Translated material
Bribe in the freezer
American congressman will serve a record term
This week, a Virginia court will hear an appeal against the conviction of former Democratic congressman William Jefferson, 62. The former Louisiana lawmaker was sentenced Nov. 13 to 13 years in prison for corruption. This is the longest sentence that a member of the US Congress has ever received for similar sins. The previous “record” was held by Californian Republican Randall “Duke” Cunningham, who has been serving eight years and four months behind bars since 2006 for accepting bribes from military contractors from the Pentagon.The Jefferson case intricately intertwined the real drama of corruption of a high-ranking elected official with the signs of cheap vaudeville. The congressman became a national celebrity in 2005, when FBI agents seized $90,000 wrapped in plastic bags from the freezer of a refrigerator in the office of this black Louisiana representative. Having called the detectives bad names and proclaiming his innocence, Mr. Jefferson entered into desperate altercations with them. But not in the sense of proving the legality of the origin of the money, but in the sense of finding out: how did you, so and so, dare to encroach on the holy of holies - the office of the Capitol legislator? In his opinion, this territory is forbidden for the FBI.
Lengthy proceedings on the question of what is legal and what is not in this case prolonged the scandal. But this did not help his main participant. It was difficult to justify a person who, on video and audio tapes recorded by the FBI, receives from a “sent Cossack” sent by law enforcement agencies these same 90 thousand dollars, allegedly to be transferred to the Vice President of Nigeria in order to promote a multimillion-dollar deal in the field of telecommunications. And this is only one episode from the extra-official activities of William Jefferson, who then headed the group of congressmen in the House of Representatives on Nigeria and on trade with Africa.
In total, the investigation documented that the “servant of the people” either received or gave bribes in the amount of $400 thousand for projects that he agreed on in Africa. The lion's share of these funds went to companies that he registered in the names of his family members. In August of this year, a jury agreed with prosecutors that the defendant had “turned his office as a legislator into a criminal enterprise.” Louisiana voters also agreed with the court's decision, refusing to trust him and not electing him for a new term in Congress.
The judge, in sentencing, praised the “extraordinary life of the congressman,” who became Louisiana’s first black legislator in 1990. But the judge had no doubt about the need for severe punishment: “Corruption in government agencies is a cancerous disease and needs to be removed surgically.”