years in prison at his March 1 sentencing.
The SunCruz deal, since the beginning, has haunted the pair.
They originally met as young Republican activists in the 1980s when Abramoff was at Georgetown University Law Center and Kidan at George Washington University.
Years later, they teamed up to buy SunCruz from its founder, Konstantinos ''Gus'' Boulis, later executed in a mob-style hit.
To close the deal, Abramoff and Kidan needed to secure a loan. They contacted Foothill Capital, a California-based unit of Wells Fargo & Co. Joining Foothill in the financing was Citadel Equity Fund, based in the Cayman Islands.
Foothill and Citadel agreed to loan the Kidan-Abramoff group $60 million as long as they made an ''equity contribution'' of $23 million. The lenders later learned the partners had given Boulis promissory notes, not cash