Former Congressman William Jefferson’s corruption trial will always be remembered as the one about the guy with the cash in his freezer. But Jefferson was acquitted of Count 11, violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. This was the primary crime related to the stash of $100 bills the FBI found between boxes of Boca burgers and Pillsbury pie crust in Jefferson’s Washington townhouse.
U.S. Attorney Dana Boente said at a news conference after the verdict was announced: “$90,000 in a freezer is not a gray area. It is a violation and today a jury of the congressman’s peers held him guilty. . . .We always thought that a powerful piece of evidence was $90,000 in the freezer.”
Jefferson was the first public official charged under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
