JURIST - Paper Chase: Tyco says Abramoff funneled $1.6 million in company funds to himself

[JURIST] A Tyco International [corporate website] spokesperson has said that Tyco was the defrauded "Company A" referred to in court documents released Tuesday as part of former lobbyist Jack Abramoff's guilty plea to fraud and conspiracy charges [JURIST report; plea agreement]. The criminal information [JURIST document] which prompted Abramoff's plea alleges that while working for law firm Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff failed to tell the firm or his client, now revealed as Tyco, that he owned a public relations company that he was pretending to negotiate with in order to save costs while personally pocketing $1.6 of the $1.8 million dollars Tyco paid the company for public relations services. Both Tyco [JURIST news archive] and Abramoff [JURIST news archive] have become symbols of corporate and political corruption through high-profile court cases. Abramoff has pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges [JURIST report] as required by his plea bargain, which will reduce his sentence if he provides information assisting the US Department of Justice in bringing future corruption charges against members of Congress Abramoff is alleged to have bribed. In 2005, two prominent former Tyco executives were sentenced [JURIST report] to between 8 1/2 and 25 years after being convicted [JURIST report] of grand larceny, conspiracy, and falsifying business records after stealing $150 million in illegal bonuses, forgiving huge loans made to themselves from company money, and manipulating stock prices, though both plan to appeal. AP has more.

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