Soon he’s being investigated by the Feds for massive fraud. A big-money lobbyist for powerful firms, he uses a smooth personality and style to crank open the wallets of some of the country's wealthiest people, ostensibly (he claims) to try to do good but in reality to build a fortune for himself.īut his greed soon overtakes him and when he and partner Michael Scanlon (Barry Pepper) rope in a mafia-connected friend (Jon Lovitz) for their latest scheme, the trouble really starts. The fact he’s been spending time in prison might tip you off as to which side won out – and now his story is being told in George Hickenlooper’s Casino Jack, in which Kevin Spacey plays Abramoff, and which has just shoved a trailer online over at Apple.Ībramoff is such a meaty subject for filmmakers that there’s already a documentary about him – Alex Gibney’s Casino Jack and the United States of Money – and it’s easy to see why. Most people see the former lobbyist as a Gordon Gekko type, who charmed people out of parting with money at the highest levels and never quite delivered, while some still see him as a hero. Jack Abramoff is something of a contradiction across the pond.
