William Jefferson should forfeit $470,000 after guilty verdict

[funkybutt]

Source: Times Picayune, New Orleans

William Jefferson, the former Democratic congressman convicted of bribery and racketeering, should forfeit more than $470,000 in assets and millions of shares in stock the government says flowed to two family companies, a jury ruled today.

The stocks were for a Nigerian telecommunications venture that died when the Jefferson investigation became known in August 2005, and are presumably worthless.

-snip-

Lead defense attorney Robert Trout argued this morning that the assets being sought by the government were not produced by illegal activity, noting that many of the financial transfers were documented as part of legitimate business deals. Trout said many of the deals were the result of Jefferson's "passion for Africa," a reference that seemed to rankle lead prosecutor Mark Lytle.

"This man's passion was for sale," Lytle told the jury. "He only had passion for Africa when people paid him to have passion for Africa."

Read more: http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/08/william_jefferson_must_forfeit.html

[MADem]

1. Sounds fair. nt

[jody]

2. "passion for pay", I like that description for politicians. n/t