A disgraced former US congressman who stashed US$90,000 in his freezer was sentenced to 13 years in prison on Friday for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes.
William Jefferson, a Democratic lawmaker who represented a district in the southern state of Louisiana that included part of New Orleans, was convicted in August on 11 of 16 counts, including bribery, money laundering and racketeering involving businesses in Africa.
The 13-year prison sentence, far less than the 27 years recommended by prosecutors, is said to be the longest prison term ever for a US lawmaker convicted on charges of corruption.
The previous record came in 2006, when Republican former congressman Randall “Duke” Cunningham received a prison sentence of eight years and four months for accepting bribes from defense contractors.
Jefferson, 62, was also ordered to forfeit more than US$470,000 in assets.
“In a stunning betrayal of the public’s trust, former congressman Jefferson repeatedly used his public office for private gain,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman said in a statement.
US District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III handed down Jefferson’s sentence at an Alexandria, Virginia courtroom just outside Washington.
“We expect to file an appeal at the appropriate time,” said Jefferson’s attorney Amy Jackson.
She declined to comment on the sentence.
Following a six-week trial, the jury found that from 2000 to 2005, Jefferson used his post as a US lawmaker to obtain hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from oil, communications, sugar and other companies in Nigeria, Ghana, Botswana, Equatorial Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In turn, he advanced the interests of the businesses and individuals who paid the bribes, namely through his seat on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee — the chamber’s top tax-writing panel — without disclosing his own financial dealings with the ventures.
Jefferson’s indictment in 2007, which followed a huge FBI corruption probe, listed a series of alleged schemes in Africa, including telecommunications deals, oil concessions, satellite transmission contracts and the development of industrial plants and other facilities.
The case exploded on the public stage in August 2005, when the FBI raided Jefferson’s Washington home and found the cold cash, allegedly bribe money intended for the former Nigerian vice president, wrapped in aluminum foil and hidden in frozen food containers in his freezer.
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