"Everybody was laughing at what was happening. It was like guys coming out of the bush, saying, 'Hey, give me some of the money.' They'd pay one guy and the next day five guys would be calling them, guys they didn't even know. The tapes are hilarious." This was how a reporter described a statement by a former federal prosecutor in an undercover operation known as Abdul scam, or Abscam, named after a fictional sheikh named Kambir Abdul Rahman. During the course of twenty-three months, about one hundred Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents became involved in a series of undercover operations targeting public officials, including members of Congress. By the time the sting operation was over, two dozen state and local officials, one U.S. senator, and seven U.S. representatives were implicated in offering services for cash.
Prior to Abscam the FBI had.....
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