FBI Searches Office of Louisiana Congressman - Page 4 - Big Big Forums

Jolie Rouge · 05-28-2008, 05:45 PM

Quote:

As a local columnist opined: “The abiding mystery of the Edwards trial is how come Guidry got such a sweet deal.”

http://www.nola.com/timespic/stories...220.xml&coll=1

Lawsuit stirs up vitriol to go around
Friday, April 25, 2008
James Gill

You wouldn't want to take Jamie Perdigao's word for anything, but the incendiary motion he has filed in federal court has clearly touched a nerve.

The U.S. Attorney's Office, after failing to have Perdigao's motion placed under seal, responded not with a measured rebuttal but with incoherent fury. Prosecutors argue that Perdigao's motion, in which he accuses them of covering up all manner of skulduggery, is "a shell of a vehicle giving expression to his unsupported vitriol." And that's one of the more felicitous phrases they employ in contending that Perdigao's allegations do not merit a hearing.

Perhaps such a hearing would be an embarrassment for them, but it would be a blast for everyone else, not least former Gov. Edwin Edwards, who stands to get out of prison if he was, as Perdigao alleges, the victim of prosecutorial dirty tricks.

Perdigao's claim that Congressman William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, took a bribe, while lacking the appeal of novelty, may deserve an airing too.

Perdigao's uncorroborated word won't count for much. He was arrested in 2004 when $30 million turned up missing at Adams and Reece, the law firm where he was a partner. Although Perdigao has not been convicted, the presumption of innocence in his case is more than usually theoretical.

Perdigao was expected to plead guilty after paying back the $30 million and singing to the feds for a couple of years, but his plea deal fell through, and he was indicted on 59 counts last year. That is presumably why he filed his motion, asking that the entire local U.S. Attorney's Office be recused from his case for failing to act on the information he provided and thus denying him the credit he would otherwise have received at sentencing.

Perdigao certainly has a motive to lie, since any delay in proceedings will be welcome when prison awaits. On the other hand, his claims may merit some consideration, since he saw what was going on from the inside when Edwards went on trial for shaking down applicants for riverboat gambling licenses. Perdigao was civil attorney for one of those who bribed Edwards, Bobby Guidry.

The abiding mystery of the Edwards trial is how come Guidry got such a sweet deal. After copping a plea and becoming the star government witness, Guidry was certainly entitled to a break, although five months in a half-way house seemed remarkably lenient after all the sleazy deals he admitted.

But that was not the biggest favor the feds did for Guidry. The license he secured for the Treasure Chest in Kenner eventually put more than $100 million in Guidry's pocket. He was ordered to make restitution of just $3.5 million.

The explanation Perdigao now offers for that soft sentence is that Guidry, finding himself in trouble for bribing one public official, resolved that the best way to mitigate the damage was to bribe another.

So he paid Jefferson $1 million to ensure that his old protégé, then-U.S. Attorney Eddie Jordan, would go easy. Guidry, who kept large wads of cash in his freezer, could not have known at the time that Jefferson had similar habits, and Perdigao's motion is silent on what happened to the alleged bribe after it was handed over. For good measure, Perdigao says, Guidry lent Jefferson's brother Mose $300,000 around the same time.

Although Perdigao provided this information to federal prosecutors, they failed to alert Edwards' attorneys, who could have used it to discredit Guidry's testimony on appeal, the motion suggests.

Since both Jeffersons are awaiting trial on bribery charges in unrelated cases, and since Guidry's soft sentence has been the cause of so much bafflement, Perdigao's allegations are hardly implausible. But that may just mean that he has chosen his lies shrewdly.

Perdigao's attorney, William Wessel, says he can prove what the motion says. If, as Perdigao claims, Adams and Reese drew up the documents for Guidry's loan to Mose Jefferson, they will presumably be available at an evidentiary hearing. But hard evidence of his more sensational allegations may be hard to find.

The local feds say that all Perdigao's allegations were forwarded to the Justice Department in Washington.

They write that the purpose of their response is "to indicate tersely" that Perdigao does not speak the truth. Then they go on to suggest that he has "littered his own admissions of considerable fraudulent criminal activity in his practice as a lawyer with false and unsupported impugns of others," that his "mendacity" is "disprovable," and that he is guilty of "perfidy," "vacillations and lies."

That's just a tiny sample. Lord help us when the government is not in the mood to be terse.

Jolie Rouge · 06-05-2008, 12:42 AM

Democratic lawmaker's siblings, niece charged with fraud
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press Writer
Wed Jun 4, 7:59 PM ET

NEW ORLEANS - A brother, sister and niece of indicted U.S. Rep. William Jefferson were charged Wednesday with pocketing more than $600,000 in state and federal grant money intended for charitable and educational projects.

