When federal prosecutors charged Jack Abramoff on Thursday with an unlawful conspiracy to promote a cryptocurrency, they alleged that the disgraced lobbyist hired writers to assist him with his plan. The prosecution does not name names. But the new court documents point directly to an employee of The Daily Caller and other conservative media.
Abramoff, who served nearly four years in prison for his extensive Washington influence-peddling plans, found himself in legal trouble again this week for his attempts to promote AML Bitcoin, a supposedly “anti-money laundering” cryptocurrency created by Texan businessman Marcus. Andrade As part of his duties, Abramoff handled promoting AML Bitcoin and, according to the indictment, arranged secret payments for writers on various websites to promote the digital currency and its capabilities.
“Abramoff recruited and paid writers to publish and disseminate, under the names of those writers, articles written specifically promoting AML Bitcoin, as well as promoting the idea of a cryptocurrency that was fully compatible with [anti-money-laundering] and [know-your-customer] laws and regulations, “reads Abramoff’s indictment.” These articles were published as opinion editorials or ‘opinion articles’ on known news and financial websites. The recruited writers did not disclose in the published piece that Abramoff or AML Bitcoin had been paid to spread the information in the article. “
In a related complaint filed against Andrade and his company, the NAC Foundation, SEC attorneys alleged that Abramoff arranged the publication of articles and even secretly wrote some of them, in an attempt to exaggerate AML Bitcoin’s technical abilities and deceive to investors. That complaint also provided some clear breadcrumbs that led to Daily Caller as one of the outlets that operated on material paid for by Abramoff and his associates.
As part of their plans to promote AML Bitcoin, Abramoff and Andrade allegedly invented what prosecutors call a “false rejection plan” to claim that the NFL and NBC refused to issue a Super Bowl ad for the currency they mocked. from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Actually, according to the SEC, Andrade and Abramoff never had the $ 5 million they would need for a Super Bowl ad. The plan was discredited almost immediately, and NBC told BuzzFeed that Andrade’s company had never purchased advertising time.
However, claims about the Super Bowl announcement were picked up by Daily Caller writer Derek Hunter. On February 2, 2018, Hunter wrote an article with the headline: “The NFL rejects the Super Bowl ad because it mocks Kim Jong-Un.”
“First, the NFL rejected a print ad from a group of veterans asking Super Bowl attendees to represent the national anthem,” Hunter wrote. “Now the league and NBC, the network that aired the game on Sunday, have rejected an AML BitCoin television commercial as being” too political, “according to the company.
That article is mentioned in the SEC complaint. Its author, who is not listed in the complaint, describes himself as “paid by NAC.”
“Another NAC-paid author published an article titled ‘NFL Rejects Super Bowl Ad Because It Mocks Kim Jong-Un’ Saying ‘The League and NBC, the Network Broadcasting the Game on Sunday, Rejected a Television Advert AML BitCoin for being “too political” according to the company, “the complaint read.
The complaint notes that the author of the article, along with another writer in another post, never “disclosed that they had been paid to promote AML BitCoin.”
The only article online that matches the SEC’s body description, publication date, and headline for the story was the Hunter article published by Daily Caller. Hunter also wrote an article about AML Bitcoin in 2017, claiming “sources on the hill” said lawmakers were evaluating cryptocurrency’s anti-money laundering abilities. That article is not mentioned in court documents.
In emails with The Daily Beast, Hunter denied having been secretly receiving money for any items, including the Super Bowl advertising story.
“I got a letter and wrote a post because it was easy and I thought I would get clicks, and I get paid [Daily Caller] per click, “Hunter wrote.” Period. ”
Hunter is a long-time press secretary to the late Senator Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), Who received $ 140,000 in contributions from Abramoff’s associates and clients, but was never charged in the federal investigation of influence peddling schemes. Abramoff. Hunter told The Daily Beast that he had had no contact with Abramoff after interviewing him for a radio show in 2016.
“I was never paid to write anything,” Hunter wrote in an email. “I can’t be clearer than that. It was a post about a Super Bowl ad, they’re everywhere. Maybe whoever is taking credit for things they didn’t do, I have no idea. ”
Daily Caller’s editor-in-chief Geoffrey Ingersoll told The Daily Beast that he was learning about the allegations against Hunter, but said that any Daily Caller writer secretly paid to write an article would be fired.
“The first time we hear this, we have to investigate before taking action,” Ingersoll wrote. “But if Derek or any of our staff were paid to place an item, it would result in an immediate layoff.”
Abramoff did not respond to requests for comment.
The Super Bowl story is not the only item that prosecutors say Abramoff and his associates secretly paid for. Much of the SEC’s complaint centers on articles that appeared to have been written by Peter J. Ferrara, a senior fellow at the conservative Heartland Institute. Prosecutors allege that Abramoff and Andrade paid for positive articles in 2017 and 2018 that match the description of articles that Ferrara wrote about AML Bitcoin for The American Spectator, Investor’s Business Daily and the Washington Times.
In 2017, for example, SEC attorneys allege that Abramoff and Andrade paid a writer to exaggerate the importance of a meeting between AML Bitcoin promoters and Panama Canal officials in an attempt to suggest that the digital currency was about to be adopted in Panama.
“Abramoff arranged for NAC to compensate an author, who did not disclose that.
NAC was paying him to publish an article on September 20, 2017 that said NAC ‘had started groundbreaking discussions with the Panama Maritime Authority to use AML BitCoin in its payment structures,’ ”the SEC complaint read.
The publication date and the quote coincide with a comment piece bearing Ferrara’s motto that appeared in Investor Business Diary.
Ferrara’s articles appear again in the complaint, when SEC attorneys say Andrade paid an author to write an article at a meeting with San Francisco port officials.
“The same author wrote in an article from October 3, 2017 that ‘AML BitCoin has already ventured into so many places where the old Bitcoin would never be welcome. Like the Port of San Francisco …’ He repeated the same statements in an article from the February 2, 2018. ”
Those quotes and publication dates coincide with articles bearing Ferrara’s motto published on October 3, 2017 in the Washington Times. and on February 2, 2018 by the American Spectator.
Ferrara He did not respond to a request for comment. But he has been accused of taking money to promote an Abramoff client before. In 2005, Ferrara admitted having taken money from Abramoff in exchange for articles, and told a journalist: “I do it all the time.”
Washington Times Executive editor Christopher Dolan told The Daily Beast that the newspaper had not realized that Ferrara was allegedly receiving money for his opinion piece on AML Bitcoin that was run on the Times, and that the document does not allow taxpayers to receive secret payments for the items.
Investor Business Diary He did not respond to a request for comment.
In an email to The Daily Beast, American viewer Editor Melissa McKenzie said the website does not allow taxpayers to accept payments for placing items.
“We do not serve ads or accept paid links,” wrote McKenzie. “We cannot, of course, know if a writer is misrepresenting his work. If we discover that the writer has violated this policy, we no longer carry his work. “
American viewer Executive editor Robert Emmett Tyrrell Jr. “was surprised to be informed” about the allegations that Ferrara received money for his article, according to McKenzie.
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