Former Washington lobbyist and con artist extraordinaire Jack Abramoff was released this month to a halfway house after serving 31/2 years of a six year sentence. He has been hired by Tov Pizza, a kosher pizza restaurant in Baltimore. In a somewhat ironic twist of fate he will reportedly be paid between seven and a half and 10 dollars an hour.
In 2006, Abramoff was sentenced to six years for defrauding American Indian tribes out of millions of dollars on issues associated with Indian gaming. He got a concurrent four-year sentence in 2008 for conspiring to defraud the government, corrupting public officials and defrauding his clients in a separate case.
For a period he enjoyed unusual access to the Bush White House. According to a bipartisan congressional report (2008), he was instrumental in influencing a number of key decisions.
Abramoff, who is Jewish, claims he became a Baal teshuva or a "born again" Orthodox Jew at the age of 12 after seeing the movie adaptation of Fiddler on the Roof. His religious convictions didn't appear to get in the way of his shady activities - here.
The recently released jailbird is apparently a welcome addition at Tov Pizza which serves such tasty items as the Tov Supreme Slice, falafel balls with humus, babaganoush and baked ziti. No word if Abramoff will be flipping pizza dough in the kitchen while whistling the theme tune from Red Scorpion.
Guardian:
The owner of Tov Pizza, Ron Rosenbluth, told the Baltimore Jewish Times that giving a fellow Jew a fresh start was part of what Judaism stood for. He was happy that Tov Pizza could provide Abramoff with that new beginning: "We're all Jews, we're all on the same team."
Link also to Guardian - Huffington Post
