Payments for Official Help

A member of Congress pushed business ventures in several African countries: writing letters on official paper, arranging meetings with foreign officials, and helping firms seek government-backed financing. In return, prosecutors said, the companies paid a consulting firm run by his family about $449,300 and handed over shares. Agents later found $90,000 of marked money hidden in frozen food boxes in the freezer at his home. He said the fees were lawful private business, separate from anything he did as a legislator.