Cold Cash Jefferson To Be Indicted

Federal prosecutors are seeking an indictment today against Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.) in a longstanding FBI corruption probe centering on allegations that he took bribes to promote high-tech business ventures in Africa, sources familiar with the investigation said.

Prosecutors are presenting the case to grand jurors in Alexandria today, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because no charges have yet been filed.

If filed, the indictment would cap a long and tumultuous investigation that was stalled for months because of a legal battle over the constitutionality of an FBI raid on Jefferson's office last May. The raid came after the FBI found $90,000 in the freezer of his Capitol Hill home.

A political and legal maelstrom followed the raid, prompting President Bush to intervene and seal the seized documents for 45 days. In July, U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan, who had signed the search warrant, ruled that the raid was constitutional. The U.S. Court of Appeals has yet to rule on the matter.

Jefferson, 60, is a potential political embarrassment for Democrats, just months after they took over control of Congress. Democrats had campaigned last year on the theme that Republicans had created a culture of corruption. In July, the House officially expelled Jefferson from the prestigious Ways and Means Committee.

Jefferson isn't a potential embarrasment for Democrats. He IS an embarrasment for the Democrats.

UPDATE:
It's a sixteen count indictment:

A Justice Department official familiar with the case said the indictment outlining the evidence against Jefferson is more than an inch thick and charges the congressman with crimes that could keep him in prison for up to 200 years. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case.

Almost two years ago, in August 2005, investigators raided Jefferson’s home in Louisiana and found $90,000 in cash stuffed into a box in his freezer.

Jefferson, 63, whose Louisiana district includes New Orleans, has said little about the case publicly but has maintained his innocence. He was re-elected last year despite the looming investigation.

Jefferson, in Louisiana on Monday, could not immediately be reached for comment.

The case involves bribery and influence peddling:

The FBI's sting operation, the first of its kind since the Abscam probe targeting corrupt members of Congress in the 1970s, has already sent two former Jefferson associates to prison. Both acknowledged taking part in a scheme to funnel money to companies controlled by the nine-term congressman and his family in exchange for his help in promoting a telecommunications business in Nigeria and Ghana.

At the center of the investigation is a small Kentucky telecommunications company iGate Inc. whose owner, Vernon Jackson, said he sought Jefferson to help in promote a novel high-speed Internet technology he invented.

Jackson told investigators, according to court documents, that Jefferson agreed to help only if Jackson hired the ANJ Group LLC, a Louisiana company in the name of Jefferson's wife, Andrea. From 2001-2004, Jackson sent to the ANJ Group $367,500 cash, paid for more than $87,000 worth of travel and transferred about 30 million shares of iGate Inc. stock, according to the government.

Investigators say Jefferson saw a market for iGate's technology in Nigeria and Ghana, two developing West African countries looking to build high-speed telecommunications capabilities but lacked a modern fiber optic network. iGate's "Triple Play" product seemed to be a perfect fit: It would send high-speed data, voice and video over old-fashioned copper telephone lines.

Jefferson lined up a Nigerian investor who paid $6.5 million to license the technology, but the deal unraveled in a legal dispute. The disgruntled investor ultimately said that at Jefferson's behest, money was paid to bank accounts controlled by the congressman's family, including brothers Mose and Bennie.

A second investor, northern Virginia philanthropist Lori Mody, was introduced to Jefferson by his former legislative aide, Brett Pfeffer. Mody paid $3.5 million to iGate in 2004 to license "Triple Play." But months later, she went to the FBI saying Jackson, Pfeffer and Jefferson had defrauded her.

She agreed to become a government informant and for months secretly record her conversations with the congressman. Transcripts from those meetings include Jefferson requesting a stake in her company for his five daughters, a plan for him to personally take over iGate with financing from Mody and a scheme to bribe the former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, to sew up the deal.