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The representative, the millionaire and the luxury carBy BILL ADAIR and DAVID DAHL © St. Petersburg Times, published June 3, 1998 Foutanga Dit Babani Sissoko ordered his aides to buy the car for Brown as a token of his friendship shortly before he went to prison in Miami for bribery, said one of his attorneys, Tom Spencer. By the time of the September purchase, the Jacksonville lawmaker had written two letters to Attorney General Janet Reno, lobbied colleagues in Congress and met with foreign diplomats on behalf of Sissoko. She later visited him in prison. "I was told that it was just a thank you, it was just a gesture of friendship," Spencer said of the car. It is illegal for members of Congress to accept such gifts. When the car was purchased, it was titled in the name of Brown's 32-year-old daughter, Shantrel. A lawyer at the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, she lives with her mother and travels to work with her in the Lexus LS 400, which has a leather interior and moon roof. The car is the second unusual asset to turn up in the family's affairs recently. The St. Petersburg Times reported in April that Rep. Brown received $10,000 from a secret bank account that the Rev. Henry J. Lyons, president of one of the nation's largest Baptist organizations, is accused of using for money laundering. Brown, a third-term Democrat with a history of other ethics troubles, said the money from Lyons was used to bus supporters to a rally in Tallahassee, but she could provide no records or receipts to prove where the money went. Robert Bauer, the Browns' attorney, insisted that Sissoko did not pay for the car. "Specifically, he did not buy a car for either the congresswoman or her daughter or supply any cash for the purchase of a car," Bauer said in a letter to the Times. Bauer offered no further explanation of how Shantrel Brown, who earns $51,774 a year at EPA and lists no assets or investments on her financial disclosure reports, could have afforded the car. Nor could Bauer explain why she would have traveled 1,100 miles from her home to buy it at Lexus of Kendall in suburban Miami. The car was one of 35 Sissoko and his associates have purchased there in the past few years. Sissoko was not available for comment. But Spencer, his attorney in Miami since August 1996, said the gift was a gesture of affection. "It was obviously related to his feelings for Corrine Brown." 'Very humble beginnings'Among his friends, Sissoko was renowned for his generosity To thank his attorneys, he bought each a Mercedes or a Jaguar. He gave $300,000 to a high school band so it could march in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. He once bought a Range Rover for a stranger. His attorneys portray him as a benevolent man who grew up in a poor village and became a millionaire in gold, diamonds and oil. He owns real estate throughout the world and an airline in West Africa called Air Dabia. Sissoko is altruistic because "he came from very humble beginnings," Spencer said. "And part of it has to do with his religion. He is a devout Muslim and part of that faith is that he is required to be as generous as he can be." Sissoko, 52, has homes in Mali, Senegal and The Gambia in Western Africa. He has four wives, which is permitted in a few Muslim sects, although one of the wives, Mona Searles, hasn't heard from her husband in months. She describes him as a cross between Donald Trump and Santa Claus. He helps the downtrodden and lavishes gifts on his friends. "For Mr. Sissoko, it wasn't extravagant, it was just a way of life," said Searles, a Suffern, N.Y., resident who met him while she was working at his bank in New York. "He just gave it to whomever was around him at that time. I got plenty." In the summer of 1996, Sissoko sent employees to Miami to buy two Vietnam War-era helicopters. His attorneys said they were to be used for medical evacuations and humanitarian purposes in Mali and The Gambia. When his employees arranged to ship them to Africa, they did not get the necessary license from the U.S. government. A Customs officer then recorded Sissoko's employees offering a $30,000 bribe so the helicopters could be shipped quickly. Sissoko's attorneys said it was entrapment and a weak case, but Sissoko pleaded guilty to his role in the scheme. In March 1997, he was sentenced to four months of house arrest, four months in prison and required to pay a $250,000 fine. "Not asking for a personal favor' * * *While lawyers fought to reduce his sentence, Sissoko was under house arrest in his lavish condominium on Brickell Key, an exclusive island in Biscayne Bay near downtown Miami. He was besieged by people who wanted his money. Businesses called, begging him to invest. Lawyers wanted to defend him. Black colleges asked for donations. It is not clear how Brown and Sissoko met. Spencer said she got involved in the case in the spring of 1997 and soon was trying to plot Sissoko's legal strategy. "She came in, she was very, very aggressive with the defense lawyers, she accused us of malpractice," Spencer said. "She was yelling and screaming. She wanted him to undo his plea of guilty." Spencer and another lawyer on Sissoko's defense team, David Ross, said Brown wanted to portray the case in racial terms. The case became a sore point with many black residents in the Miami area who felt Sissoko was being treated differently because he was black. "She wanted to make this into a black-white thing," said Ross. "It was not a black-white thing." Brown launched an extensive lobbying effort in Congress. She enlisted colleagues to urge Janet Reno to release Sissoko under the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows the attorney general to deport non-violent criminals before their sentence is completed. "Corrine was the one who asked me to get involved," recalled Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. "I did not get deeply involved. I just didn't have time." While other members of Congress wrote cautious letters that merely asked Reno to look into the matter, Brown didn't mince words. She wanted Sissoko released so he could continue his humanitarian efforts in Africa. "He is needed back home," Brown wrote in a June 11, 1997, letter to Reno. "Each day he spends in the United States, an estimated 150 persons perish without his assistance." Brown called Reno two