On Wednesday ex- U.S. Congressman William Jefferson was convicted on 11 of 16 counts of bribery, racketeering and money laundering. The former Congress member from Louisiana was accused in 2007 of soliciting millions of dollars in bribes from companies while using his office to broker business deals in Africa. FBI agents found the $90,000 neatly wrapped in foil and stashed in his freezer during a search of his residence.

The defamed politician faces up to 150 years in prison and could forfeit payments totaling $456,000, plus stock certificates. According to the prosecutors’ statement made during his trial in the federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, Jefferson had sought hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes relating to business ventures, mainly in Africa. These included telecommunications deals in Nigeria and Ghana, oil concessions in Equatorial Guinea, satellite transmission contracts in Botswana, Equatorial Guinea and the Republic of Congo, and a Nigerian sugar plant.

"It should be a clear signal that no public official -- and certainly not a U.S. Congressman -- can put their office up for sale and betray that office," Dana Boente, the U.S. Attorney in Virginia, said of the verdict. "It cannot be tolerated."

Sentencing was scheduled for October 30.