Adam Kidan

Adam Kidan with former Vice President of the United States, Mike Pence

Adam Kidan (born 30 July 1964) is an American businessman and the former president of Atlantic & Pacific Mattress Co.^[1][2]

In September 2000, Kidan, along with American lobbyist Jack Abramoff, acquired SunCruz Casinos.^[3] In 2005, he pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges in connection to Abramoff's long-running illegal influence peddling scheme.^[4]

Early life and education[]

Kidan spent his early life in Brooklyn, New York. He attended John Dewey High School and was the president of the Social Science Club and editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, The Gadfly. In 1998, Kidan returned to John Dewey High School as graduation keynote speaker.

He went to college at George Washington University, and received a Juris Doctor from Brooklyn Law School along with the American Jurisprudence Award in legal writing and research. He was also active in the national office of College Republicans.^[3]

On February 13, 1993, Kidan's mother, Judy Shemtov, was murdered during a botched robbery that was tied to organized crime figures, who were allegedly trying to steal money they believed Kidan's stepfather, Sam Shemtov, kept in a safe.^[3][5]

Career[]

Kidan campaigned for George H.W. Bush as Chairman of Young Professionals for Bush and served as New York Co-Chair of Youth For Reagan/Bush '84. He later started a bagel business, New York City’s Best Bagels, opening two stores in the New York resort community of the Hamptons while he was practicing law. The business failed, and he sold his stake at a loss.^[6]

In 1994, Kidan opened a Dial-A-Mattress franchise in Washington, D.C.^[7]

In December 1993, Kidan's stepfather Sam Shemtov filed a grievance against him with the New York State Supreme Court, accusing him of misappropriating $100,000 from him. Kidan settled with Shemtov, but the grievance committee pursued the complaint for years, until Kidan was ultimately disbarred in 2004.^[6][8]

Kidan declared personal bankruptcy in 1996.^[3]

Abramoff scandal[]

Kidan went into business with Washington D.C. lobbyist Jack Abramoff, whom he had known since their College Republican days in the 1980s, in June 2000 to buy SunCruz Casinos from owner Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis for $147.5 million. When they could not raise enough capital for the deal, they created a fake $23 million wire transfer to make it appear as if they were putting their own money into the deal; based on that wire transfer, two of the Native American tribes Abramoff represented gave them $60 million to finance the supposed deal.^[9] In June 2001, Kidan put SunCruz into bankruptcy, and Boulis' estate bought him out and assumed control of the company.^[10]

Involvement in Boulis murder case[]

In February 2001, after Konstantin Boulis discovered that the wire transfer from Kidan and Abramoff was fake, he tried to pull out of the deal. Kidan later said that Boulis threatened to kill him,^[11] and that Boulis stabbed him with a pen.^[10]

Boulis was murdered on February 6, 2001 on orders from alleged Gambino crime family associates Anthony Moscatiello and Anthony Ferrari, whom Kidan had hired as bodyguards to protect him from Boulis.^[12] Both claimed that Kidan paid them to kill Boulis after the latter tried to stop the SunCruz deal.^[13] Kidan has consistently denied this, and neither he nor Abramoff were ever charged in connection with Boulis' murder, although Kidan took to the stand in 2013 during the Boulis murder trial as a witness for the prosecution.^[11][14][15] Both Moscatiello and Ferrari were convicted of murdering Boulis in 2013 and sentenced to life imprisonment, although their convictions were overturned on appeal in June 2018, and a retrial began in 2019.^[16][17]

Indictment and guilty plea[]

Kidan and Abramoff were both indicted on August 11, 2005 on charges of conspiracy and fraud relating to the fake wire transfer. Abramoff's associate Michael Scanlon agreed to testify against them as part of a plea bargain in a separate federal corruption case.^[3][10]

On December 15, 2005, Kidan pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges; as part of a plea bargain, four other felony counts against him were dropped.^[18] In March 2006, Kidan was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison, the same sentence as Abramoff.^[19] He served 31 months in prison before being paroled in 2009.^[20]

In 2010, Kidan was subpoenaed to testify in the conspiracy trial of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, for whom he had once been a major fundraiser, concerning DeLay's personal relationship with Abramoff.^[13][21][22]

Fictional portrayals[]

Kidan was portrayed by Jon Lovitz in the 2010 biopic/political satire Casino Jack.^[23]

References[]