|
Frozen assets Iced Iced BabyBy Rick Horowitz
"There are two sides to every story. There are certainly two sides to this story." Congressman William J. Jefferson, in a heap of trouble
He can deny any knowledge of how such a large sum of money came to be in his freezer. He can suggest that the large sum of money in question belongs to other parties, named or unnamed, who are somehow responsible for placing it in his freezer. In a pinch, he can even insist that this is not his freezer, this is not his home. There must be some mistake, he can say. While these explanations may strike the casual observer as far from ideal, they're still much better than the explanations of the same set of facts available to the typical member of Congress. The average citizen is not inclined to cut the average congressman much slack these days. (Can you blame her?) Pleas of blissful ignorance, vague hints of dark conspiracies -- more and more they fall on unsympathetic ears. And the congressman's address? Generally a matter of public record. So much for that excuse. From all of which it's fair to conclude that the average congressman, faced with the discovery of tens of thousands of dollars in United States currency in his freezer, would find himself in very deep doo-doo. Waist-high, at least. Then we have Congressman William J. Jefferson, up to his neck in it. Congressman William J. Jefferson, whose current predicament makes the hypothetically partially submerged congressman's plight look like a tiptoe through the tulips. Not only did -- If an 83-page FBI search-warrant affidavit is accurate, that is, not only did a large sum of money show up in the Louisiana congressman's Washington freezer, but the FBI has a pretty good idea how it got there. Was the congressman involved? Do red beans go with rice? The affidavit in question was released just a few days ago, after being used to support a Saturday-night raid on the congressman's Capitol Hill office. Eighty-three pages, and not a pretty picture. Or as the story in the Washington Post puts it, the affidavit "portrays him as a money-hungry man who freely solicited hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, discussed payoffs to African officials, had a history of involvement in numerous bribery schemes and used his family to hide his interest in high-tech business ventures he promoted in Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria." Oops. Those particular frozen assets, meanwhile -- $90,000 in $100 bills, stacked $10,000 to a pile, wrapped in aluminum foil and stuffed into frozen-food containers -- date back to the summer of '05. And how's this for a coincidence? Just days, they say, before they found all that money chilling at Bill's, the FBI videotaped the congressman outside a suburban Washington hotel, removing a briefcase filled with $100,000 in $100 bills from another man's car. A man supposedly looking to get the congressman's assistance with a business venture in Nigeria. And how's this for a coincidence? According to the FBI, that other man was wearing a hidden microphone, and was already cooperating with the FBI. And how's this for a coincidence? According to the FBI, that meeting wasn't the only time the congressman's conversations with that other man were recorded. And how's this for a coincidence? According to the FBI, the serial numbers of the $100 bills found in the congressman's freezer matched the serial numbers of the bills that were in the briefcase. "There are two sides to every story," the congressman insists. Can't wait to hear the other one. Posted
5/23/06. Ever notice how "scandal" and "scoundrel" sound so much alike?
Rick notices. (And you don't have him bookmarked yet?!)
|
  |
Rick Horowitz
