The meeting places included a house in the Foxhall neighborhood of Washington, D.C., which was owned by Lee Lescaze, a yacht in Florida, and hotel rooms in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The FBI recorded each of the money exchanges and, for the first time in American history, surreptitiously videotaped government officials accepting bribes. In exchange for monetary kickbacks, Errichetti told the sheikhs' representatives "I'll give you Atlantic City." Errichetti helped to recruit several government officials and United States congressmen who were willing to grant political favors in exchange for monetary bribes (originally $100,000 but then reduced to $50,000). The first political figure ensnared in the phony investment scheme was Camden mayor Angelo Errichetti. Among the casino projects involved were the Ritz-Carlton Atlantic City, the Dunes Hotel and Casino (Atlantic City), the Penthouse Boardwalk Hotel and Casino, and the sheikh's fictional casino. Each congressman who was approached would be given a large sum of money in exchange for " private immigration bills" to allow foreigners associated with Abdul Enterprises into the country and for building permits and licenses for casinos in Atlantic City, among other investment arrangements. When a forger who was under investigation suggested to the sheikhs that they invest in casinos in New Jersey and that licensing could be obtained for a price, the Abscam operation was re-targeted toward political corruption. Weinberg instructed the FBI to fund a $1 million account with the Chase Manhattan Bank in the name of Abdul Enterprises, giving the company the credibility it needed to further its operation. Weinberg, supervised by the FBI, created a fake company called Abdul Enterprises in which FBI employees posed as fictional Arab sheikhs led by owners Kambir Abdul Rahman and Yassir Habib, who had millions of dollars to invest in the United States. They were facing a prison sentence at the time and in exchange for their help, the FBI agreed to let them out on probation. The FBI employed Melvin Weinberg, a convicted swindler, international con artist and informant, and his girlfriend, Evelyn Knight, to help plan and conduct the operation.
Good of the FBI's office in suburban Long Island created and oversaw a sting operation called "Abscam", which was initially intended to investigate theft, forgery and stolen art.
The American-Arab Relations Committee made complaints, so officials revised the source of the contraction to "Abdul scam" after the name of its fictitious company. "Abscam" was the FBI codename for the operation, which law enforcement authorities said was a contraction of "Arab scam". Puccio, head of the Justice Department's Organized Crime Strike Force for the Eastern District of New York. Welch, who headed the bureau's New York division, and Thomas P. The operation was directed from the FBI's office in Hauppauge, New York, and was under the supervision of Assistant Director Neil J. One member of the New Jersey State Senate, members of the Philadelphia City Council, the Mayor of Camden, New Jersey, and an inspector for the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service were also convicted. More than 30 political figures were investigated, and six members of the House of Representatives and one senator were convicted. The FBI was aided by the Justice Department and convicted con-man Mel Weinberg in videotaping politicians accepting bribes from a fictitious Arabian company in return for various political favors. The two-year investigation initially targeted trafficking in stolen property and corruption of prominent businessmen, but later evolved into a public corruption investigation. Representative Michael Myers, second from left, holds an envelope containing $50,000 that he just received from undercover FBI agentsĪbscam, sometimes written ABSCAM, was an FBI sting operation in the late 1970s and early 1980s that led to the convictions of seven members of the United States Congress and others for bribery and corruption.
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