Jack May Learn A Lesson in Ethics!,

Well, this article in the Miami Herald, has made my day. Granted an actual conviction would really make my day, but this will have to do for now. The “Rabbi,” Jack Abramoff, has been indicted, and it is in the SunCruz fraud case, which also has a pesky murder component to it as well. Not that I am wishing Jack ill, but he has some explaining to do.

Here is just a taste of what kind of trouble he is in along with his sidekick/accomplice, Kidan:

The Fort Lauderdale bank-fraud indictment represents only one of several potential legal, serious legal, problems for Abramoff and Kidan that stretch from South Florida to the Northeast.

Police have also been questioning them about the gangland-style hit on Konstantinos ''Gus'' Boulis, the rag-to-riches Greek immigrant who sold his fleet of casino ships to the Kidan-led group in September 2000.

Boulis, 51, was gunned down in Fort Lauderdale on Feb. 6, 2001. Police have not charged anybody in the homicide investigation.

The sale of SunCruz -- the floating-gambling empire that sank into bankruptcy nine months after the deal -- is at the core of the bank-fraud charges, according to the new indictment and a separate federal lawsuit filed last year in Fort Lauerdale.

Boulis was forced to sell SunCruz in 1999 after federal prosecutors reached a settlement with him on charges of violating the Shipping Act because he purchased his fleet without being a U.S. citizen. Facing a 36-month deadline, Boulis turned to his maritime lawyer in Washington, D.C., who was partners with Abramoff. The power broker set out to find a buyer for Boulis.

Enter Kidan: The 36-year-old New York businessman had known Abramoff for years as Republican activists and had just sold his Dial-a-Mattress franchise in Washington. Kidan was looking for a new investment opportunity.

Abramoff and Kidan would soon become partners in a bid to buy Boulis' business.

But the pair had a problem: securing a loan to seal the deal.

They contacted Foothill Capital, Inc., a California-based unit of Wells Fargo & Co. A second lender, Citadel Equity Fund, Ltd., based in the Cayman Islands, joined Foothill in the financing plan.

According to court records, this is how the SunCruz loan got bungled:

The two lenders agreed to put up $60 million in financing, as long as the business partners guaranteed the loans and invested $23 million of their own money. Also, Boulis agreed to accept promissory notes from Kidan and Abramoff the balance of the sale and keep a 10 percent interest in SunCruz.

But at the September 2000 closing in New York, the lenders allege that Kidan and Abramoff -- as well as SunCruz representatives -- hoodwinked them into believing that the partners had transferred their $23 million to Boulis.

When the lenders demanded proof, both Kidan and SunCruz partner Ben Waldman each sent a Foothill executive faxed copies of a ''wire transfer'' record that purportedly documented the $23 million transfer on the last day of the closing.

The notification, dated Sept. 22, 2000, stated that $23 million had been sent ''by order of Adam Kidan'' from his Chevy Chase Savings Bank to Boulis' Ocean Bank.

Foothill alleged the document was a fraud -- that Kidan's account had already been closed before the purported transfer.

Abramoff, in a counter claim, said Kidan had lied to him about the transfer and that he wasn't not present at the closing.

Read it all, and let’s hope that the “Rabbi” who runs those Ethics Courses learns a lesson or two about the subject.