Jack Abramoff

Jack Allan Abramoff (born February 28, 1959) is an American lobbyist, businessman, film producer, writer, and convicted felon.

He was at the center of an extensive corruption investigation led by Earl Devaney that resulted in his conviction and 21 other people either pleading guilty or being found guilty, including White House officials J. Steven Griles and David Safavian, U.S. Representative Bob Ney, and nine other lobbyists and congressional aides.

Abramoff was born February 28, 1959, in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

His parents were Jane (née Divac) and Franklin Abramoff, who was president of the Franchises unit of Diners Club credit card company.

In 1969, when Abramoff was ten years old, his family moved to Beverly Hills, California.

After seeing the film version of Fiddler on the Roof at age twelve, Abramoff decided to practice Orthodox Judaism.

In California, Abramoff attended Beverly Hills High School.

Abramoff attended Beverly Hills High School, where he played football and was a weightlifting champion.

In an April 1980 meeting at Brandeis, Abramoff was elected Chairman of the Massachusetts Alliance of College Republicans, an organization of student volunteers working for Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign.

Abramhoff cited the Massaschusetts College Republicans role in Reagan's close victory in the state as a "major factor", claiming that "Reagan spent only $25,000 in the state and won by a mere 3000 votes. Five thousand members (of the College Republicans) produced thousands of votes for him".

Abramoff was College Republican National Committee National Chairman from 1981 to 1985, a founding member of the International Freedom Foundation, allegedly financed by apartheid South Africa, and served on the board of directors of the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank.

He graduated with a B.A. in English in 1981.

"It is not our job to seek peaceful coexistence with the Left", Abramoff was quoted as saying in the group's 1983 annual report.

"Our job is to remove them from power permanently."

Norquist served as executive director of the committee under Abramoff.

He later recruited Ralph Reed, a former president of the University of Georgia College Republicans chapter, as an unpaid intern.

According to Reed's book Active Faith, Reed introduced Abramoff to Pamela Clarke Alexander, and they later married.

In 1983, the CRNC passed a resolution condemning "deliberate planted propaganda by the KGB and Soviet proxy forces" against the government of South Africa, at a time when the country's government was under worldwide criticism for its apartheid regime.

As chair of the CRNC, Abramoff addressed the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas.

At the CRNC, Abramoff developed political alliances with College Republican chapter presidents across the nation.

Many would later hold key roles in state and national politics and business, and some would later interact with Abramoff in his role as a lobbyist.

Some of those relationships were at the core of the federal investigation.

At the CRNC, Abramoff, Norquist and Reed formed what was known as the "Abramoff-Norquist-Reed triumvirate".

After Abramoff's election, the trio purged "dissidents" and re-wrote the CRNC's bylaws to consolidate their control over the organization.

According to Easton's Gang of Five, Reed was the "hatchet man" and "carried out Abramoff-Norquist orders with ruthless efficiency, not bothering to hide his fingerprints".

He earned his Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1986.

According to Nina Easton, Abramoff gained much of his credibility in the conservative movement through his father, Franklin Abramoff.

As president of Diners Club International, Abramoff's father worked closely with Alfred S. Bloomingdale, a personal friend of Reagan.

After graduating from Brandeis, Abramoff ran for election as chairman of the College Republican National Committee (CRNC).

After a campaign which cost over $11,000 and was managed by Grover Norquist, Abramoff won the election.

His chief competitor, Amy Moritz was persuaded to drop out (later, as Amy Ridenour, she became a founding director of the National Center for Public Policy Research. She was treated to several trips funded by Jack Abramoff when he was working as a lobbyist).

Abramoff "changed the direction of the [college] committee and made it more activist and conservative than ever before", notes the CRNC.

From 1994 to 2001 he was a top lobbyist for the firm of Preston Gates & Ellis, and then for Greenberg Traurig until March 2004.

After a guilty plea in the Jack Abramoff Native American lobbying scandal and his dealings with SunCruz Casinos in January 2006, he was sentenced to six years in federal prison for mail fraud, conspiracy to bribe public officials, and tax evasion.

In 2007, Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold, who attended Beverly Hills High School at the same time, recounted an incident in which Abramoff pushed him and his cello down a flight of stairs.

The incident was reported in the The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles under the heading, "Jack Abramoff the bully".

As an undergraduate at Brandeis University, Abramoff was elected treasurer of the Brandeis College Republicans.

He served 43 months before being released on December 3, 2010.

Abramoff's lobbying and the surrounding scandals and investigation are the subject of two 2010 films: the documentary Casino Jack and the United States of Money, released in May 2010, and the feature film Casino Jack, released on December 17, 2010, starring Kevin Spacey as Abramoff.

After his release from prison, he wrote the autobiographical book Capitol Punishment: The Hard Truth About Washington Corruption From America's Most Notorious Lobbyist which was published in November 2011.