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The School Safavian and Abramoff Built

By Nico Pitney on Sep 20th, 2005 at 1:01 pm

The School Safavian and Abramoff Built

The FBI complaint filed against David Safavian yesterday accuses him of lying to ethics officers at the General Services Administration, where he served as chief of staff. Safavian informed the officials that Jack Abramoff, who had invited Safavian on a golfing trip to Scotland, had “no business before GSA.” In fact, Safavian was already actively helping Abramoff acquire control of two GSA-managed properties in the Washington area, one of which was a 40-acre plot that became the campus for a Hebrew school that Abramoff founded called the Eshkol Academy.

Come again? Jack Abramoff, the corrupt, scandal-plagued lobbyist, founded a Hebrew academy? Yes, but it was a distinctly Abramoff-style venture.

In 2004, he thought the school would be a prime place to make money off the lives of tribal elders. Abramoff recommended that one of his clients, the then-broke Tigua tribe, retain him at no cost. At the same time, he suggestioned they allow Eshkol Academy to “buy term life insurance policies on tribal elders and receive the benefits upon their death, with the money then channeled back to Abramoff.” According to the Washington Post, some of the money that went into the school was used to buy “two Zamboni ice-cleaning machines, even though it did not own a hockey rink.”

The school was closed a short time later, but the scandals persisted. In May ‘04, Abramoff’s assets were frozen by a Montgomery County, MD judge “in connection with a lawsuit over unpaid wages filed by employees of a religious academy that Abramoff founded.” Abramoff had shorted thirteen teachers a quarter of their pay when Eshkol shut down.



27 Responses to “The School Safavian and Abramoff Built”

  1. Terek says:

    Funny picture of Abramoff — needs a caption. Contest anyone??


  2. Darth Filibustrous says:

    Nico – You should perhaps start the post with “David Safavian was ARRESTED yesterday for …”

    ..and not..

    “The complaint filed against David Safavian yesterday ….”


  3. Patriot says:

    These guys play congress like the stock market.
    Try ‘em
    Hang ‘em


  4. David B says:

    Yes, the school closed without notice. The Baltimore Sun ran an article shortly after regarding the disarray that families were left with moving children and trying to get course credits and such to transfer to new schools. It was quite a mess.


  5. Clyde the Ripper says:

    Oy Vey! We lose a dollar on every sale but we make it up in graft.

    The house is starting to crumble and the Big Bad Wolf is getting up a head of steam. The fall of the house of Bush is beginning and not even Chang can put it back together again.

    How’s that for a mixed metahpor, fairy tale, or Harry Potter as the case may be.


  6. afterthought says:

    Well, at least Abramoff is consistent.
    Whatever he does seems to be unethical, crooked,
    and ALWAYS self-serving.
    GOP, your corruption is showing.


  7. meg_mac says:

    graft and corruption is so widespread that it cannot be kept up to. we’d after to have an army of principled lawyers (can we find that many?) to asort and root out every crook now employed by goober bush


  8. brain-noogie says:

    Is there any group of people that Abramoff has not screwed over for a buck?


  9. meg_mac says:

    sorry for the typo’s . im keyboard challenged today (or just very mad!!)


  10. e_five says:

    Their defense: “We won the election, so the treasury is ours.”


  11. Marie says:

    Crooks and their pals.
    Abramoff has some connections to Democrats too, so he is a bipartisan crook.
    But crooks must be exposed and tried in court. The closer they get to Delay, and then the White House is a “good thing.”


  12. the Dane says:

    Yes! It is happening. The arrests of the criminals who have raped this nation for the last five years has begun. Let’s start the Bush Leaguev perp walks!

    THE BUSH ERROR IS OVER!


  13. afterthought says:

    Do think the correct definition of
    our current government would be:
    fascist kleptocracy?


  14. Jeff says:

    Donde esta los trolls?


  15. Vinilo Suave says:

    meg-mac, I think you meant “typoes.” But you cood have spilt it any way you wanted to, as I am on yore side. Jeff, los trolls (hehe)are bumping into each other what with all the confusions and tangential talking points that have come spinning out of the sky. And if they knew anything the cops would have made them rolled trolls by now. Re: 13, keep a good thought, Afterthought. God Bless us, everyone (with some obvious exceptions).


  16. Vinilo Suave says:

    Then again, it is probably just “typos.”


  17. Ryan Neat says:

    Speaking of these crooks, did anyone catch how the FEC is finally suing at least one of the illegal campaign funding organizations for the bushes?

    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/092005A.shtml

    Yet another example of the election fraud and illegal tactics used to sway, influence and steal the election. The list seems endless. Has anyone heard anything about the 2 ohio officials who were ‘indicted’ a couple of weeks ago for their participation in the Ohio fraud? The reichwingers keep pretending that the ohio fraud was all an urban legend, yet Kathleen Dreamer, manager of the board’s ballot department, and the assistant manager, Rosie Grier, were each charged with six counts of failing to follow Ohio laws that spell out how ballots are selected and reviewed during a recount.

    And apparently more officials are under investigation and the rumor is that the democrats in the state are so far successfully pressing hard to have the rest of the crooks brought to justice…


  18. Clyde the Ripper says:

    Ryan Neat,

    Do you suppose that is the same Rosie Grier that played Defensive Tackle for the LA Rams a few (50) years ago?


  19. Ryan Neat says:

    Clyde,

    Funny :) Looks like she did a tackle on democracy – so who knows…


  20. Susan says:

    Hey, mainstream media reported this today…

    100,000 Walmart employees are suing Walmart for not being allowed lunch breaks.

    The suit asks for damages in the amount of 66 million bucks.

    Cool.


  21. Vinilo Suave says:

    What!? The associates lack lunches? Let ‘em eat day old cake doughnuts–Marie Antoinette Walton


  22. kjlovell says:

    Crooks to the left of me, crooks to the right of me, here I am stuck in the middle again.

    If you aren’t mad yet, you haven’t been paying attention!

    I smell a storm brewing…. I think it will be a category 12 by 2006 and category 17 by 2008.

    If you still love dumya, put your head between your legs and kiss your azzzz godbye!

    Funny, up until a few weeks ago I felt a draft!


  23. Rolandc says:

    suggestioned ?? suggestioned ?? is this a bushism like misunderestimated //


  24. Iraq Veteran says:

    I know this is off the subject but, how is this for a double standard??? Many High Schools and minority colleges do not have the luxury of fighting the Gov’t from illegal recruting, but it seems that the upper-class gets offended when it hits closer to home…

    http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2005-09-21-harvard-military_x.htm

    Double Standard, Some Liberty, and Conservative Justice for a Few! – G. W. Bush (a.k.a. The “Duh” Administration)


  25. skip says:

    Obviously Abramoff should have merged his Eshkol academy into his sniper school in the occupied territories.


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