Suspect in technology scam reportedly said corruption was widespread in office
By: Bill Myers and and Scott McCabe
Examiner Staff Writers
March 16, 2009
Yusuf Acar, the D.C. computer security official accused of masterminding a multimillion-dollar embezzlement scam, told his co-conspirators that corruption was widespread in the city’s computer office, The Examiner has learned.
Acar and former D.C. employee Sushil Bansal are accused of faking invoices and timesheets from contractors in order to skim money from the city. The pair was arrested last week.
Several alleged co-conspirators were identified by initials in court papers but have not been charged with wrongdoing.
The Examiner spoke with two of the principals in the alleged scheme. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.
One principal said that before starting a scheme of his own, Acar talked about widespread corruption in the technology office.
Contractors routinely filed phony work and parts orders, and the city would pay them, no questions asked, the principal said.
Acar is due in court today for a detention hearing. The scandal has damaged his former boss, Vivek Kundra, whom the Obama administration put on leave last week from his new job as the nation’s first chief information officer.
Kundra is not a suspect in the investigation, a law enforcement source said.
Acar, the son of a Turkish diplomat, moved to the United States as a teenager. He complained that his fellow immigrants exploited him as a young man — forcing him to work long hours without pay — and taught him that he’d have to work for himself, according to the first principal in the alleged scheme.
But after the Internet’s economic bubble burst in the early 2000s, Acar was left scrambling, the second principal in the alleged scheme told The Examiner. He found work and easy money through the D.C. government. In 2004, after a brief stint with a city contractor, Acar was hired on full time at the technology office, the second principal said.
He rose quickly through the ranks. Contracts were flowing through the office as the city attempted to pull itself out of its antiquated systems.
But he didn’t forget his friends, the two principals told The Examiner. He helped steer contracts to favored companies and in a couple of cases, helped friends get full-time jobs with the city.
Acar was often found at D.C.-area bars with a colleague from the technology office, the second principal said. The colleague, unbeknown to Acar and his friends, had participated in the skimming scheme but had also turned government informant, wearing a wiretap.