A federal grand jury indicted New Orleans tax assessor Betty Jefferson, her brother, Mose Jefferson, and her daughter, Angela Coleman, on charges that include federal program fraud, identity theft and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said the family members used several nonprofit and for-profit companies to obtain grants designed to help pregnant teens, at-risk youths and others in need of assistance. They allegedly deposited some of the grant money into personal checking accounts and used it for personal expenses. "It's fair to say that the allegations in the indictment are very instructive on how such nonprofits can be exploited," Letten said.

A message seeking comment was left with an attorney who has represented Mose Jefferson; it was not immediately clear who was representing Betty Jefferson and Coleman.

With Wednesday's 31-count indictment, four members of the politically prominent Jefferson family now face federal criminal charges.

Rep. Jefferson, 61, a nine-term Louisiana Democrat, was indicted last year on bribery charges. He is awaiting a trial in Virginia and has denied wrongdoing. The congressman wasn't named in Wednesday's indictment, and faces a re-election campaign this fall.

Mose Jefferson, 66, pleaded not guilty in April to separate charges that he paid bribes to a former New Orleans school board president.

Wednesday's indictment also charges Betty Jefferson, 70, with four counts of tax evasion. She faces up to 279 years in prison. The grand jury also charged Mose Jefferson with making false statements to federal investigators. He faces up to 250 years in prison, while Coleman faces a maximum of 257 years behind bars.

The three defendants charged Wednesday are scheduled to make their initial court appearance on June 20.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080604/...Zp2vggMaus0NUE

Much of this fraud has happened since Katrina, from monies earmarked to help the poorest of those affected by the storms and the slow process of rebuilding

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Jolie Rouge · 09-01-2008, 12:27 AM

Indicted Democratic Louisiana House member bids for 10th term
By KEVIN McGILL, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 50 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - Sordid bribery allegations and jokes about "cold cash" hidden in Rep. William Jefferson's freezer apparently did not matter much to voters two years ago when the New Orleans Democrat won a runoff election for his long-held congressional seat with a surprising 57 percent.

Hurricane Katrina was a fresh memory throughout much of the city. Jefferson lost his seat on the House Ways and Means Committee amid the burgeoning scandal, yet could argue that his seniority and clout in Congress were vital to the region.

Now that two more years have passed, Jefferson's political future has become more precarious. He is awaiting trial in Virginia on federal bribery charges; his brother and two sisters are ensnared in a separate federal criminal case in New Orleans.

Donations to his re-election have slowed and there is a reported campaign debt of $250,000. Still, few count Jefferson completely out as he faces six challengers in Saturday's primary. "He's still influential in Congress. He still has supporters in Congress, and in the district," pollster and political analyst Silas Lee said.

Political scientist Ed Chervenak of the University of New Orleans said he detects a sense among some people in the 2nd Congressional District that Jefferson is being persecuted, but he questions whether that will be enough to save the nine-term incumbent. "It's really the great unknown in terms of whether people will rally around Jefferson or whether they just say, `We've had enough,'" Chervenak said.

Hurricane Gustav, which was due to hit the Gulf Coast on Monday, could delay the decision on Jefferson's fate. Jacques Berry, a spokesman for the Louisiana Secretary of State, told The Washington Post on Sunday that his office was planning for the possibility that the primary may have to be rescheduled. "We will not make a decision until after the storm comes through," Berry told the Post. "We're prepared for it, though."

While campaigning for a new term, Jefferson also is preparing for a December federal trial in Virginia on allegations that he took bribes, laundered money and misused his congressional office for business dealings in Africa. He is accused of taking about $500,000 in bribes and travel expenses and about 34 million shares of corporate stock.

In what became fodder for late-night talk show monologues well before he was indicted, Jefferson is famously alleged to have hidden in his freezer some $90,000 received from an FBI informant. Jefferson, who did not grant an interview for this story, has maintained his innocence.

Meanwhile, his brother Mose and sister Betty, a New Orleans tax assessor, have been indicted on federal fraud charges in New Orleans. Both are accused of using family owned companies to funnel federal and state grant money to themselves for personal use.

A second sister, Brenda Jefferson, pleaded guilty in June to helping conceal the alleged scheme.

Attacks on Jefferson in television and online ads by his opponents have been unmistakable if oblique, not mentioning him by name.

Former television reporter Helena Moreno sits in a house still in ruins three years after Katrina, bemoans the lack of progress and promises to "restore honesty and integrity" to the office. State Rep. Cedric Richmond of New Orleans says the people of the district "need and deserve real leadership right now."

