Posted on 06/15/2007 7:43:33 PM PDT by Libloather
Lobbyist: Company involved in Jefferson scandal was ‘hogwash’
By Kevin Bogardus
June 15, 2007
Rep. William Jefferson, D-La. arrives to make a statement to reporters outside federal court in Alexandria, Va., Friday, June 8, 2007, after he pleaded not guilty to charges of soliciting more than $500,000 in bribes while using his office to broker business deals in Africa. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
A company that cosponsored a trip to Africa noted in Rep. William Jefferson’s (D-La.) indictment showed signs of trouble before it established itself in the Bahamas and filed for bankruptcy in Louisiana.
In his first interview since the Jefferson scandal broke, one of the company’s former lobbyists, Dick Egle, said his contract with what seemed like a promising energy company did not turn out as planned.
“I was pretty excited about it when I first heard about it,” Egle told The Hill. But later, he added, “It was like trying to herd cats.”
Egle, whose firm Egle Associates is based in Vienna, Va., lobbied for Global Environmental Energy Corp (GEEC) throughout 2004. The company since has been caught up in the federal government’s investigation of Jefferson.
“I did not want to be any part of it. They just gave me one story after another,” Egle said, describing such tales as “all hogwash.” The contract was not renewed.
The company’s president, Noreen Wilson, testified before the grand jury that charged Jefferson, according to billing documents filed by GEEC’s attorney Joseph Artabane this spring in the company’s New Orleans bankruptcy case. GEEC, under its prior name, Life Energy & Technology Holdings, also known as LETH Energy, cosponsored a February 2004 trip Jefferson took to West Africa, cited in the congressman’s indictment as part of one of his many alleged bribery schemes.
“The company cooperated fully with the investigation and is not a target or subject of the investigation,” Artabane said. The company’s counsel chose not to respond to Egle’s complaints.
The Justice Department declined to comment for this story.
According to the billing documents, Wilson signed a cooperation agreement with the government in order to testify before the grand jury and provided requested documents and cooperated with interviews by federal prosecutors over the past year.
Messages left for Wilson were not returned by press time. In an August 2005 interview with the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Wilson said Jefferson “always helped” American firms interested in Africa but “never asked for anything in return.”
Egle has not been contacted by federal investigators. He never lobbied Jefferson for GEEC and did not help to arrange the lawmaker’s trip to West Africa. Nor he is “Lobbyist A,” as termed in Jefferson’s indictment, who allegedly arranged bribes between the congressman and various companies.
Jefferson has pleaded not guilty to the Justice Department’s charges and will fight them at his trial, set for January 2008.
With a goal of becoming an integrated energy company, GEEC has been marketing a process to turn municipal solid waste into electricity as well as dabbling in the oil and gas market. Nonetheless, Egle described his experiences of lobbying for the company as being without direction from his client.
“They would have a meeting. Then they would put out a press release. Then nothing happened,” Egle said.
Egle was frustrated by the company’s lack of progress in Louisiana. A Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing stated delivery of its waste-energy units in America had been delayed by the company’s U.S. bankruptcy as well as its clients’ failure to meet its terms.
The energy business has been tough for GEEC. Though several units are under construction for use in China and the company has signed past power deals as well, GEEC expected its losses to continue, saying it needs to raise “additional funds” or shareholders “may lose some or all of their investment,” according to the SEC filing.
The company changed its name and its location during Egle’s contract. In August 2004, then Life Energy & Technology Holdings Inc. became GEEC and established itself in the Bahamas. Its main place of business remained in New Orleans, however.
Approached by an associate, the lobbyist was hired by Wilson for his contacts in Louisiana. A former Lafourche Parish president and Chamber of Commerce leader during the 1980s, Egle also owned two local radio stations in his home state.
“I was elected a Republican when there were only three percent registered Republicans in Lafourche,” Egle said.
Throughout his 14 years as a lobbyist, Egle has been familiar with Louisiana’s congressional delegation and touched base with them on the company’s plans. Egle pitched that GEEC’s technology would be good for the state “and we will let know as we get further along, but nothing ever happened.”
In addition, the lobbyist said he tracked waste-energy provisions in what became the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which was then moving through Congress, but little came of that as well.
“In this business, time is money and you can only do so much. It has to be them giving me instructions on what I can do for them, not me asking what I can do for them,” Egle said.
Egle earned $120,000 for his year’s worth of lobbying, according to Senate records. But the Louisianan said the records are mistaken — claiming instead that he earned $60,000 — and that he plans to amend the forms. In addition, he said he lost money on the contract since planned stock earnings from the company went down in value.
GEEC is moving through its bankruptcy case in New Orleans. The company recently had its case status changed to Chapter 7 from 11 and its creditors are holding meetings, according to court records.
In turn, Egle has officially ended his relationship with GEEC. The lobbyist said he filed a termination agreement last week.
Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) waited almost two years before notifying the House ethics committee of a loan he made to Vernon Jackson, the Kentucky businessman now in prison for bribing him, according to financial disclosures released yesterday.
The debt’s late disclosure to Congress could further hobble Jefferson’s defense when his case goes to trial in January and embolden the members in both parties calling for his resignation. According to Kentucky media reports, Jackson reported the loan to the FBI in August 2005.
Jefferson’s ethics committee amendment came amid a flurry of other financial dealings revealed in 2006 financial statements, which most lawmakers made public yesterday. As presidential candidates and opposition-party researchers pored over rivals’ reports, former President Bill Clinton’s stock holdings in an Indian “call center” company sparked new criticism of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) record on jobs.
A Jefferson spokesman declined yesterday to answer questions about the loan to Jackson. In a May 15 letter to Reps. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio) and Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), the chairman and ranking member of the ethics panel, Jefferson said the $10,000 “was extended on a personal basis to cover personal and family expenses” between April and June 2005.
The loan, which remains outstanding, may play a more infamous role in the government’s case against the embattled Louisianan. The $90,000 found in Jefferson’s freezer came out of the $100,000 offered him by government informant Lori Mody in July 2005, but little is known of the remaining $10,000 — other than its FBI status as accounted-for.
**SNIP**
LIABILITIES
In addition to his Jackson loan, Jefferson reported several hefty debts of his own. The embattled Democrat paid between $100,000 and $250,000 in an installment of apparent obligation to Robert L. Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television.
Jefferson also holds a demand note as large as $100,000 payable to Noah Samara, the telecom CEO who figures prominently in the government case against him, and two demand notes in New Orleans worth as much as $100,000.
Several fellow lawmakers reported outstanding personal loans made to their campaigns, including House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), who is owed between $250,000 and $500,000.
One House member facing heightened ethical scrutiny managed to pay off debts last year: Rep. Gary Miller (R-Calif.) cleared between $2 million and $10 million in debts to two home-state companies.
**SNIP**
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/jefferson-reveals-loan-2007-06-15.html
Teh only person ever to freeze his own assets.
I dont understand it. The guy who bribbed Jefferson is in jail for bribery. The guy who took the bribe, Jefferson, is not. Anyone?
I don’t get it either, Article I Section VI arrest immunity only applies while in session or going to and from session. Maybe they’re looking for an ironclad case to arrest him, and they just have preponderance of evidence now?
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