Executive pleads guilty in contracting scam
A former executive has pleaded guilty to his role in a $28 million bribery and kickbacks scheme.
Harold Babb, a former contracting director for Eyak Technology LLC, admitted in federal court in D.C. to working with another businessman and two U.S. Army Corps of Engineers program managers to steer no-bid contracts worth millions of dollars to their favored businesses and to pocket kickbacks paid by contractors.
Authorities called the case the largest in government contracting fraud history.
Inspectors admit to bribes
Two former D.C. inspectors pleaded guilty Tuesday to demanding $20,000 in bribes to overlook illegal removal of hazardous materials from an apartment near the Southwest Waterfront.
Joe Parrish, 52, and Gregory Scott, 60, face up to more than two years in prison and agreed to resign from the Department of the Environment.
In August 2011, the inspectors told a construction manager that a 10-story apartment building on the 300 block of P Street SW contained serious violations in removal of transportation of hazardous asbestos.
The inspectors said they could overlook the violations but they needed to be compensated for their efforts.
The subsequent transaction of the cash was recorded on audio and video, prosecutors said.
Man charged in murder of P.G. teen
A Gaithersburg man was arrested in the slaying of a Prince George’s County teenager, police said.
Jonathan Blades, 27, is charged with first-degree murder, according to the Prince George’s County Police Department. He was arrested Monday in the 2900 block of St. Clair Drive in Temple Hills.
At around 2:15 p.m. on Jan. 5, police went to the 2000 block of Brooks Drive in Suitland to check on the welfare of an unresponsive man. When officers arrived, they saw 19-year-old Darryl McCoy dead from a gunshot wound near an apartment complex’s parking lot, police said.
— Emily Babay, Scott McCabe and Naomi Jagoda
