During the trial, federal prosecutors tried to prove that Ekwueme ordered some 500 cell phones at a government rate from Cingular Wireless, intending to resell them for a profit in her native Nigeria. Prosecutors said Ekwueme got the discounted rate only because she led officials at the phone company to believe the phones were for business use at OIC. Prosecutors also alleged that Ekwueme planned to stick OIC with the bill. Such a fraud would be a federal crime because before its collapse earlier this year, OIC was a large contractor with the Wisconsin Works welfare reform program and was funded largely with federal grant money. "The defendant deceived OIC, deceived Cingular and deceived the government," assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory J. Haanstad said during his closing argument. But defense attorney Robin Shellow contended that a Cingular sales representative offered Ekwueme and other OIC employees a discount on phones for personal use. During the defense case, several former OIC employees testified that they, too, bought discounted phones to give to their relatives and friends in Africa.

The defense contended that the Cingular salesman made special deals on the phones - and even showed the OIC workers how to evade international charges by manipulating the phones' hardware - because he wanted to meet his sales goals. "It's a complete red herring that she sold the phones. That's not a violation of this statute," Shellow said during her closing argument. "The fact Cingular feels it's inappropriate . . . is a big 'Who cares?' " Ekwueme never denied selling about 200 of the phones to Nigerian companies.

Testifying in her own defense Tuesday, she said she fully intended to pay for the phones, but never got a bill. In explaining his ruling, Adelman said Ekwueme was guilty of poor judgment, but he had doubts about whether she had obtained the phones by fraud. "She should have been more skeptical about purchasing phones in such an unorthodox way," he said.

Shellow said her client was delighted with the verdict, but not so happy with Cingular. "We tried this case on the facts, and the facts were that she didn't intend to defraud OIC, and quite frankly, Cingular pulled a fast one," Shellow said. "My client is not the only one who has ever asserted that a wireless company was unclear about their billing procedures." Chris Comes, a Chicago-based spokesman for Cingular, could not be reached Wednesday.

U.S. Attorney Steven M. Biskupic tried the case with Haanstad. "We thought we threw a strike. The judge called it a ball. He's the umpire. That's the way the system works," Biskupic said after the verdict. Ekwueme is the first of several defendants charged in a federal probe of OIC to be acquitted.

At a jury trial in August, former OIC Executive Director Carl Gee was convicted of conspiracy for participating in a kickback scheme with former State Sen. Gary George. Gee was later sentenced to two years in prison.