Humans are kind of like pizza. Even the most unsavory deserves a second chance.
You might call Jack Abramoff a bad slice. The disgraced D.C. lobbyist swindled several American Indian tribes out of tens of millions of dollars and bribed politicians with expensive gifts. For those crimes, he served three-and-a-half years in federal prison.
On June 8, Abramoff was released, and since Monday, he’s been working at a kosher pizza parlor in Baltimore, Md.
A former restaurateur himself, Abramoff is apparently not spinning pies at Tov Pizza, which gets an average of 2 out of 5 stars on Yelp. When ABC News stopped by the joint, Abramoff was wearing a yarmulke and headphones, working away at a laptop behind a glass partition. He’s reportedly balancing the restaurant’s books and handling marketing and PR.
The restaurant might need it. One Yelp commenter says, “Skip the spinach stromboli” at Tov Pizza. The same commenter also remarks, “Very pleasant staff.” Those comments, of course, were made in 2007, well before the shamed lobbyist went on the payroll for a reported $7.50 to $10 per hour.
At that rate, it’ll take about 3 million hours of pizza marketing before Abramoff can pay off the $25 million in restitution he owes Michigan’s Saginaw Chippewas, California’s Agua Caliente, the Mississippi Choctaws and the Louisiana Coushattas. Clearly, he’ll have to climb the corporate ladder quick to make good on his bad deeds.
Photo by Maksim via Wikimedia Commons.
