A retired District of Columbia government building official pleaded guilty Thursday to felony charges that he tried to bribe a city official.
Former D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs Engineer Yaw Agipong admitted in federal court that he promised to pay a D.C. construction inspector $2,000 to lift a stop-work order and reduce a $6,000 fine on a project in the 1100 block of Fifth Street Northwest.
The inspector agreed to accept the bribe and, in one clandestine meeting, patted down Agipong and asked his former colleague if he wore a recording device, Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Butler told the court. Prosecutors have not identified the inspector because he has not been charged.
DCRA spokeswoman Karyn-Siobhan Robinson said Thursday the agency had no comment.
Agipong, who retired from the DCRA in 2005 after 23 years, faces 15 years in prison. His sentencing is June 14.
Agipong’s conviction winds down one aspect of a federal investigation into the DCRA’s illegal construction unit, the department in charge of ensuring building projects have the proper permits.
The FBI began taping Agipong’s conversations with the Fifth Street developers after they accused him and the head of the D.C. construction inspection unit, Juan Scott, of conspiring to extort them out of thousands of dollars, according to an affidavit signed by the developers.
Agipong told one of the developers that they could make their problems disappear if they paid $20,000, according to the affidavit. One of the developers, Todd Zirkle, met Agipong in a warehouse with $17,000 in cash and a $3,000 check addressed to the DCRA, according to the affidavit. The FBI took Agipong into custody but did not arrest him at the time.
A subsequent investigation by The Examiner found that before he joined the DCRA, Scott served four years in federal prison after he and his cousin, a D.C. police officer, were arrested in 1986 and charged with possession of $100,000 worth of cocaine, 17 rifles, 400 rounds of ammunition and a live hand grenade.
DCRA officials have taken Scott’s law enforcement badge and suspended his inspection authorities.
