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Feds Are Intruding, Says Angry La. Lawmaker Tied to BribesBy Renee D. Turner, BET.com Staff Writer Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) Posted May 23, 2006 – Democratic Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson, rebutting claims by the FBI that he is on tape accepting a bribe, said Tuesday that he would not step down. "I expect to continue to represent the people who have sent me here," Jefferson told reporters, emphasizing that he will seek re-election in November. The Saturday- through-Sunday search into Jefferson’s D.C. congressional offices was an “outrageous intrusion,” the New Orleans representative said at a news conference. “…There are two...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- A former stockholder in a technology company filed suit Tuesday against a Louisiana congressman, his wife and a former business associate claiming they engaged in a scheme to defraud stockholders by using business funds to pay bribes. The suit alleges that U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., his wife Andrea G. Jefferson and Vernon Jackson, former chief executive of the telecommunications firm iGate, engaged in an elicit scheme to funnel money to Jefferson, his family and foreign officials. iGate stockholder Daniel C. Cadle of Ohio filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Louisville

Testimony links firm to Jefferson probe In papers filed with the FBI, Suleiman YahYah, a Nigerian businessman listed as a target in the ongoing probe of Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, said that one of the 2004 meetings he attended with Jefferson and iGate Inc. CEO Vernon Jackson, occurred in the Washington offices of Worldspace Inc., an international satellite radio provider. YahYah's statement is the first to provide any kind of link between iGate and Worldspace, whose CEO, Noah Samara, said in a June filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that he turned over documents and gave testimony to...

Vernon Lamar Jackson and William J. Jefferson and their wives spent a pleasant weekend in New York City in the fall of 2004. The Kentucky businessman and the Louisiana congressman watched U.S. Open tennis from an air-conditioned corporate box, attended The Lion King on Broadway and did a little shopping. Rep. Jefferson and his wife had become trusted friends of the Jacksons. In e-mail messages and telephone calls, the congressman was simply "Jeff." The cord that tied the two men was their stated opinion that Jackson's high-tech company, iGate, was going to save the government money and give poor black...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A Kentucky businessman has pleaded guilty to bribing a member of the US House of Representatives in exchange for help exporting telecommunications equipment to Africa, the Justice Department said. Vernon Jackson, 53, admitted to paying an unnamed Representative more than 400,000 dollars through a shell consulting company set up in the names of the politician's spouse and children. CNN, citing government sources, reported that the unnamed lawmaker was Democratic Louisiana congressman William Jefferson. In the plea, Jackson said the politician first helped him get his company's equipment on the US Army's list of approved products in 2000....

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A technology executive pleaded guilty Wednesday to paying more than $400,000 in bribes to a congressman in charges stemming from an investigation of Rep. William Jefferson, a Louisiana Democrat. Vernon Jackson, 53, chief executive of the Louisville, Ky.-based telecommunications firm iGate Inc., admitted to bribery of a public official and conspiracy to bribe a public official during a plea hearing in U.S. District Court

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) -- A Kentucky technology executive pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to bribing a congressman in charges stemming from an investigation of a Louisiana House member. Vernon Jackson, 53, chief executive of Louisville-based iGate Inc., pleaded guilty to bribery of a public official and conspiracy to bribe a public official. The congressman was not identified in court documents or during Wednesday's plea hearing, but documents make clear that the congressman whom Jackson admits bribing is Rep. William Jefferson, a Democrat who represents New Orleans. Jackson faces a maximum of 20 years when he is sentenced July 27....