Record
Agency history
1978/1980
Federal Bureau of Investigation, History: Famous Cases and Criminals
FBI history page: ABSCAM
The FBI's account of its 1978 to 1980 ABSCAM undercover operation, which it says "led to southern New Jersey," where "politicians in Camden" offered bribes to obtain an Atlantic City gambling license for a fictitious sheik's company, and then to members of Congress.
- Date
- 1978/1980
- Kind
- agency-history
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-12
- Rights
- A web page of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a federal work in the public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. Photographs on the page are not stored here.
An FBI history essay. “It all started in July 1978, when we set out to catch New York City underworld figures dealing in stolen art.” The Bureau set up “a bogus company in Long Island—Abdul Enterprises, thus the name ‘AB(dul)SCAM’—said to be owned by a wealthy Arab sheik.” The operation recovered paintings and halted the sale of fraudulent securities.
“From there, our investigation led to southern New Jersey and on to Washington, D.C. Our criminal contacts led us to politicians in Camden who were willing to offer bribes to get our ‘business’ a gambling license in Atlantic City.” Those politicians then arranged meetings with members of Congress who offered private legislation for a price. “When the dust settled, one senator, six congressman, and more than a dozen other criminals and corrupt officials were arrested and found guilty” (the page’s wording). “The courts ruled otherwise, upholding all convictions,” the page says of the entrapment challenges.
The page is the FBI’s later narrative, not a case record, and it is about public corruption. It does not connect the Atlantic City license to any organized-crime figure, and none is claimed here. It names one Camden official only in a photograph caption, which is not repeated.