Disgraced millionaire lobbyist Jack Abramoff, newly released from prison, has taken a job at a kosher pizzeria for pay of no more than US$10 an hour, the New York Times reported last week.
Abramoff, once among Washington’s most influential power brokers, started working this week at Tov Pizza in Baltimore, Maryland where he earns between US$7.5 and US$10 an hour, according to the newspaper.
“He is not the monster he has been portrayed as,” the pizzeria’s owner, Ron Rosenbluth, told the Times.
Abramoff served three and a half years at a minimum security prison camp in Cumberland, Maryland outside Washington and now is living at a halfway house which arranged the pizzeria job, the daily wrote.
“People ask me, ‘Why would you ever hire Jack Abramoff?’” Rosenbluth said.
“I say, ‘Why wouldn’t I hire Jack Abramoff?’ He’s paying his debt to society, right?”
Abramoff became one of Washington’s leading lobbyists during the Republican rise to power in Congress in the 1990s, and expanded his influence with George W. Bush’s capture of the White House in December 2000.
He was sentenced to nearly six years in prison for wire and mail fraud after pleading guilty to defrauding lenders in a Florida gambling boat deal.
He also pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to corrupt public officials, mail fraud and tax evasion in a lobbying operation that involved providing large amounts of money and favors to the offices of Republican members of Congress.
(AFP)
《紐約時報》上週報導,名譽掃地的百萬富翁兼遊說家傑克•阿布拉莫夫最近出獄,並在一家猶太披薩店上班,時薪最多十美元。
根據《紐約時報》的報導,阿布拉莫夫曾是華府最有影響力的政治掮客之一,本週開始在馬里蘭州巴爾的摩市的「托夫披薩」上班,時薪七點五到十美元。
披薩店老闆朗•羅森布魯斯告訴《紐約時報》:「其實他沒有報導說的那麼恐怖。」
報導指出,阿布拉莫夫在馬里蘭州的坎伯蘭外役監獄(華盛頓外圍)服了三年半的刑,目前住在中途之家,披薩店的工作就是中途之家安排的。
羅森布魯斯說:「有人問我,『到底為什麼要雇用傑克•阿布拉莫夫?』」
「我說,『為什麼不能雇用傑克•阿布拉莫夫?』他不正在償還對社會的債務嗎?」
阿布拉莫夫趁著一九九0年代共和黨在國會崛起時,成為華盛頓最重要的說客之一,並在小布希二000年十二月問鼎白宮時,擴張自己的勢力。
他承認在佛羅里達州賭博船上詐欺借款人後,以郵電詐欺罪名遭判處六年徒刑。
他也承認犯下遊說時行賄公務人員、郵件詐欺及逃稅等罪行,提供大量資金與利益給共和黨員辦公室。
(法新社╱翻譯:吳岱璟)
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