Former U.S. Representative William Jefferson, who was caught with $90,000 in cash in his freezer, was found guilty on 11 of 16 charges related to a bribery and money laundering scandal, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.

The ex-Louisiana lawmaker was accused in 2007 of soliciting millions of dollars in bribes from a dozen companies while using his office to broker business deals in Africa.

In a search of his residence, FBI agents said they had found the $90,000 in a freezer.

Jefferson faces up to 150 years in prison and could face forfeiture of payments totaling $456,000, plus stock certificates, according a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Virginia, where Jefferson was tried. Jefferson can appeal his conviction.

The former congressman was not taken into custody.

Jefferson, in Congress since 1991, narrowly lost his re-election bid in 2008 to Republican attorney Anh Joseph Cao who became the first Vietnamese American in the House of Representatives. The district includes most of New Orleans, which was ravaged during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

When he was first charged, Jefferson acknowledged he had made unspecified mistakes in judgment that he regretted, but denied selling his office or trading official acts for money.

He also challenged the indictment, arguing that it unconstitutionally infringed on his privileges as a lawmaker. But the courts held that the grand jury did not improperly consider any legislative material.

Jefferson faced 16 counts of racketeering, soliciting bribes, fraud, money laundering, obstruction of justice, conspiracy and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

The business ventures 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.

Equatorial guinea