Sept. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Federal prosecutors opened a new front in the expanding investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff by charging the White House's former top procurement official with making false statements and obstructing a probe of a land deal.

The official, David Hossein Safavian, helped a lobbyist acquire government property, accepted a golf trip to Scotland from the lobbyist and obstructed a Justice Department investigation into the arrangement, according to a criminal complaint made public yesterday.

While the complaint did not identify the lobbyist, a Bush administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was Abramoff. Andrew Blum, a spokesman for Abramoff, declined to comment.

Safavian, who quit on Sept. 16 as head of procurement policy at the White House Office of Management and Budget, was arrested yesterday on charges of making false statements and obstructing the inquiry, the head of the Justice Department's criminal division, Alice S. Fisher, said in a statement.

As chief of staff at the U.S. General Services Administration, Safavian from May 2002 to January 2004 aided the lobbyist's efforts to acquire GSA-controlled land in and around Washington, according to the three-count complaint. In August 2002 the lobbyist took Safavian and others on a golf trip to Scotland, the complaint said.

Abramoff is at the center of expanding federal investigations that involve the alleged defrauding of Indian tribes and an August indictment charging Abramoff with wire fraud in the purchase of a Florida casino boat company by him and a partner. A Senate committee is also probing the Indian tribes case.

Ney on Trip

Safavian accompanied Representative Bob Ney, an Ohio Republican, and Abramoff on the 2002 trip, which included a stay at St. Andrew's, Scotland, the Washington Post reported last year.

The charges made public yesterday relate to Safavian's statements to a GSA ethics officer and the GSA's Office of the Inspector General ``that the lobbyist had no business with GSA prior to the August 2002 golf trip,'' the criminal complaint says. ``Safavian concealed the fact that the lobbyist had business before GSA prior to the August 2002 golf trip, and that Safavian was aiding the lobbyist in his attempts to do business with GSA.''

According to the complaint, the lobbyist tried to acquire approximately 40 acres of land controlled by the GSA at the White Oak Naval Surface Warfare Center in suburban Maryland to build a private school. Safavian ``advised and assisted him,'' the complaint said. Abramoff that year set up the private Eshkol Academy, a Jewish boy's school, in Maryland.

`Is That Doable?'

``Can you find out if you guys have control of any part of a huge federal property called the White Oak Federal Research Center, off New Hampshire Ave in Silver Spring?'' the lobbyist wrote to Safavian's home e-mail address on July 2, 2002, according to the complaint. ``I want to try to get 40 acres of that tract if possible for a non-profit. Is that doable?''

The complaint also said the lobbyist was trying to lease the Old Post Office building in downtown Washington. Safavian suggested that the lobbyist's Indian tribe clients could acquire the building because of their preferential treatment under federal rules, according to e-mails from Safavian cited in the complaint.

According to congressional travel records compiled by PoliticalMoneyLine, a Washington-based company that tracks money in politics, only one member of Congress -- Ney -- reported taking a trip to Scotland in August 2002.

``The congressman has not been contacted by anyone at the Justice Department,'' Ney spokesman Brian Walsh said. ``But if he were to be, he would cooperate fully.''

Think Tank

Ney's trip was paid for by the National Center for Public Policy Research, a Washington-based group that describes itself as ``a conservative think tank.'' Its president, Amy Ridenour, testified in June to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, which is investigating allegations by Indian tribes that were clients of Abramoff's that he defrauded them. Ridenour didn't return a phone call seeking comment.

When asked by an unidentified colleague why Safavian was going on the Scotland trip, the lobbyist, in an e-mail, said, ``Total business angle. He's the new COS of GSA,'' referring to the chief of staff job that Safavian held at GSA.

Ney has been linked to another deal involving Abramoff. In August a federal grand jury in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, indicted Abramoff and an associate on wire fraud charges in relation to their purchase of a casino ship company. Ney inserted two statements into the Congressional Record supporting the purchase in 2000.

`Fully Cooperating'

Alex Conant, a spokesman for OMB, said the agency is ``fully cooperating'' with the investigation. Safavian, a lawyer and former lobbyist, was named by President George W. Bush to head the OMB's procurement office in November.

Safavian is listed as former lobbyist for Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds LLP, a Washington firm that once employed Abramoff, according to PoliticalMoneyLine. Jonathan Blank, a Preston Gates partner, didn't return a phone call seeking comment.

Safavian is a donor to Republican candidates. He gave $251 to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee in October 2004 and $1,000 to Bush's re-election committee in February 2004. He has also contributed to the campaigns of Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum and other Republican lawmakers, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

While at OMB, Safavian was responsible for overseeing the administration's competitive sourcing initiative, an effort to let private contractors bid on tens of thousands of federal jobs, according to the National Journal.

``The questions on this matter are best directed to the Department of Justice,'' White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Cary O'Reilly in Washington at caryoreilly@bloomberg.net .