ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Louisville businessman Vernon Jackson was sentenced yesterday to seven years and three months in federal prison for paying more than $400,000 in bribes to U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-La. Jackson, 54, who runs technology company iGate, did not address the court before the sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III. Jackson's company was set up to bring broadband access to disadvantaged communities and poor countries. "It's a very serious crime," Ellis told Jackson. "Public corruption is the worst kind of virulent and malignant cancer."
Jackson's lawyer said Jackson accepted his guilt and knew he faced punishment. "Because of the peculiar and ongoing nature of this case, he is not going to address the court at this time," public defender Michael Nachmanoff told Ellis before the sentencing. "He has not sought to shift the blame for his action to anyone else."
| Don't get your hopes up. If I remember correctly, in the Teapot Dome scandal, Doheney was convicted of paying the bribe that Secretary Fall was acquitted of taking. |