Northern Mariana Islands
Jack Abramoff began lobbying for the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI), a self-governing U.S. territory subject to acts of Congress, in 1995. Abramoff collected a total of $7.7 million in fees from the CNMI fighting to keep Washington from imposing the federal minimum wage, among other issues.
Abramoff's first lobbying arrangement with the Islands concluded at the end of 1998. In 1999, Preston Gates began representing the Western Pacific Economic Council, an association of garment makers including Tan, whose position on the minimum wage matched the commonwealth government's. Under pressure from congressional staffers, CMNI reinstated Abramoff's contract in 2000. When that arrangement ended, he returned to representing Tan, this time under the auspices of a front company, Rose Garden Holdings.
Abramoff's lobbying efforts, through his connections to Tom DeLay, successfully prevented Clinton administration and congressional efforts to reform CNMI's labor laws.
Key Points:
CMNI has a long history of disputes with Congress over human rights and working conditions.
During the 1990s, Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-AK) and Rep. George Miller (D-CA) were frequent critics of the sweatshop conditions used in factories in the Marianas that made clothes with the "Made in the USA" label for companies like Tommy Hilfiger USA, Gap, Calvin Klein and Liz Claiborne. In 1992, the Department of Labor sued five garment factories owned by Willie Tan and eventually fined the Tan companies $9 million -- the largest fine they had ever imposed.
American officials and human rights advocates testified before congress that workers, 91 percent of whom were immigrants from China, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, were working below the CMNI minimum wage ($3.05), often seven days a week and up to 12 hours a day, and living in shacks behind barbed wire and without plumbing. Many workers also paid $5,000 to $7,000 in "recruitment fees" to gain employment, often with money borrowed from loan sharks who took all of their wages until the fees were paid back.
The CMNI obtained Abramoff's services in 1995 to handle these continuing disputes. In 2000, the Senate unanimously passed Sen. Murkowski's CNMI worker rights reform bill. Rep. DeLay prevented the House from considering the bill.
Abramoff gave trips to the Marianas to members of Congress, billed to the Island government, to build long-term support.
In their book The Hammer, Lou Dubose and Jan Reid report that "In 1997 the Marianas taxpayers picked up the tab for 88 week-long junkets at a reported $5,500 per traveler." These trips included seven members of the House, five wives, one child, and 75 aides. Because CNMI is a U.S. Territory and the trips were paid for with taxpayer funds, the members were not required to disclose the trips. In a memo obtained by ABC News, Abramoff described these congressional trips as "one of the most effective ways to build permanent friends on the Hill."
A current and a former DeLay staffer pressured members of the Marianas legislature to change votes to elect a Speaker of the House who would help reinstate Abramoff's contract.
DeLay staffer Michael Scanlon and former DeLay Chief of Staff Ed Buckham (then a lobbyist with Alexander Strategy Group) traveled to Saipan in December 1999 armed with federal incentives to convince two members of the commonwealth legislature, Alejo Mendiola and Norman S. Palacios, to change their vote for Speaker and elect Benigno Fitial. Fitial was expected to reinstate Abramoff's expired lobbying contract. (A Ney staffer followed in January 2000.)
Fitial e-mailed top Marianas officials on June 30, 2000 pressuring them hire Abramoff: "Please urge Teno [the island's governor] to execute the agreement as we will continue to encounter problems...if the contract is not executed. We need P & G [Abramoff's law firm] to help save our economy...Please help!!" At the end of that July, the Marianas House passed a resolution urging the Governor to rehire Abramoff. A few days later, Abramoff and Preston Gates were hired for $100,000 a month. This contract went with Abramoff to Greenberg Traurig and continued until a new governor took office in 2002.
After CNMI's new governor canceled the Greenberg Traurig contract, Abramoff represented Willie Tan's interests through a shell company called Rose Garden Holdings.
The Standard of Hong Kong reported that Rose Garden is not listed in Hong Kong's companies registry or telephone book, but its listed address is an apartment owned by Luen Thai Holdings, a publicly traded company controlled by Tan. Rose Garden paid Greenberg Traurig $1.4 million. If Abramoff listed Rose Garden as his client, but Tan or Luen Thai was directing the lobbying, he violated the US Lobbying Disclosure Act.
Tan Holdings helped pay for Abramoff's skyboxes in Washington, which were used to entertain congressman and their staffers, including DeLay.
An email exchange shows Abramoff charging Tan his quarterly bill of $55,919.
Research by Austin Bonner
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