Adam Kidan

Adam Ronald Kidan (born 30 July 1964) is an American business executive, Republican political donor, and disbarred lawyer who serves as president of the staffing company Empire Workforce Solutions. He is best known for his role in the fraudulent SunCruz Casinos sale of 2000, undertaken with Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, which became entangled with the mob-style murder of SunCruz founder Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis and contributed to the wider Abramoff lobbying scandal.

Kidan pleaded guilty to conspiracy and wire fraud in 2005 and was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison in 2006, which he served for 31 months before being released in 2009. After his release, he built two staffing firms and became one of the largest Republican donors in Pennsylvania and at Mar-a-Lago. On 3 July 2026, U.S. president Donald Trump granted him a full federal pardon.

Early life and education Kidan spent his early life in Brooklyn, New York into a Jewish family. He attended John Dewey High School, where he served as president of the Social Science Club and editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, The Gadfly.

He attended George Washington University as an undergraduate and earned a Juris Doctor from Brooklyn Law School in 1989, where he was awarded the American Jurisprudence Award in legal writing and research. While practising law, he also ran a small chain of bagel stores in the New York area, "New York City's Best Bagels", which he later sold. The franchise expanded to several stores before contracting, and Kidan filed for personal bankruptcy in 1995 following a legal dispute with the parent company.

SunCruz Casinos and criminal case In September 2000, Kidan and Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff acquired the SunCruz Casinos fleet of offshore gambling boats from Greek-American businessman Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis for a nominal purchase price of US$147.5 million. Federal prosecutors later alleged that the two men had submitted a counterfeit wire transfer document to lenders to make it appear that they had made a US$23 million equity contribution to the deal, thereby inducing two lenders to provide approximately US$60 million in financing. On December 15, 2005, he pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges; as part of a plea bargain, four other felony counts against him were dropped. Two of the three men later charged with the murder, Anthony "Big Tony" Moscatiello, a former bookkeeper for the Gambino crime family, and Anthony "Little Tony" Ferrari, had been hired as consultants by Kidan after his relationship with Boulis deteriorated. Kidan denied any involvement in the killing. In March 2006, Kidan and Abramoff were each sentenced to 70 months in federal prison and jointly ordered to pay approximately US$21.7 million in restitution to the defrauded lenders. In 2013, he testified for the prosecution at Ferrari's Broward County murder trial, stating that Ferrari and Moscatiello had confessed to him that they had orchestrated Boulis's killing and had threatened his life if he ever disclosed it; Ferrari was convicted, and Moscatiello was later convicted in a separate trial.

Staffing companies After his release, Kidan entered the staffing industry. In 2011, he cofounded Chartwell Staffing Services, Inc. (Chartwell Staffing Solutions), a temporary staffing company with operations in California, and served as its chairman and chief executive officer from around 2012 until 2018. Chartwell was later acquired by Partners Personnel in 2023. The pardon was expected to eliminate the remaining balance of his restitution obligation, which had been accumulating interest since 2006.

Three days before the pardon, Kidan donated to the leadership political action committee of Ryan Mackenzie, a Republican member of Congress from Pennsylvania then facing a competitive re-election contest. Mackenzie's office stated that the congressman had never advocated for the pardon.

In February 2023, Kidan married Brazilian-born Cristiani De Fatima Pereira, some 23 years his junior, in a ceremony at Mar-a-Lago attended by Donald Trump and Melania Trump, with a performance by tenor Andrea Bocelli. He resides in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.