Deeply religious Abramoff "filled with remorse"

Jack Abramoff was sentenced Wednesday to nearly six years in prison for committing fraud in the purchase of a fleet of gambling boats.

Adam Kidan, 41, and Abramoff 47, who started his legal career in the offices of Bill Gates dad in Seattle( Preston Gates & Ellis)received the minimum under Federal guidelines: five years and 10 months.

Both pleaded guilty to concocting a fake $23 million wire transfer to make it appear they were contributing their own money toward the purchase of the $147.5 million SunCruz Casinos gambling fleet. Abramoff pleaded guilty in the SunCruz fraud in January. The same week, he pleaded guilty in Washington to defrauding Indian tribes and other lobbying clients out of millions of dollars.

Three men face murder charges, of former SunCruz owner Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis.
including one who worked for Kidan as a consultant at SunCruz and who allegedly has ties to New York's Gambino crime family.

A new, chastened Abramoff has emerged and told U.S. District Judge Paul C. Huck that he had "started the process of becoming a new man. I am much chastened and profoundly remorseful. I can only hope that the almighty and those I have wronged will forgive my trespasses."

His defense team filed 62 pages of documents that depicted Abramoff as a deeply religious Orthodox Jew who was generous to charities, dedicated to his wife and five children and filled with remorse over his crimes.

Abramoff and Kidan will not have to report to prison for at least 90 days so they can continue cooperating with investigators in the slaying of former SunCruz owner Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis. Abramoff has also agreed to cooperate in a corruption probe that could involve up to 20 members of Congress, including former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas.

PIC Abramoff, right, listens to his attorney Abbe Lowell.

If you want all the details of Jack at work in the House Of Congress go here