Jefferson trial enters third day of testimony

• By GERARD SHIELDS
• Advocate Washington bureau
• Published: Jun 18, 2009 - UPDATED: 9:30 p.m.

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WASHINGTON – Jurors in the bribery trial of former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson got their first chance Thursday to listen to secretly recorded government tapes that include Jefferson expressing worry about landing in the “pokey.”

The 18-year congressman was upset when a Kentucky telecommunications business owner suggested that they get a new investor for a project the two were promoting in Africa.

In one obscenity-laced statement, Jefferson was heard to say that the activities in which they were engaged could land them all in the “pokey.”

The tapes were played in the third day of testimony from the business owner, Vernon Jackson of iGate. Jackson and Jefferson were trying to secure a deal in Nigeria. Jackson became frustrated when the investor, Lori Mody, failed to pay $600,000 he was expecting. Jackson tells Jefferson on the phone that he found another investor to replace Mody.

On the tape, Jefferson gets angry, unleashing a profanity-laced tirade on Jackson, saying that he wanted to stay with Mody, who had agreed to pay $3.5 million in the deal.

In another profane passage, Jefferson noted that Mody put up money. “Lori isn’t stupid. She’s going to file suit,” Jefferson said.

Jefferson feared that a lawsuit would expose him in the deal, Jackson told the jury. Jackson has completed two years of a seven-year sentence after pleading guilty to bribing an elected official who he says is Jefferson.

The New Orleans Democrat, who lost reelection in November, has pleaded innocent to 16 public corruption charges including bribery, conspiracy, money laundering and racketeering. Prosecutors allege that he used his congressional influence to promote projects in West Africa in return for payments to companies operated by family members.

Attorneys for Jefferson say he acted as a private businessman in the arrangements and committed no “official acts” for the companies such as appropriating government money, voting or introducing legislation that could aid them.

Mody eventually approached the FBI after saying that she lost the $3.5 million in the deal. She became a cooperating witness and was the one who gave Jefferson $100,000 of marked FBI bills in a briefcase. Agents found $90,000 in his Washington home freezer during a raid in August 2005.

Jackson’s company developed a product that could transmit voice, data and video over copper telephone wire. Jackson said Thursday that a Nigerian business owner who was to partner with Mody alerted him that officials in the country were considering using a similar product from China.

In a taped call, Suleiman Yahyah of Rosecom calls Jackson in a panic telling him that Jefferson has to reach out to the then vice president of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar. Abubakar governed communication issues in the country, including holding the final word over which projects moved forward, according to Jackson.

Abubakar has denied any wrongdoing.