Over the years Young repeatedly acted to aid the government of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), a small group of Pacific Ocean islands under U.S. jurisdiction. Abramoff was paid $11 million to lobby for CNMI from 1994 to 2001.

Beginning in 1999, Young became involved with Abramoff in scams designed to convince Americans that products produced under slave labor-like conditions in the Mariana Islands were ‘Made in the USA.’ Young, then chairman of the House Resources Committee, had oversight responsibilities over working conditions in the Mariana Islands and Marshall Islands. In spite of this responsibility, Young failed to raise questions regarding working conditions in either Island group while touring the Pacific Ocean territories on trips subsidized or arranged by Abramoff.

From 1994 to 2002, Zachares worked in Saipan for the CNMI; starting in 1998, he was the commonwealth’s secretary of labor and immigration. Abramoff and Zachares became personal and professional acquaintances.

In 2000, the Senate unanimously passed a bill by Alaska Sen. Frank Murkowski that would have made the garment industry in the CNMI comply with federal labor laws and reformed slave-like working conditions in Saipan. Don Young buried the bill in his committee so it was never considered in the House of Representatives - an action favored by the Abramoff-represented local government and garment industry.

Although it was the responsibility of his committee to oversee federal territories, Young failed to take action on labor abuses in the Marianas, which at that time included forced prostitution and abortion, harsh working conditions, a rapidly growing narcotics trade and illegal garnishment of employee wages. Throughout the period of Young’s stewardship over the islands, working conditions worsened as sweatshops erected there replaced the American textile and clothing industry one shop at a time. [see: Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) Labor and Human Rights Abuse Status Report, January 29, 1998 to February 14, 1998 (A Report Prepared for the United States Department of the Interior Office of Insular Affairs) by Wendy L Doromal]

Chinese crime boss and sweatshop owner Tan Siu Lin was able to launder money through Abramoff to a number of GOP legislators and committees at the same time the US Interior Department was issuing reports to Young about horrendous working conditions and the growth of organized crime at Tan family-owned businesses in the Marianas. [see also: Trapped-Human Trafficking for Forced Labor in the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (a U. S. territory) © 1999 Responsive Database Services, Inc. and ABC Television documentary 20-20 Sweatshops in CNMI, ©1999]