While the recovery from Katrina is the biggest issue, the race also boils down to geography, demographics, turnout and political alliances.

Most of the district's 369,000 registered voters are in New Orleans. But almost one-third are in neighboring Jefferson Parish, where popular Sheriff Newell Normand has endorsed parish councilman Byron Lee. Most of the voters are black; almost one-third are white.

If voting patterns break along racial lines, that would aid Moreno, the only white candidate in the primary, in earning a spot in an expected Oct. 4 runoff.

Turnout is expected to be low and the vote will be divided among several well-known candidates.

In addition to Moreno, Lee and Richmond, City Council member James Carter, former council member Troy Carter (no relation to James) and Kenya Smith, a lawyer and former aide to New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, are running.

"Jefferson's got a core constituency in both parishes," said demographer Gregory Rigamer. "They're going to split this vote up really fine."

The Democratic nominee will face three little-known challengers — one each from the Green, Libertarian and Republican parties.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080901/..._KMLhWTuas0NUE

mesue · 09-01-2008, 12:40 AM

Well from what I have read so far, someone got into trouble, bribed someone, then someone got acaught and the whole thing continues four times over, eventually they will get down to a little fish who took a bribe, has very little money and they will go to jail and the bigger crooks will go out to dinner.

The corruption within our government is ridiculous they are stealing us all blind, I'm betting at least half of the taxes we pay gets into some thieves pockets, and I am not talking about the few who try and take advantage of the system, i am talking aobut government officials stealing from us.

jbbarn · 09-01-2008, 12:45 AM

"Oh, Yeah - it is because he is BLACK ..."
And he's a democrat.Don't forget that "vast rightwing conspiracy!"

mesue · 09-01-2008, 12:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbbarn

"Oh, Yeah - it is because he is BLACK ..."
And he's a democrat.Don't forget that "vast rightwing conspiracy!"

No, their all crooks both democrats and republicans, does the alaska senator Ted Williams (I think) rang any bells?

Jolie Rouge · 09-01-2008, 01:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbbarn

"Oh, Yeah - it is because he is BLACK ..."
And he's a democrat.Don't forget that "vast rightwing conspiracy!"

No, Mesue ... this is actually his defense... he is being "targeted" because he is a Black powerful Democrat and the white conservative republicans hate him ... nothing to do with all the underhanded, down and dirty dealing he has done ... the $900,000 in "cold hard cash" in marked bills hiden in his freezer is all because of his "polical enemies" and not because he would sell his granny out if he could make a profit from it...

mesue · 09-01-2008, 01:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jolie Rouge

No, Mesue ... this is actually his defense... he is being "targeted" because he is a Black powerful Democrat and the white conservative republicans hate him ... nothing to do with all the underhanded, down and dirty dealing he has done ... the $900,000 in "cold hard cash" in marked bills hiden in his freezer is all because of his "polical enemies" and not because he would sell his granny out if he could make a profit from it...

LOL My bad, now that you mention it I recall this was what he was saying early on in the investigation, which was really the last time I heard about it, until I read some of your c&p, not all of it, my eyes would never last if I tried to read it all. I have lost my glasses, have searched the house over for days, I am worried if I do find them, they will be ruined.

Jolie Rouge · 12-09-2008, 12:31 AM

Republican upstart Joseph Cao defeated Bill “Cold Cash Jefferson” in the runoff for Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional district race. This is — this was — a solidly Democrat, Democrat-dominated district. Yes, the voters are sending a message. They want hope, change, and a clean start. http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/...iana.congress/

Quote:

Nine-term Democratic Rep. William Jefferson, who has been battling scandals and a federal indictment for the past three years, lost his bid for re-election on Saturday.
Louisiana Democratic Rep. William Jefferson has been embroiled in a bribery scandal.

Louisiana Democratic Rep. William Jefferson has been embroiled in a bribery scandal.

Republican challenger Anh “Joseph” Cao, an attorney and community organizer, defeated Jefferson in the 2nd Congressional district race. He will become the first Vietnamese-American elected to Congress.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Cao had almost 50 percent of the vote to Jefferson’s 47 percent.

The 2nd Congressional district, in and around New Orleans, is mostly African-American and heavily Democratic, and Jefferson appeared to be favored to win re-election going into the election.

“The people of the second district were able to transcend party, transcend race,” Cao said after claiming victory Saturday night.

Cao is pro-amnesty immigration lawyer. He apparently favors the DREAM Act and other open-borders measures. I’m sure the WSJ editorial board will crow that these are the reasons Cao won. In a black majority district? I don’t think so.