days later and urged her to deport Sissoko, but it appears that request did not sit well with Reno. Brown tried to smooth things over with a follow-up letter that explained, "I was not asking for a personal favor. . . . I called you as a member of Congress, to see if you would consider exercising your authority -- as only you are authorized to do -- in a particular matter which has been brought to my attention." Brown wrote that "his release will show goodwill towards African countries and goodwill for African Americans in our own country." Her letters were first disclosed last fall by New Times, a weekly newspaper in Miami. Ross said Brown was persistent. "She went to conservative Republicans as well as liberal Democrats," Ross said. "She really pushed. I was with her one time when she called 10 guys in Congress. She buttonholed people and followed them into their offices." Last summer, Brown came to Miami many weekends and stayed at one of Sissoko's apartments on Brickell Key, Spencer recalled. "Every time I turned around, I heard she was in town," he said, adding that Shantrel Brown accompanied her mother on many of those trips. Brown also visited Sissoko at least three times while he was in federal prison south of Miami, Spencer said. She had to wait in line with other visitors and then met with Sissoko in a large cafeteria-like room while guards looked on. Richard Scruggs, an assistant U.S. attorney in Miami who handled the case, said he was amazed by the high-powered lobbying on Sissoko's behalf. "Never in any case I've ever had any dealings with was there such an attempt to put so much political pressure on the prosecutors," Scruggs said. Despite her full-court press for Sissoko, Brown's efforts apparently did not affect how prosecutors handled the case. They continued to push for a longer sentence. Spencer said Brown overstepped her role. "I didn't like anything she was doing," he said. "I thought her activities were inappropriate for a congresswoman." 'They were very close'When Sissoko was in the mood to buy cars, it was salesman Ron Dufrene's job to keep everything straight. It was nothing for Sissoko to bring 10 to 12 people at a time to pick out new automobiles at the Lexus dealership "It was like a crazy situation," Dufrene said. "He'd come in with eight, nine, 10 people. . . . I was so busy trying to keep track of the cars, which color." Dufrene said that sometimes Sissoko would joke about an ungrateful member of his entourage, when they wanted something other than the car he was offering. Dufrene estimated that Sissoko bought about 35 cars at the dealership. Abdou Karim Pouye, Sissoko's chief financial officer, often paid for the cars by check. Spencer, Sissoko's attorney, said the Lexus was intended as a gift for the congresswoman. He did not know why it ultimately was given to her daughter. "If, in fact, it was given to the daughter, it would be a gesture of thanks to the family for support," Spencer said. "It was apparent to me that they were very close." But Cheick Sissoko, the millionaire's brother, said that Foutanga Sissoko knew that it was against U.S. laws to give gifts to members of Congress. Cheick said he did not know whether his brother gave the car to Shantrel Brown. "If my brother gave her the car, it was for a different reason than Corrine Brown -- just to be kind to (Shantrel Brown)," Cheick Sissoko said Tuesday. State records show the car was titled in Shantrel Brown's name last Sept. 11. Records indicate that someone paid about $50,000 cash for the car and that Shantrel Brown did not take out a loan for the car. By contrast, in 1995 when she purchased her other car, a used BMW, she needed a loan from Barnett Bank of Jacksonville. Shantrel Brown did not list the Lexus as a gift on the financial disclosure report that she filed with the EPA last month, even though she was required to list all gifts of $250 or more. Her report showed she has no assets or investments with a market value of more than $1,000. Bauer did not explain how she paid for the Lexus, other than to say that "Shantrel did not receive or solicit an offer of a car, or the money to purchase one, from Foutanga Sissoko." Bauer said the St. Petersburg Times was invading her privacy and that he would not reveal details about her "personal life and finances." Rep. Brown refused to answer questions about the Lexus and became angry during a brief interview last month in a public corridor of a U.S. House office building. "Any time you want to talk to me, you need to contact my attorney," she said. "For you to stop me in the hall like this is unacceptable." When reporters persisted, she added: "Don't ask me any questions . . . do not follow me around. And I'm not bullsh--ing with you. Get out of my face." The gift banBrown voted for the congressional gift ban when it passed the House in November 1995 It applies to gifts given to House members' children if several conditions are met. The House member must know about the gift and allow it to be given. And the member must have reason to believe the gift was given because of their official position. "If the gift was given because of the status of the member, it would be prohibited," said Stan Brand, a Washington lawyer who specializes in criminal and ethics cases. Bauer said the rule "does not generally apply to gifts made to family members of members of Congress." He said the rule had only rarely been invoked for family members and only in cases where the member of Congress was alleged to have received something indirectly through a spouse. Federal bribery and gratuity laws also prohibit members of Congress from receiving gifts in return for an official act. The laws cover items given "directly or indirectly," which could prohibit children from accepting gifts, depending on the circumstances of the case. Spencer said Sissoko, who has returned to his African homes, did not view the gift as a bribe or anything improper. "This is the way they operate in Africa," Spencer said. "A big man -- capital B, capital M -- is expected to give gifts of friendship to people who come to see him."
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ASHINGTON -- A $50,000 luxury car bought by a West African millionaire went to the daughter of U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown after the lawmaker led a feverish lobbying campaign to keep the businessman out of federal prison.
