Vice President Atiku Abubakar's greatest political problem may not be his feud with President Olusegun Obasanjo, but the continuing investigation in the United States about his involvement in a bribery scandal, in which the Federal Bureau of Investigation now claims Atiku asked for at least half of the profits of a technology company controlled by US congressman William Jefferson. The Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the Maryland home of the vice president of Nigeria last summer in search of bribe money that the bureau believed had been paid to him by Representative William Jefferson, according to documents released on Tuesday.
The documents included an affidavit signed by an F.B.I. agent who said that the Nigerian vice president, Atiku Abubakar, now a candidate for president of that oil-rich West African nation, asked for at least half of the profits of a technology company controlled by Mr. Jefferson that was seeking to do business in Nigeria.
About the same time last year, the documents said, Mr. Jefferson told colleagues of his plans to bribe Nigerian officials, including Mr. Abubakar, in exchange for their help in winning business in Nigeria, and that Mr. Abubakar would be paid as much as $500,000 in cash.
The F.B.I. affidavit, which was dated Aug. 2, and other documents were made public over the objections of Mr. Jefferson, a Louisiana Democrat who is the target of a wide-ranging corruption investigation. He has denied wrongdoing and has said the information in the court papers would unfairly damage his reputation.
In the affidavit, an F.B.I. agent, Edward S. Cooper, said cellphone records suggested that Mr. Jefferson visited a home owned by Mr. Abubakar and his wife in Potomac, Md., an affluent suburb of Washington, around midnight last July 31 with the intention of delivering money to the Nigerian leader while he was on a visit to the United States. The next day, the F.B.I. said, Mr. Jefferson told a confidential informant that he had delivered "African art" — which the agent described as code for a cash payment — and that Mr. Abubakar "was very pleased."
The documents, which were released by a federal court in Greenbelt, Md., do not show what was seized by F.B.I. in the search of the Maryland home, nor do they show if the Nigerian leader ever received any money from Mr. Jefferson. A separate search of Mr. Jefferson's home in Washington in August turned up $90,000 in cash that, F.B.I. documents suggest, had been intended for the Nigerian leader. A bureau affidavit stated that the money had been hidden by Mr. Jefferson in his home freezer.
The Nigerian Embassy in Washington had no comment Tuesday on the disclosures in the documents about Mr. Abubakar, whose name had emerged previously in news reports about the investigation of Mr. Jefferson. The Associated Press quoted a spokesman for Mr. Abubakar in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, as declining comment Tuesday "until we have seen these reports or allegations." Mr. Jefferson's Congressional office referred questions to his lawyer, who has not returned repeated phone calls seeking comment.
Bush administration officials have been reluctant to speculate publicly about the effect of the investigation of Mr. Jefferson on American relations with Nigeria, which is one of largest exporters of oil to the United States.
Mr. Jefferson, an eight-term House member whose district includes most of New Orleans, has refused to discuss the detailed accusations against him in earlier court filings, including why so much money was in his home freezer.
The documents suggest that Mr. Jefferson was aggressive in seeking to lobby officials in Nigeria and other West African nations to promote business for a small technology company in which his family had a stake. A former top aide and the founder of the technology company have already pleaded guilty to criminal charges.
"With regard to the Nigerian business venture, Jefferson has discussed the making of payments to high-ranking government officials there, including the vice president of Nigeria," Mr. Cooper wrote in the affidavit last August intended to persuade a judge to allow the search of Mr. Abubakar's Maryland home.
"The vice president agreed to help secure the necessary approvals for the participants in the Nigerian business venture" in exchange for "at least 50 percent of the profits," it continued, adding that Mr. Jefferson had also discussed "the payment of a substantial monetary sum" to Mr. Abubakar "in the range of up to $500,000."