***
Congrats also to John Fleming, who won the open seat in the 4th district in Louisiana.

RNC Chair Mike Duncan: “Voters in Louisiana spoke out today and overwhelmingly embraced the Republican Party’s core values when they elected Joseph Cao and John Fleming to Congress. This is truly a victory for the people of Louisiana, having sent two strong, conservative candidates to represent their interests in Washington. Louisianans embraced John Fleming’s conservative belief that government needs to operate in a more effective and efficient manner and that taxes and spending in Washington should be lower. Voters in the Second District rejected William Jefferson’s corruption and embraced Joseph Cao’s hard-working approach and commitment to preserving the dignity of all people and serving the greater good.”

About Cao: http://josephcaoforcongress.com/pg-80-11-about.aspx

Quote:

Anh “Joseph” Quang Cao, 41, was born in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam, the fifth of eight children. He grew up in Vietnam during the most turbulent years of the Vietnamese Civil War and can vividly remember bombs exploding next to his elementary school. After the fall of Saigon in 1975, Joseph fled Vietnam for the safety of the United States. His father, an Army officer committed to the freedom of South Vietnam was imprisoned by the Communists, leaving his mother to singlehandedly raise the five remaining children.

At the age of eight, Joseph and two of his seven siblings arrived in the United States. He spent his first four years in America where he attended primary school and learned the English language and culture. Eventually, he settled in Houston, Texas, where he graduated from Jersey Village High School and in 1990 earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

After graduation, Joseph entered the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), finally arriving in Louisiana for the first time to begin his religious training at Grand Coteau. During his first two years in the Society, Joseph was sent by his religious superiors to various parts of the world to minister to the poor and indigent. Joseph was then sent to New Orleans in 1992 to study theology and philosophy, furthering his training for the priesthood. He subsequently was accepted to Fordham University in New York, where he earned his Master of Arts degree in philosophy in May 1995. He returned to New Orleans to teach philosophy and ethics at Loyola University. The following year, Joseph left the Society of Jesus and taught at a local parochial school in Virginia.

While in Virginia, Joseph volunteered at Boat People S.O.S., Inc. (BPSOS) to assist poor Vietnamese in their quest for social justice and enculturation and to lobby the U.S. Congress on issues concerning civil and religious rights. He eventually became a board member of BPSOS and served in that capacity from September 1996 to March of 2002.

In September of 1997, Joseph returned to New Orleans to study law at Loyola School of Law and subsequently resumed teaching philosophy at Loyola in 1998. In May of 2000, he obtained his Juris Doctorate from Loyola and began his legal career as an associate at the Waltzer Law Firm. He left Waltzer & Associates to become in-house counsel for BPSOS, opening a New Orleans office seeking social and legal equity for the many refugees in the city. During his time as BPSOS in-house counsel, Joseph initiated programs to help victims of torture and to provide social and cultural developments for poor minorities.

Joseph Cao and familyJoseph is married to Hieu “Kate” Hoang; they have two daughters, Sophia and Betsy. He opened his private law practice in 2002, which he continues to operate. Also in 2002, he was selected by Archbishop Alfred Hughes of the Archdiocese of New Orleans to be a member of the National Advisory Council to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, which addresses many pressing issues, such as women’s rights in the U.S. Church, social justice, pedophilia and children protection, the Catholic response to Hurricane Katrina, and education.

Like many in New Orleans, on August 28, 2005, Joseph and his family fled from their home in Venetian Isles (located in New Orleans East) as Hurricane Katrina was bearing down on New Orleans. Returning in early September, Joseph saw that everything he possessed was destroyed, including his home and his law offices. Joseph would once again have to rebuild his life.

Determined to return and rebuild, in October of 2005 he moved his family to Westwego and began the rebuilding of his Orleans home and law office. His office would take three months to repair, his home a year and a half. Like the people of Orleans and St. Bernard Parishes who were ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, Joseph has endured struggles against insurance companies and the political leadership and has proven to be a leader in rebuilding the Vietnamese community. He assisted the residents in New Orleans East in their successful fight against a landfill that threatened to change the social fabric of their community. He fought energy and telecommunication companies to have basic necessities restored in a timely fashion.

In 2007 Joseph ran as an independent for the State House of Representatives and carried Orleans Parish. He presently serves as a board member of the MQVN Community Development Corporation which is responsible for many programs such as charter schools, medical clinics, and retirement centers. Last year he was appointed by Governor Bobby Jindal to the Board of Elections for Orleans Parish. He was also elected to the Republican Parish Executive Committee and the State Republican Executive Committee where he continues to serve. In 2008 Joseph was elected as an at-large delegate to the Republican National Convention.

