Tra la fine degil anni ’70 e gli inizi degli ’80 il Federal Bureau of Investigation dà vita a una tra le più dirompenti operazioni di sempre:
The FBI set up “Abdul Enterprises, Ltd.” in 1978. FBI employees posed as Kraim Abdul Rahman, a fictional Middle Eastern sheikh, in videotaped talks with government officials, where they offered money in return for political favors to a non-existent sheikh. A house (4407 W St. NW, Washington, D.C.), along with a yacht in Florida and hotel rooms in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, were used to set up meetings between various public officials and a mysterious Arab sheikh named “Kambir Abdul Rahman” who wanted:
- To purchase asylum in the U.S.
- To involve them in an investment scheme
- To get help in getting his money out of his country
It was the first major operation by the FBI to trap corrupt public officials; until 1970 only ten members of Congress had ever been convicted of accepting bribes.
On February 2, 1980, NBC Nightly News became the first media outlet to break the story that FBI personnel were targeting members of Congress in a sting operation. The FBI had codenamed the operation “Abscam”, a contraction of “Abdul scam”, after the name of the company (fonte: Wikipedia).
Ma manca un particolare:
“Much of the operation was directed by Melvin Weinberg, himself a convicted con artist, who had been hired by the FBI for that purpose (fonte: Wikipedia).
Il pensiero va subito a White Collar, già consigliato sotto l’ombrellone, e del quale è appena iniziata negli USA la quarta stagione.
Ma la vera notizia è un’altra: sembra che David O’Russell (Three Kings, I heart Huckabees, The Fighter) abbia in programma un film sul famoso episodio, con un cast eccezionale.
Staremo a vedere.