The Black Louisiana lawmaker is charged with taking bribes
That $90,000 that federal investigators found in Rep. William Jefferson’s home freezer in 2005 was jammed inside of soy burger boxes and other food containers, and the Louisiana lawmaker provided the ultimate hook-up for the son of the president of Ghana, steering profits to him from a lucrative telecommunications deal. These are two of the charges contained in the government’s 16-count indictment, which was unsealed Friday for public consumption after two years, the Times Picayune reports. The release of the documents comes about a month after a federal grand jury indicted Jefferson on charges of racketeering, bribery, fraud and obstruction of justice. There are very few revelations, however. The case surfaced in August 2005, when the FBI, armed with search warrants, stormed Jefferson’s homes in Washington, D.C. and New Orleans, his car and the office of his accountant, seizing computers and files. Until Friday, the government had resisted media attempts to review all documents in the case. The feds contend that Jefferson pocketed more than $400,000 in bribes and millions of shares of corporate stock for helping iGate set up shop in the West African nations of Nigeria and Ghana. The deal that NITEL, the Nigerian state-owned telecommunications company, eventually locked with iGate’s high-speed Internet technology is estimated to be worth at least $200 million. The documents help paint the government’s case as to how Jefferson planned to cash in as the broker, according to the Times-Picayune. Jefferson, who maintains his innocence, promises that he will be exonerated once the case goes to trial.

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