Document details Volz’s cooperation in Abramoff case

A new court document details the extent to which Neil Volz, who at one point was the top aide of former Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) before going to work for lobbyist Jack Abramoff, assisted federal authorities in building a case against the lawmaker that resulted in a guilty plea on charges of bribery and public corruption last year.

Volz preceded William Heaton, who also cooperated in the investigation and wore a wire in a meeting with the lawmaker, as Ney’s chief of staff while simultaneously serving as staff director of the House Administration Committee.   

{mosads}Volz was one of the first people to begin to explore cooperating with federal prosecutors in its investigation of the wide-ranging corruption scheme Abramoff and others perpetrated. According to a “substantial assistance memorandum” filed in the D.C. district court Wednesday, his cooperation was both “timely and substantial.”

In May of last year, Volz pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring with Jack Abramoff, Michael Scanlon, Tony Rudy and others to commit honest services fraud and to violate the federal one-year lobbying ban, For his help in bringing down Abramoff, Ney and others, prosecutors are recommending home confinement as punishment.

In February 2006, he began providing “unlimited cooperation in dozens of debriefings, and his cooperation was substantial, especially in connection with the investigation and prosecutions of Ney, Heaton and [General Services Administration chief of staff] David Safavian,” according to the document.    

In the memo, prosecutors said Volz “has spent and continues to spend countless hours providing information about other matters under investigation by the Department of Justice, as well as insight into how staff members and lobbyists conduct business before Congress and the Executive Branch.”

They also said that Volz’s cooperation is ongoing, and could involve other separate DoJ investigations. His cooperation could help prosecutors snare other lawmakers under FBI investigation and those who prosecutors believe may be implicated in the Abramoff bribery scandal.        
At one point, after the investigation became public, the memo says, Ney became suspicious that Volz was cooperating and left two “abusive” phone calls on his voicemail, which Volz turned over to prosecutors. The recordings would have been “powerful evidence of Ney’s consciousness of guilt had Ney elected to fight the charges against him and proceed to trial,” the document says.    

Volz also provided information implicating himself on charges that were previously unknown to prosecutors “that significantly advanced the government’s knowledge and investigation into two additional free and reduced price trips provided to Ney and Heaton.” In addition to a Scotland 2002 golfing trip that the press had previously reported on, Volz told prosecutors that a May 2003 trip to New Orleans and an August 2003 trip to Lake George.

He also provided information about two $750 Fiesta Bowl tickets given to Ney in January 2003, the memo notes, and recounted conversations he had about Ney in which the Ohio Republican made “telling admissions.”        

Volz told the government that during the Lake George trip, he had remarked to Ney that the Sagamore was a nice resort, and Ney responded that Abramoff could afford it. During a meal there, the memo asserts, Ney asked Volz if he was personally paying for items on the trip, and Volz, who was a lobbyist at the time working for Abramoff, responded that Abramoff would reimburse him for his expenses.

“Ney responded that this was good, and that Volz should tell Abramoff that the ‘Chairman’ was with Volz” at Sagamore, the memo states.

Volz also helped prosecutors learn that, when Ney became chairman of the Financial Services subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity in January 2003, he went to great lengths to be of assistance to Abramoff’s housing clients.

At one point, Volz received a call from Ney recounting a conversation involving Ney and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in which Ney announced that his highest priority was Indian housing.

Ney then told Volz to relay to Abrramoff that Ney had “laid down this marker” during his meeting, but that he was going to need more details about the housing issues Abramoff wanted him to pursue.

“This testimony and other similar episodes would have demonstrated how Ney, on his own initiative, worked to further his corrupt relationship with Abramoff” had the issue gone to trial, the memo states.