Wampum

Just an hour ago, I explained to Eric that the reason I've been so fixated on the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy (aka the Coalition of Republican Environmental Activists, the Committee for Repubican Environmental Advocacy, Renew our Urban Centers Fund, etc.,) is that I believe if this group of Republicans co-opted a front group like CREA for its purposes, they probably did many times over. It's already clear that Amy Ridenour and her National Center for Public Policy Research group were laundry money for Abramoff, so that makes two.

An article in tomorrow's NYTimes inveils a whole new ring of Abramoff front groups, though these were headed by Robert, not Jack, Abramoff, brother of the soon-to-be incarcerated former lobbyist.

State business records in California show that Robert Abramoff, who went on to produce other little-known films, is a director or registered agent for almost 100 companies, many of them with colorful names, including FilmSoup, Deliberate Ink, It's Pawfect, Knot-2-Much-2-Ask and Make-Up Your Mind Inc.

He is also the registered agent for Nicole Richie Inc., an umbrella company for the business activities of the young Hollywood celebrity. Ms. Richie's spokesman, Cindy Guagenti, said that Mr. Abramoff had been hired to deal with the logistics of the company's incorporation. She said Ms. Richie "has never met him, never talked to him."

Robert Abramoff appears to have been drawn into his brother's Washington lobbying network through Aeneas Enterprises, which shared its offices and phone number with Robert Abramoff's law office.

Documents gathered from Jack Abramoff's files by government investigators and provided to The New York Times show that Robert Abramoff sent an e-mail message to his brother's accountant on Dec. 19, 2000 — 16 days after Aeneas was incorporated — that provided instructions on wiring money to Aeneas's bank account.

An Aeneas billing statement sent later that month to Grassroots InterActive shows that $1.4 million was received from GrassRoots on Dec. 26. A January statement shows that an additional $900,000 was received by Aeneas on Jan. 2, 2004.

The one-page statements make no reference to what service, if any, was performed by Robert Abramoff's company in exchange for the payments, nor do they indicate how Aeneas disbursed the money.

[hat tip on the article to TPM Muckraker]