The Fenty administration is in negotiations to pay a settlement to mayoral friend Omar Karim even as an investigation continues into allegations of cronyism and bid rigging that scrapped multimillion-dollar parks contracts between Karim and the District, the Washington Examiner has learned.
“My lawyers have been talking to his lawyers,” Attorney General Peter Nickles said. “I’m not giving anything away.”
Karim’s company, Banneker Ventures, was given a no-bid, $4.2 million city deal to manage parks and playground construction around the city. The contract was given out by a semipublic housing authority, and Karim, in turn, gave no-bid subcontracts to a company co-founded by Sinclair Skinner, another friend and fraternity brother of Mayor Adrian Fenty. Karim’s company billed the city for an additional 9 percent surcharge on bills submitted by Sinclair’s company.
An outraged city council voided the contracts last fall and has opened an investigation into the matter.
In the meantime, Karim has threatened to sue the city — and Nickles’ staff has quietly been hashing out a settlement. Nickles told the Washington Examiner that he hoped to work out a deal but would be willing to go to court to defend the city.
Nickles’ stance was puzzling to fellow lawyer Mary Cheh, Democratic councilwoman for Ward 3.
“Is this the same Peter Nickles that refuses to settle with anybody and takes the same scorched-earth policy with everyone else?” she asked. “I am somewhat skeptical of the haste of attempting to settle with Mr. Karim while we’re still investigating his behavior.”
Cheh said that the law allows contractors to recoup money for work done even when contracts are voided, but she would prefer to see Karim deposed in a lawsuit.
“If there’s a lawsuit, there would be discovery,” she said. “And maybe we would find out even more about his business practices.”
The contracts were handed out by David Jannarone, a Fenty aide and longtime friend of Skinner.
Skinner appeared before the city council earlier this month and conceded that his company had little engineering expertise and did little of the actual work for which it was paid. He said he paid subcontractors at a steep discount and pocketed the difference. He and his attorney, A. Scott Bolden, nonetheless defended the contracts, saying there was nothing illegal or improper in them.
Bolden is representing Karim, too. Bolden declined comment for this story.
Skinner is scheduled to resume his testimony Wednesday and is fighting to stay off the city’s banned-contractors list.
