Prosecutors announced Thursday that Abramoff is charged with conspiracy to commit cryptocurrency-related wire fraud and lobbying disclosure.
At a press conference in San Francisco, US Attorney David Anderson said Abramoff agreed to plead guilty and faces up to five years in prison.
The Securities and Exchange Commission also sued Abramoff for making a fraudulent and unregistered offer and sale of the digital token called AML Bitcoin.
Abramoff spent 43 months in prison in the early 2000s for his role in the center of a lobbying scandal that also resulted in the conviction of White House officials by George W. Bush, United States Representative Bob Ney. and nine other lobbyists and assistants to Congress. He pleaded guilty to a series of federal corruption charges and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors investigating Washington’s influence peddling, admitting that he illegally gives gifts to officials who have given favors to his clients.
After leaving prison, Abramoff said in 2011 that the ethical reforms implemented since the influence peddling scandal had not cleaned up the system “at all”, stressing that the reforms imposed after his guilty plea had little effect while the Campaign finances remained intact.
He told CBS at the time that lobbyists could find a way to avoid any reform enacted by Congress.
“There is an arrogance on the part of the lobbyists, and certainly there was on the part of me and my team, that no matter what occurs to them, we are smarter than them. We will simply find another way to get through.” said.
Abramoff described some of the techniques he used as a lobbyist as “wicked,” “terrible,” and, at the same time, “effective” for his company, his clients, and the Republican politicians he used to work with.
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