The Muckraker's Reference Section
Adam Kidan
Adam Kidan was Jack Abramoff's business partner at SunCruz, a Florida casino cruise line.
On March 29, 2006 Kidan, along with Abramoff, was sentenced to 5 years and 10 months in prison for fraud in the SunCruz purchase.
Adam Kidan met Jack Abramoff through their joint activities with the College Republicans in DC in the 1980s while Abramoff was at Georgetown Law Center and Kidan was at George Washington University. Kidan later earned a degree from Brooklyn Law and went on to work for the George H.W. Bush campaign. His previous business ventures include a bagel bakery called West Hampton Bagels and ownership of a Dial-a-Mattress franchise.
Abramoff facilitated Kidan's purchase of SunCruz by introducing him to SunCruz's lawyer, Art Dimopoulos, who worked at Preston Gates. Abramoff did not disclose his partnership with Kidan when the two bought SunCruz in 2000. The basis of their partnership was Kidan's ability to provide financial backing up-front and Abramoff's purported ability to expand the business through his connections in Washington.
Kidan has had long-time associations with various elements of organized crime, including one of his business associates at West Hampton bagels, Michael Cavallo. Kidan's mother was killed by members of the Bonanno family during a botched robbery in 1993.
The relationship between Kidan and Gus Boulis turned very sour in the year after the SunCruz acquisition. Kidan hired three bodyguards and secured a restraining order against Boulis, who, Kidan claimed, had attacked him at a SunCruz board meeting.
See Kidan's Grand Ole Docket entry for ongoing court dates.
Key Points:
The men arrested for Boulis' murder were on SunCruz's payroll.
James "Pudgy" Fiorillo, Anthony "Little Tony" Ferrari and Anthony "Big Tony" Moscatiello, a former bookkeeper for the Gambino crime family, were arrested for the Boulis murder in September 2005. Moscatiello had received $145,000 in payments from SunCruz, then under Abramoff and Kidan's control, for what Kidan described as catering services, consulting, and site inspections, though there is no evidence such services were rendered. Ferrari's company, Moon Over Miami Beach, received $95,000 in payments from SunCruz for "surveillance."
Kidan told investigators that he had no knowledge of the plans to kill Boulis until Boulis had been murdered.
Kidan pled guilty and was sentenced for his association with the SunCruz purchase.
Kidan and Abramoff secured bank loans to help cover the $147.5 million purchase price of SunCruz by guaranteeing $23 million of their own money as collateral. But Kidan and Abramoff never came through with that $23 million. They convinced SunCruz owner Gus Boulis to take promissory notes instead and faked a wire transfer to demonstrate to the bank that they'd made the payment. Kidan was indicted for this along with Abramoff in August 2005 and pled guilty on December 15, 2005.
On March 29, 2006 Kidan, along with Abramoff, was sentenced to 5 years and 10 months in prison.
Kidan received praise in the Congressional record from Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH).
In October 2000, during the feuding between Kidan and Boulis over how SunCruz was to be run, Michael Scanlon, who was working for SunCruz, asked Ney to bolster Kidan's credibility with another set of statements in the Congressional Record. Ney complied, saying Kidan's "track record as a businessman and a citizen lead me to believe that he will easily transform SunCruz from a questionable enterprise to an upstanding establishment." Kidan, along with Abramoff and other SunCruz executives, attended a fundraiser for Ney at the MCI Center Skybox in March 2001. Those statements came six days after SunCruz, under the control of Abramoff and Kidan, made a $10,000 donation to the NRCC in Ney's name.
Kidan helped pay for Abramoff's skyboxes.
Kidan earned a half million dollar annual salary from SunCruz. Shortly after that salary started coming in, Kidan gave checks totaling $310,000 to Abramoff to help cover the MCI Center, FedEx Field, and Camden Yards skyboxes.
Kidan attended an inaugural celebration with Delay.
In January 2001, a day after Boulis was in court seeking an injunction against Kidan, Kidan and Scanlon attended an inaugural reception in Delay's Capitol Hill office.
Research by Ryan Chiachiere
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