AP Breaking: Neal Voltz sp? (Ney aid) to testify in Abramoff investigation

[CottonBear]

Just now mentioned by Connie on CSPAN WJ.

[CottonBear]

1. Bush on live TV nominating Gen Hayden to CIA director position. n/t

[babylonsister]

2. And here begins another week, and more dirty deeds to be

unearthed. I hope someone is keeping a list!

[CottonBear]

4. * on CSPAN live praising Goss, hayden & Negroponte: all criminals.

:grr:

I think Voltz (sp?) was Ney's chief of staff.

[babylonsister]

7. Yes, I'm listening, sort of. I'm to the point where nothing he says

means anything to me, other than to raise my blood pressure. :( Maybe that's another way he plans on killing some of us off.

[CottonBear]

8. That's how he's gonna do me in: high blood presssure.

I've simply got to quit ever listening to * spek on TV or radio. :(

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

3. he's pleading guilty

[CottonBear]

5. What exactly is he guilty of?

I msut admit, I'd not heard of him before.

This whole Abramoff-Ney-Delay scandal jsut keeps on giving.

Then, we have the parallel NSA, Nat'l Intelligence and CIA power grab by the Bush backed junta military men and war criminals. :(

edit: Link from another Ney-Volz post:

Ex-aide to Ney expected to plead guilty
Mon May 8, 2006 9:27am ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former top aide to Ohio Republican Rep. Bob Ney is expected
to plead guilty on Monday in connection with corruption investigation of lobbyist
Jack Abramoff, a source familiar with the case said.
The source said Ney's former chief of staff, Neil Volz, is expected to plead guilty
at a federal court hearing to conspiracy to commit fraud and to violating the one-year
ban on lobbying after leaving congressional employment. Ney has been one of the Republican
lawmakers whose activities have been investigated as part of the probe.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=top...

[chat_noir]

6. Former aide to Rep. Ney to plead guilty

A former congressional aide and business associate of convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff has agreed to plead guilty to charges in connection with the investigation of influence-peddling and public corruption, a federal law enforcement official said Monday.

Neil Volz, who served as chief of staff to Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, was expected to plead guilty Monday to conspiracy charges stemming from his work on Capitol Hill and the lobbying practice he joined after leaving Ney's office.

"The purpose of the conspiracy was for defendant Volz and his co-conspirators to unjustly enrich themselves by corruptly receiving, while public officials, and providing, while lobbyists, a stream of things of value with the intent to influence and reward official acts and attempting to influence members of Congress in violation of the law," according to a criminal information filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Washington.

A plea hearing was scheduled later Monday before U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the hearing has not yet taken place.

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/14529153.htm

[starroute]

9. Volz worked at Greenberg, Traurig with Abramoff

Here's a number of items I find on him in my files:

http://www.citizensforethics.org/filelibrary/20050301_Abramoff_Memo.pdf

Abramoff convinced Bob Ney to assist the Tigua tribe in getting its casino re-opened after Abramoff and Reed shut it down. Former Ney Chief of Staff Neil Volz worked for Abramoff and contacted Ney’s office about the Tigua casino while still subject to the one year lobbying ban. Peter H. Stone, NRCC Lawyer Advising Ney, National Journal, December 11, 2004. At Abramoff’s direction, the Tigua contributed $32,000 to Ney in 2002 ($30,000 to PAC and $2,000 to campaign), just days after Ney sponsored the legislation sought by the tribe.


http://www.jackinthehouse.org/popup.php?a=volz

Neil Volz was Representative Bob Ney's chief of staff when Jack Abramoff had Ney insert a provision into an unrelated bill that would re-open the Tigua Indian Tribe's casino. Volz was Abramoff's chief point of contact during this effort, and soon thereafter Volz left Ney's office and went to work for Jack Abramoff, where he immediately began to work as a lobbyist in violation of the one-year ban on lobbying after leaving the House of Representatives.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26015-2004Dec25_3.html

Abramoff's fundraising log shows an event for Ney at MCI Center on March 15, 2001. FEC records show that Abramoff and three men associated with him in a Florida-based casino cruise line called Suncruz each donated $1,000 to Ney that day.

Ney had been helpful to them the year before, when Abramoff and a partner, Adam Kidan, were embroiled in acrimonious efforts to buy Suncruz. In an unusual step, Ney criticized the cruise line's owner, Gus Boulis, in statements placed in the March 30, 2000, Congressional Record, putting pressure on Boulis to sell; he then praised Kidan as Suncruz's new owner when the sale went through.

The following year, five weeks before the MCI Center fundraiser for Ney, Boulis was slain gangland style in a case that is under investigation. The FBI also is investigating possible bank fraud in the purchase of Suncruz, law enforcement sources said. An attorney for Abramoff said he and the banks involved "were victims of the wrongdoing of others."

Neil Volz, Ney's chief of staff, joined Abramoff's lobbying team in early 2002. Last month, Ney amended his FEC reports to reflect in-kind contributions of $1,470 from Volz for fundraising events at MCI Center in 2002 and 2003.


http://www.citizensforethics.org/press/pressclip.php?view=132

In 2000, the House of Representatives was close to deciding how to improve wireless telecommunications reception inside the Capitol when LGC Wireless, one of the two companies competing for the license, indicated its surprise that a lesser known, foreign company had edged ahead. Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) oversaw the process for awarding the wireless contract.

Its fear of losing out was borne out when, in 2002, the license to build a network inside the House office buildings went to MobileAccess Networks, an upstart Israeli company formerly named Foxcom Wireless. In 2004, MobileAccess trumped LGC again, winning a $3.9 million dollar contract to build a similar network in the Senate.

"{Ney} does not recall having a conversation with Jack Abramoff about the merits of Foxcom, nor does he recall a similar conversation with Neil Volz from the time Volz left the House Administration Committee through the period when the license was awarded," said Brian Walsh, Ney’s spokesman. Volz had been Ney’s chief of staff until early 2002.

The Washington Post reported that MobileAccess donated $50,000 to the Capital Athletic Foundation, which was run by Abramoff, in 2001. Two years later, MobileAccess paid Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff’s former employer, $240,000 in lobbying fees.

(Edited to clean up some sloppiness in copying-and-pasting too quickly.)