Jurors shown images of Jefferson’s freezer

• By GERARD SHIELDS
• Advocate Washington bureau
• Published: Jul 9, 2009 - Page: 1A

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — Jurors on Wednesday were taken into the infamous home freezer of former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, where $90,000 of marked FBI money was found.

Through a series of color pictures displayed on courtroom video screens, the eight women and four men jurors in Jefferson’s bribery trial were shown the food boxes of Pillsbury Pie Crust and Boca Burgers where much of the money was stuffed.

Stacks of aluminum foil glimmered in the box where money was wrapped in silver bricks of $10,000. The main photo had money unsealed by agents, spilling out of the freezer, the pictures of Ben Franklin on the $100 bills clearly visible.

“The jury is seeing the money,” said FBI Agent Jennifer Pach, who collected the items seized in the raid of Jefferson’s Washington home. “I was there for random sampling of serial numbers and they did match.”

The slight, soft-spoken Pach also told the jury that agents found a red cloth satchel in a basement closet in Jefferson’s home. On Tuesday, jurors saw video of Jefferson dropping a bulging tan briefcase with the $100,000 into the sack, which Pach described as a Bosco bag.

On a coffee table near the closet was a roll of boxed aluminum foil. Sitting at the defense table, Jefferson showed no emotion when the pictures were shown. His chief defense attorney, Robert Trout, declined to cross examine Pach.

Trout spent most of the day cross examining FBI Agent Timothy Thibault, the lead investigator in the case. In part, Trout focused on the amount of money the FBI spent in the covert operation.
Thibault said at one point, the agency had its chief informant contribute $2,000 to Jefferson’s political campaign. In all, the FBI spent $226,000 in the case in which it resuscitated a failed business deal in order to catch Jefferson and others.

The FBI money was paid through Lori Mody, the FBI’s chief informant. Mody went to the agency in March 2005 saying that she was defrauded of a $3.5 million investment she lost. Jefferson was promoting the company Mody bought into, which would have applied audio, voice and data services over telephone lines in Nigeria.

Among the money spent was $59,000 that Thibault called a bribe to a company called The ANJ Group Inc., a consulting business owned by Jefferson’s wife and five daughters. Another $30,000 was invested into iGate, the Kentucky firm who had the audio, video and data patent. The president of the company, Vernon Jackson, pleaded guilty to bribing Jefferson.

The FBI also paid at least $120,000 to pay the salary of a former Mody aide who they wanted to bring back into the arrangement. The aide, Brett Pfeffer, has also pleaded guilty to bribing Jefferson.

The FBI also paid for a Jefferson trip to Ghana to promote a similar telecommunications deal, a trip that Mody urged under guidance from the FBI. All of the FBI expenses were needed, Thibault said, to expose the criminal enterprise.

“If you go to a political fundraiser and you are invited to one, people are expecting you to contribute,” Thibault said.

Under questioning by Trout, Thibault denied that he swore at Jefferson during their first interview in his New Orleans home the day of the Aug. 3, 2005 raids. Thibault has testified that he asked Jefferson where “my money” was, referring to the FBI’s cash. Trout said that Thibault cursed between the two words.