As an FBI agent assigned to investigate gangs and drugs, Kevin Humphreys worked on his share of criminal cases.
This time, Humphreys claimed in an affidavit, the case came to him.
Humphreys, his wife, Vanessa, and his friend Todd Zirkle, have signed the affidavit, accusing a top D.C. housing inspector of extorting bribes to lift a stop-work order placed on a condominium the group was rehabilitating.
Kevin Humphreys refused comment for this story.
“The undersigned witnesses believe there is probable cause that [Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs] Chief Inspector Juan Scott and former DCRA employee Yaw Agipong conspired to extort a bribe, violated civil rights, impersonated a police officer and committed fraud,” the affidavit states.
Scott did not return calls seeking comment.His co-workers said he was on leave.
Zirkle told The Examiner on Thursday that he and the Humphreys were nearly finished with the $1.2 million condo project in the 1100 block of Fifth Street Northwest in Washington when Scott put a “stop-work” order on it in mid-September. Scott didn’t file the paperwork with his agency, so he was the only official with whom the three could deal, Zirkle said.
Scott told the group their engineer would know what to do. Agipong was the engineer on the project, and used to work for DCRA.
Agipong told the trio he knew Scott and would talk to him, the affidavit states.
He later came back to tell them they could make their problems disappear if they paid $20,000. Scott, Agipong said, was “on board” with the scheme, the affidavit states.
The affidavit has circulated among city officials and investigators. It says that Agipong told the three that getting the order lifted “depends on how much money you want to spend.”
He said that $26,000 — which would include a “fine” — would guarantee their problems would go away, “100 percent, no problem,” the affidavit says. He later reduced his demand to $20,000, according to the affidavit.
Asked how Agipong could be sure that Scott would go along with the scheme, Agipong told them that Scott “will be on board,” the affidavit says.
“Scott would not be a problem and there are people over him,” Agipong told the group, according to the affidavit.
Kevin Humphreys reported the alleged shakedown to his agency. Federal agents began taping conversations between the Humphreys Zirkle and Agipong, the affidavit says. The three appealed the stop-work order through DCRA’s public outreach office, the affidavit says. Through the outreach office, Scott sent them a message.
“They know what they need to do,” Scott said, according to the affidavit.
Agipong told The Examiner on Thursday he was cooperating with the FBI investigation. Asked whether he denied asking the trio for a bribe, he said, “No.”
He said he didn’t know that Kevin Humphreys was an FBI agent, and he refused to discuss Scott.
“I cannot discuss this matter,” he said. “It is with the FBI.” He then hung up the phone.
Zirkle, a former official in the city finance office, said he was outraged and despondent.
“It’s pretty blatant,” he told The Examiner. “The system is just designed for corruption. What’s the average citizen supposed to do if they don’t have a federal law enforcement officer to vouch for a bribery allegation?”
Zirkle said he and his friends have filed complaints with DCRA and with the D.C. Inspector General’s Office. The stop-work order remains in effect because officials have since found problems with the original application, Zirkle said.
“Effectively, they’re retaliating,” Zirkle said. “If we had paid the bribe, they wouldn’t be going to another review.”
He said he and the Humphreys have taken out personal loans to buy and fix the condos.
It’s costing them $700 a day in interest payments while the building sits unfinished and unoccupied, Zirkle said.
“I could be wiped out,” he said. “The whole system is wide open for this.”
DCRA spokeswoman Karyn-Siobhan Robinson said her agency’s records show that the Fifth Street project was shut down because of six violations of building code. The friends were fined $12,000, she said.
“All allegations of misconduct will be investigated,” she said, but refused to discuss Scott’s status.
District Council Member Phil Mendelson, D-At large, met with Zirkle and Kevin Humphreys on Thursday. He said he hopes officials take the allegations seriously.
“What’s at issue here is the integrity of the process,” Mendelson said.
DCRA has been rife with waste, fraud and abuse for years, Mendelson said, and is only now crawling its way toward efficiency and honesty.
“I’m concerned with the transition,” Mendelson said. “They could go forward or fall way back again.”
