The Muckraker's Reference Section
Capital Athletic Foundation
The Capital Athletic Foundation (CAF) was a slush fund Jack Abramoff used to funnel money to and from his various clients and pet projects.
Founded as a limited liability company in 1999 by Jack Abramoff and his wife, Pam, CAF was created for the purported purpose of providing and enhancing academic and athletic programs for children in the Washington, DC area. The majority of CAF's largesse went to another of Abramoff's pet projects called Eshkol Academy, an Orthodox Jewish junior-senior high school in Columbia, MD.
In 2000, Abramoff was the sole donor to CAF, giving the organization $12,850, most of which was given, in turn, to the Yeshiva of Greater Washington. The following year, the stakes were raised significantly with a $1 million donation to CAF from the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana. CAFs total intake that year rose to $1.24 million. In 2002, CAF took in 2.56 million and gave $1.85 million of it to Eshkol Academy. The following year, $2.13 million out of $2.15 million went to Eshkol. In total, the foundation raised $6 million in its first four years of operation.
CAF is currently under scrutiny by federal investigators.
Key Points:
CAF's spending reflected Abramoff's whims rather than its mission statement.
According to the Washington Post, "less than 1 percent of its [CAF's] revenue has been spent on sports-related programs for youths."
CAF falsely told the IRS it made $330,000 in donations to charity organizations.
CAF claimed it gave $300,000 to P'TACH of New York in 2002. The organization never received the donation. In the fall of 2003, around the same time the apparently false claim was made to the IRS, DeLay started a charity called Celebrations for Children with $300,000 in seed money.
CAF sent money to fight the Palestinian intifada.
Over $140,000 was sent by CAF to a West Bank settler to help organize against the Palestinians. According to Newsweek, those purchases included "camouflage suits, sniper scopes, night-vision binoculars, a thermal imager and other material described in foundation records as 'security' equipment."
DeLay used CAF for fundraising.
According to emails from 2002, Abramoff requested funds from his tribal clients by using DeLay's name. In separate communications with associate Tony Rudy Abramoff said "did you get the message from the guys that Tom wants us to raise some bucks from the Capital Athletic Foundation?" Abramoff and his associates were looking for about $200,000 for DeLay.
CAF channeled the money for Abramoff's representation of Foxcom.
An Israeli telecom company called MobileAccess (formerly Foxcom) donated $50,000 to CAF in 2001. Later, as detailed in Abramoff's guilty plea, Ney used his position as Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee to secure a contract for Foxcom to install a wireless communications network in the House of Representatives.
CAF paid for the infamous Scotland junket.
In August 2002, when Abramoff took David Safavian, Rep. Bob Ney, Ralph Reed and others on a $150,225 trip to play golf at the exclusive St. Andrews golf club in Scotland, Capital Athletic Foundation footed the bill.
Research by Ryan Chiachiere
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