Some stories are just fraught with the kind of juicy details that leave conspiracy types foaming at the mouth. You know, the kind where everyone is connected and these extensive links of events lead all the way to the footsteps of Congress — or even the White House.

    I admit it — I’m a recovering conspiracy theorist myself. I know the routine.

    So when news broke this week that the FBI was at the Pearl River Resort, my mind immediately raced to former super lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the recent scandal of electronic gambling in neighboring Alabama.

    I’m not going to lure you into some sexy conspiracy in which I try to prove I know what’s going on; I don’t. In fact, I know little about it because little has been confirmed. I won’t even try to establish facts surrounding the raid because the details are few. But I do want to refresh your memory on some things that happened years ago that could, in the end, be tied to what happened Tuesday.

A look back

    Flash back to 1994. Here are a few things we know: The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, under the leadership of Chief Phillip Martin, opened the Silver Star Resort and Casino — one of a string of big business ventures that moved the Tribe from poverty to prosperity under his leadership.

    One year later, the Tribe hired then budding Washington lobbyist Abramoff to represent them. In the beginning it was a great marriage. It was so good that the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians — the first of many who hired Abramoff to assist them with gambling legislation — paid him and his associates multi-millions to help them retain and grow their market share through legislation.

     In fact, some of the Tribal leadership was so loyal to Abramoff that they initially defended him in 2006 when he faced mounting legal trouble and attention for defrauding clients and buying votes in Congress. Some defended him up until they were shown emails in which Abramoff and partner Michael Scanlon disparaged the Tribe, often using racial and class slurs. They later realized the two had scammed them out of millions. Abramoff eventually pleaded guilty to three felony counts of conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion surrounding his dealings with the Choctaws and other Native American tribes.

    Most, including me, felt bad for the Tribe. They were the victims. The slickest lobbyist in Washington swindled them. My heart went out to the people of the Choctaw nation, especially those who never even had a clue of the Tribe’s relationship with Abramoff.

    Then came more.

    A few months after Abramoff’s conviction, more salacious details of the case against him were made public thanks to the Congressional investigation. On June 29, 2006, the Associated Press wrote a story that tied the Tribe to anti-gaming efforts in Alabama:

    A U.S. Senate committee reported that disgraced Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff told a tribal leader that the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians spent $13 million to elect Gov. Bob Riley in 2002.

    The Senate Indian Affairs Committee issued a lengthy report that quotes William Worfel, former vice chairman of the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, as saying that Abramoff told him that Mississippi Choctaw Chief Phillip Martin had spent the money “to get the governor of Alabama elected to keep gaming out of Alabama so it wouldn’t hurt . . . his market in Mississippi.”

Alabama connection    

    Riley helped thwart gaming in Alabama after his 2002 election, something that helped keep competition away from the Choctaws. Abramoff and company also helped fund Christian organizations tasked with ginning up anti-gambling sentiment across the state.

    That same year, the Tribe opened the Golden Moon Hotel and Casino to complete the Pearl River Resort. The high-rise casino towers over the vast pine trees and rural land near Philadelphia.

    While Riley’s efforts  — with the help of Abramoff and Scanlon’s anti-gaming campaign — certainly helped in successfully keeping legalized gambling out of Alabama, a new problem arose. Electronic bingo flourished in the state. Some have speculated Martin’s hefty campaign contributions to Riley in 2002 helped convince the Alabama governor to launch raids against the electronic bingo operators. Only Riley can answer that. But we do know those raids sparked a massive federal prosecution ring that continues today in Montgomery.

    Fast forward to this week where some 40 agents of the FBI raided the Pearl River Resort. Silence from Tribal leadership followed; no one is talking. Facts are few. That silence has fueled speculation. While few have written about the connection to Abramoff or the Alabama gaming scandal in relation to Tuesday’s raid, there have been other reports.

    The Neshoba Democrat reported that multiple sources told them Tuesday’s raid centered around election fraud, though that seemed odd to some considering the raid took place at the casino and not the Tribal headquarters.

    WLBT-TV then reported that the investigation focused on Denson and his relationship with Atlanta-based Mercury Gaming and its CEO Doug Pattison.

    The television station used an unnamed source that claimed Denson had been paying Mercury $60,000 a month for gaming consultant work — ironically somewhat similar to the Tribe’s initial relationship with Abramoff in 1995. The television station’s report claimed that the monthly payments spiked to $250,000 a month in February.

    Other than those reports, few reasons have been given for Tuesday’s raid.

    While all of the speculation is interesting, it may be a while before we really know what happened Tuesday. And more importantly — why it happened. Again, there is a lot that we do know from past events, but very little from this past week’s raid. There may be no relation at all.

    But it’s important to reflect on past details — especially if they reemerge in the coming weeks to help sharpen our understanding of Tuesday’s raid.

    Fredie Carmichael is

executive editor of The Meridian Star. Email him at editorcarmichael@gmail.com. He also hosts a weekly radio show on WMOX called “Sunday Mornings with the Editor” from 8 a.m.-10 a.m.