Transition to taxi meters triggered corruption, feds say
By: Bill Myers
Examiner Staff Writer
October 4, 2009
D.C.'s effort to change from a taxi fare system based on zone maps to a metered system was beset with corruption from its earliest days, federal court papers show. When Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., pushed through legislation requiring the District to move from its much-derided zone map system to time and distance meters, some people saw a way to corrupt the impending change to their advantage, according to court papers. A full month before the change took effect in October, 2007, cabbies and taxi industry officials were lining up to bribe their way through, around and under the new regulations, federal officials alleged in two new indictments unsealed Friday. Thirty-six cabbies were charged with passing bribes to Leon Swain, D.C.'s Taxicab Commission chairman, in one indictment. Three other men -- Yitbarek Syume, Berhane Leghese and Amanuel Ghirmazion -- were charged with paying some $220,000, some of it folded in newspapers and grocery bags, to obtain multiple cab licenses after the conversion. Swain immediately reported the bribes to federal officials and became a cooperating witness, Attorney General Peter Nickles told The Examiner on Friday. "It is refreshing to have a D.C. employee be a stand-up guy like Leon Swain," Nickles said. "And I think he's a hero." Law enforcement sources told The Examiner that the investigation was growing and focusing not just on cash-for-licenses schemes, but on the money behind taxi companies. A parallel bribes-for-taxi licenses investigation has already reached into city hall, though, with last month's indictment of Ted Loza. Loza is the longtime, loyal aide to D.C. Councilman Jim Graham, D-Ward 1, who chairs the council's transportation committee. Loza is accused of accepting cash, gifts and trips in exchange for steering legislation that would have benefited the bribers. Graham has denied any wrongdoing. On Friday, federal officials raided the home of Swain's predecessor, Causton Toney. Toney has not been charged with wrongdoing.
