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View Full Version : Remember that Congressman with the money in his freezer


JustRalph
06-05-2008, 03:43 AM
It gets worse.........why is this not on the national news??? Why is it not on the big news websites? Another Stain on New Orleans

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/06/sources_another_jefferson_sibl.html

The Congressman is awaiting trial later this year in Virginia.

But it looks like his family is going to be looking for lawyers too.......

From the Article:
U.S. Attorney Jim Letten announced this afternoon that 4th District Assessor Betty Jefferson, an elder sister of U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, has been indicted on a host of fraud-related charges by a federal grand jury. Also indicted were Jefferson's daughter, Angela Coleman, and her brother, the previously indicted Mose Jefferson.

The charges are the culmination of a probe into charities run by members of the Jefferson family and their allies. In a rare move, the FBI announced it was investigating the nonprofits after a 2006 Times-Picayune story revealed apparent self-dealing at them.

The newspaper's report noted that former City Councilwoman and state Rep. Renee Gill Pratt, a protege of the congressman, and former state Rep. Jalila Jefferson-Bullock, one of his five daughters, had steered millions of dollars over the course of a decade or so to three charities associated with the family: Care Unlimited, Orleans Metropolitan Housing and Central City Adult Education.

Gill Pratt had also orchestrated the donation of four brand-new vehicles to the charities that had been donated to the city after Katrina. She wound up behind the wheel of one of them, a Dodge Durango, when Care Unlimited hired her as its director after she lost her City Council re-election bid.

Gill Pratt had been driving the same car while on the council. Mose Jefferson, the congressman's political strategist and Gill Pratt's longtime boyfriend, also received one of the donated cars. All four of the cars were returned to the city after the story was published.

Betty Jefferson and Mose Jefferson also both own property that was originally acquired by Orleans Metropolitan Housing with public money. Betty Jefferson bought her Irish Channel home from the organization in 1999 for slightly less than the charity paid for it seven years earlier.

Mose Jefferson for several years received generous monthly checks for renting offices in one a building located at 3313 S. Saratoga St. that he bought from Orleans Metropolitan. His tenants included Jefferson-Bullock, Gill Pratt and Care Unlimited; all of the money came from taxpayers.

Each of the charities, which received at least $5.5 million in state money over a decade, were formed by and apparently run by members of the Jefferson family. Along with Betty and Mose Jefferson, two of the congressman's younger siblings -- Brenda Foster and Bennie Jefferson -- were listed as directors or founders of the charities.

Bennie Jefferson died in December.

~more at the link~