Pardoned gaming executive made donations to Bush campaign Nick Cargo

Published: Friday December 26, 2008





Print This Email This Another set of donations to the Republican Party made by a white-collar convict pardoned by President Bush has been revealed.



Alan Maiss, former president of Bally Gaming, made two contributions totaling $1,500 to President Bush's 2004 re-election campaign. That same year, he also donated $1,000 to former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt's presidential campaign on the Democratic ticket.



Maiss pled guilty in 1995 to charges that he failed to report a fellow executive's ties to organized crime to Federal authorities. Christopher Tanfield, founder of Worldwide Gaming, was reported to be an associate of amusement park operator Eugene Gilpin, found guilty of helping the Genovese crime family run a gambling operation.



Maiss was sentenced to one year of probation and fined $5,000. An appeal was denied in 2002. His pardon was one of 19 performed by Bush on Tuesday.



One of those pardons has been reconsidered by the White House after it took on the look of "impropriety," according to a Wednesday statement. Isaac Toussie, 30, was convicted in 2003 of falsifying income information, sometimes without the subjects' knowledge, to secure loans for homebuyers through the U.S. Departent of Housing and Urban Development. He was sentenced to five months in prison, five months in house arrest and a fine of $10,000. He was not ordered to pay restitution. The pardon was reconsidered in part, according to the White House, because of $28,500 in donations to the Republican National Committee made by New York real estate developer Robert Toussie, Isaac's father.



In 2001, Robert and Isaac Toussie were sued by a coalition of homebuyers who accused them of predatory lending practices and predatory marketing of shoddy properties to minorities. Those plaintiffs were also vocal critics of the Tuesday pardon, calling it the "worst Christmas present ever."



Maiss declined to comment Thursday.



