Have your heartfelt letters to politicians gone unanswered? Then maybe you should have been sending cold, hard cash on diamond-encrusted platters. It worked for Jack Abramoff, the subject of Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibneys Casino Jack and the United States of Money. The film has money, power, Indian casinos, Russian spies, and even a gritty murder involving gambling boats in Miami. It could be the sequel to Scarface or The Godfather set in the tropics. But unfortunately for America, its a documentary based on real-life events from the director of the equally revealing Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.
Abramoff was a corrupt lobbyist whose fraudulent activity led to the resignation of federal officials, the sentencing of a disgraced congressman, and a tangled web of connections that reached as far up as former President George Bush.
Mon., May 31, 2010