Things always seem to get more interesting for Rep. Bill "I Stashed $90,000 In My Freezer" Jefferson. Our man Bill, a member of the dishonored CAFTA 15 and now the Oman 22, was allegedly a bagman for a bribe to a Nigerian politician named Atiku Abubakar, the vice president of Nigeria.
As The Washington Post reports today, Jefferson had on-going ties with Abubakar, who "divides his time between his homeland and Potomac, Md., where he and one of his four wives maintain a $2.2 million mansion." The Post story goes on to report:
Their last meeting, on July 18, 2005, became the subject of a key FBI affidavit in the Jefferson corruption case.
On that Monday, a chauffeur drove Jefferson and his Northern Virginia business partner, Lori Mody, in a Lincoln Town Car down the winding pavement on Sorrel Avenue in Potomac to Abubakar's 2.3-acre property, partially shrouded by trees and protected by a six-foot-high black wrought-iron fence with gold tips.
Unbeknownst to Jefferson, Mody was wearing an FBI wire, and the chauffeur was an undercover FBI agent.
Jefferson met privately with Abubakar, without Mody, to discuss iGate Inc.'s involvement with a Nigerian partner in a high-tech venture to market Internet and cable television in Nigeria, according to the FBI affidavit.
Mody had invested $3.5 million, and Jefferson had a secret share of her business and of iGate.
Following the meeting on Sorrel Avenue, Jefferson told Mody that the vice president had demanded a cut of the profits. He said they also needed to give him a $500,000 payment "as a motivating factor," the affidavit said.
On July 30, Mody gave Jefferson a $100,000 bribe to pass on to Abubakar, and shortly after, Jefferson assured her that it had been delivered.
Yes, innocent until proven guilty. But, I can't help feel that a legislator who would vote for CAFTA and the Oman deal, and sell out his constituents, would find it pretty easy to cross the line and make another bad, dirty business deal.
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