William J. Jefferson
⚠️ All Corruption Flags (3)
In 2005, FBI agents raided William Jefferson's Washington, D.C. home and found $90,000 of the cash in the freezer, stored in $10,000 increments wrapped in aluminum foil and stuffed inside frozen-food containers. Prosecutors alleged the money was intended as a bribe to the Vice President of Nigeria to secure a multimillion-dollar telecommunications deal.
In August 2009, a federal jury convicted Jefferson on 11 of 16 counts including bribery, racketeering, money laundering, and wire fraud. The FBI investigation uncovered at least 11 distinct bribery schemes involving Jefferson leading official business delegations to Africa and using congressional letterhead and his own unwitting staffers to promote bribe-paying businesses. Sentenced November 13, 2009 to 13 years in federal prison.
On October 5, 2017, following the Supreme Court's narrowing of the 'official act' standard in McDonnell v. United States, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III dropped 7 of the 10 counts on which Jefferson had been convicted and ordered his release from prison. On December 1, 2017, a federal judge reduced his sentence to time served — 5 years and 5 months — based on a joint recommendation by prosecutors and defense attorneys.