Joseph Cao understands the struggles of the rebuilding process and shares the hopes and desires of the people of New Orleans. His is a life of determination — to never submit to adversity and to always seek social improvement and justice.

PERSONAL HISTORY • Law degree from Loyola University • Former Jesuit seminarian • Vietnamese refugee • Small business owner • Fluent in English, Vietnamese, French, and Spanish • Married with two daughters • Member, Mary Queen of Vietnam Catholic Church

MAN OF ACTION • Opened local Boat People SOS Office to help local refugees • Has worked at local, state and national levels to ensure equal rights of legal minorities in the U.S. • A former secondary school teacher • A former university professor • Appointed by the Archbishop of New Orleans to U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops National Advisory Council

KATRINA SURVIVOR • Helped restore energy and telecommunications service to New Orleans East in timely fashion • Rebuilt his home and law practice from scratch • Helped protect neighborhoods from illegal and hazardous dumping of Katrina debris • An involved volunteer in rebuilding greater New Orleans

Jolie Rouge · 06-14-2009, 05:07 PM

Finally.

Nearly four years after FBI agents discovered nearly $90,000 in purported bribe money stuffed in Louisiana Rep. William Jefferson’s freezer, the Democrat is finally going on trial this week. He faces 16 federal bribery and public corruption charges. NOLA sums up: http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2...illiam_je.html

Quote:

While the “cold cash” came to symbolize the case on the Internet and late-night television, the investigation into complex international business deals also made legal history with the first-ever raid on a sitting congressional member’s office and a constitutional battle over the separation of powers and how bribery statutes are applied to members of Congress.

…If convicted, he would likely face up to 20 years in prison.

The trial, expected to last four to six weeks, won’t lack for drama. The prosecution’s case is likely to include some of the hundreds of hours of secretly recorded conversations, many between Jefferson and Virginia businesswoman Lori Mody, a disgruntled investor who became a cooperating witness.

The snippets of conversations already released by prosecutors include Jefferson telling Mody on May 12, 2005, that Nigerian businessman Suleiman YahYah will probably have to pay bribes to get a telecommunications project proposed by iGate Inc. past regulators. Mody was an iGate investor.

“We got to motivate him real good,” Jefferson said, according to a Justice Department transcript. “He’s got a lot of people to pay off.”

Cries of racism in 3, 2, 1…

***

Elsewhere, via the Times-Picayune’s Stephanie Grace, we learn that indictments run in the Jefferson family: http://blog.nola.com/stephaniegrace/...tments_ar.html

Quote:

…the tight-knit clan with the damaged name includes several siblings who also benefited from Jefferson’s power and prominence — and who stand accused in a newly revamped federal indictment of forming a criminal enterprise to steer an appalling amount of federal, state and city money into their own pockets.

Last year, Jefferson’s political operative brother Mose and his assessor sister Betty, along with Betty’s daughter, were charged with systematically bilking government-funded social service programs. Another sister is cooperating with the feds.

And last week, a grand jury added a new alleged racketeer to the mix, former state representative and City Councilwoman Renee Gill Pratt.

Gill Pratt isn’t a sibling, although as Bill Jefferson’s former aide, Mose Jefferson’s longtime companion and a lieutenant in the family’s political organization, she’s as close as it gets.

According to the indictment, she also acted as an inside woman, using her public offices to steer earmarks, grants, inflated leases and even vehicles donated to the city after Katrina to various nonprofits and firms controlled by family members.

Among the new allegations: While in the Legislature, Gill Pratt secured $300,000 for two New Orleans schools to purchase software from a company for which Mose Jefferson was exclusive sales agent. He earned a $30,000 commission, a portion of which he allegedly funneled back to her. The “I Can Learn” software is also at the center of another federal case involving Mose Jefferson, who is accused of bribing former Orleans Parish School Board President Ellenese Brooks-Simms to support the School Board’s purchase of the product.

For her trouble, Gill Pratt is alleged to have received some free home repairs and use of the infamous donated Dodge Durango, which she transferred to a Jefferson family-controlled nonprofit that later hired her. The indictment says she also got a taxpayer-funded ride in the Muses parade, which Mose Jefferson supposedly financed with his ill-gotten gains…

The most amazing part of the whole story is that all that taxpayer money was designated to help the most vulnerable of Bill Jefferson’s, Betty Jefferson’s and Renee Gill Pratt’s constituents.

When government grows, corruption flows.

It’s that simple.

meltodd69 · 06-14-2009, 10:43 PM

Seems to me the Government has been corrupt for years. Nothing new there. Only thing new is finally SOME of them are getting caught.
Not enough of them are going to jail for their crimes though.