FBI Says Jefferson Was Filmed Taking Cash

Since January, Brett M. Pfeffer, a former Jefferson aide who worked for Mody, and Vernon L. Jackson, the owner of iGate Inc., have pleaded to guilty to bribing the eight-term congressman to promote iGate's broadband technology -- including Internet and cable television -- in Africa.

According to the affidavit, during one of many recorded conversations with Mody, Jefferson said he knew a businessman who was "corrupt" but interested in investing in the iGate project in Africa.

"He thinks it's great," he said. "He can easily be involved in this."

In another instance, Jefferson said someone, identified in court papers only as "John Doe #1," needed money to bribe "various officials in Nigeria."

"We got to motivate him real good," Jefferson allegedly told Mody. "He got a lot of folks to pay off." Later in the conversation, he says: "If he's got to pay Minister X, we don't want to know. It's not our deal. We're not paying Minister X a damn thing. That's all, you know, international fraud crap."

On July 21, 2005, Jefferson told Mody that he would need to give Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar $500,000 "as a motivating factor" to make sure they obtained contracts for iGate and Mody's company in Nigeria. The vice president is not mentioned by name in the affidavit, but other court documents make it clear it is he.

A few days later, they talked about passing on a smaller amount of money. But Jefferson refrained from using the word "money" and pointed to the word "cash" written on a piece of paper.

A short time later, at about 8:30 a.m., Jefferson and Mody met at the Ritz-Carlton Pentagon City in Arlington and went to Mody's car trunk.

"At that time, Congressman Jefferson reached in and removed a reddish-brown colored leather briefcase which contained $100,000 in cash" as FBI agents filmed the transaction, the affidavit said.

Jefferson then put it in his car and drove off, the affidavit said. A few days later, FBI agents seized $90,000 in marked bills from Jefferson's freezer.

The affidavit does not indicate whether Jefferson passed any of the money to the Nigerian vice president, whom he had met a couple of weeks earlier at Abubakar's Potomac home, according to court documents. Abubakar did not return a phone call to his home seeking comment.

Earlier in 2005, shortly after Mody started taping the conversations with Jefferson, she asked him how long he planned to stay in Congress.

Jefferson replied, "I'm going to get your deal out of the way . . . and I probably won't last long after that."

Staff writer Martin Weil contributed to this report.