In 1973 during the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations hearings on corruption, Roosevelt was accused of involvement in an assassination plot on the Bahamanian Prime Minister. In 1968, he and an "alleged mobster front man," Michael J. McLaney, offered Louis Mastriana $100,000 to assassinate Prime Minister Lynden Pindling. Mastriana was paid $10,000 up front, most of which came from Elliott Roosevelt (as proved by a signature on a check for the money). The assassination plot was conceived after Prime Minister Pindling's failure to issue a gambling license to an associate of Meyer Lansky, (whom Michael J. McLaney worked for until his conviction in 1971). It was uncovered by Mastriana; he taped all of his conversation with Elliott Roosevelt, allegedly using equipment from the U.S. Postal Service. Roosevelt maintained that this was a lie until his death.