The American International Center LLC was a
front organization
A front organization is any entity set up by and controlled by another organization, such as intelligence agencies, organized crime groups, terrorist organizations, secret societies, banned organizations, religious or political groups, advocacy gro ...
established in 2001 by
Michael Scanlon as part of his conspiracy with
Jack Abramoff to receive and redistribute funds given by their clients for personal and political gain. AIC, like Scanlon Gould Public Affairs and Atlantic Research Analysis, was effectively a shell for Scanlon's primary company,
Capitol Campaign Strategies.
Presented as a thinktank, American International Center was headed by Scanlon's childhood friends, Brian Mann, a yoga instructor, and David Grosh, a lifeguard on the Delaware shore who operated it from his beach house. Grosh had no qualifications or experience relevant to policy research and currently works in construction. At a Senate hearing into the
Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal, Mann refused to answer questions, but Grosh admitted that he had abetted the deception. In a prepared statement that opened his testimony, he said "I'm embarrassed and disgusted to be a part of this whole thing. The
Lakota Indians have a word,
Wasi'chu
Wasi'chu is a loanword from the Sioux language (wašíču or waṡicu using different Lakota and Dakota language orthographies) which means a non-Indigenous person, particularly a white person, often with a disparaging meaning.
The word has been ...
, which aptly describes all of us right now." The Center paid for the rent of the beach house and gave Grosh at most $2500 and some
ice hockey tickets.
In a
documentary Grosh recounted Scanlon's phone call to him:
"Do want to be head of an international corporation?"… I kind of laughed and I said, "All right, well, you know, what's involved? What do I got to do?" And he said, "Pretty much nothing". So I said, "Okay, sure and that's how it got started."
The American International Center received a $500,000 contribution from the
Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana in 2001 via Southern Underwriters, a firm owned by a tribal member. AIC contributed $400,000 to
Ralph Reed's consulting company
Century Strategies
Ralph Eugene Reed Jr. (born June 24, 1961) is an American political consultant
Political consulting is a form of consulting that consists primarily of advising and assisting political campaigns. Although the most important role of politic ...
to block competition to the Coushatta casino. In all, Scanlon transferred $2.3 million through AIC to Reed.
References
Text of Scanlon plea Dana Milbank, Washington Post, June 23, 2005; A06
Houses of cards Jamie Dean, WORLD Magazine, January 14, 2006
{{Jack Abramoff, subcat=organizations
Front organizations
Jack Abramoff scandals