Archie Jefferson may have sought port deal in Africa (felon brother of William Jefferson D-La)

Archie Jefferson may have sought port deal in Africa
2001 draft of letter was forwarded to FBI
Monday, October 23, 2006
By Gordon Russell

The iGate telecommunications deal, as sketched in documents made public as part of the FBI's probe of U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, is not the only time the congressman's family appears to have taken an interest in African investment opportunities.

Among documents forwarded to the FBI, but not made public, is the draft of a letter in the name of the congressman's brother, Archie Jefferson, dated a year before he launched plans for a New Orleans dialysis clinic.

In the 2001 letter, Archie Jefferson introduced himself to the prime minister of Sao Tome and Principe, a remote, oil-rich speck of a nation off the coast of West Africa, and pitched a deal.

The letter, which was turned over to the FBI and shown to The Times-Picayune by a disgruntled former business partner of Archie Jefferson's, was vague on many points, saying only that the Jefferson Group LLC was prepared to deposit $50 million to develop a port facility.

But if Jefferson was somewhat hazy on the services he could provide Sao Tome and Principe, he was clear on what his syndicate expected to receive in return: revenue from that new port, interests in the offshore oil leases, money from a trade-free zone and other privileges.

He also reminded the African prime minister, Guilherme Posser da Costa, that Archie Jefferson's brother was a congressman, and requested the ruler's timely response.

Records show William Jefferson toured Sao Tome just months before Archie Jefferson drafted his letter and again in 2004 after a new prime minister took charge.

Jefferson, family members had interest in dialysis legislation
Brother, siblings were involved with center
Monday, October 23, 2006
By Gordon Russell and James Varney

U.S. Rep. William Jefferson's awakening to the importance of kidney dialysis might seem abrupt. Though he had dabbled in kidney legislation over the years, in 2001 his name was absent from the list of 125 sponsors of a bill that would have expanded benefits for dialysis patients, a sizable constituency among low-income African-Americans in New Orleans and many other cities.

A year later, in March 2002, Jefferson was among 16 House members to join a group, informally called the "kidney caucus," which set its sights on getting Medicare to pay for dialysis treatments five times a week instead of three -- a schedule identical to the one proposed in 2001 and that stood to boost earnings in an industry that Jefferson said serves some 300,000 Americans a year. The two bills failed to win congressional passage.

Soon afterward, Jefferson's brother, Archie Jefferson, a disbarred lawyer and convicted felon, decided to enter the kidney care business by initiating plans in December 2002 to open a Mid-City dialysis clinic on Ulloa Street.

In short order, he had peopled the clinic's board with family members. But the Orleans Metropolitan Dialysis Clinic LLC failed to thrive and within a year it had been sold for an undisclosed sum to a national operator in the dialysis business, a corporation that has made campaign donations to William Jefferson and honored him with a public testimonial.

The clinic is not among the several business deals sketched by the FBI in documents made public in connection with an ongoing federal probe of the congressman.

This is an excerpt. More - http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-6/116159892752550.xml&coll=1

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