An area businessman is expected to plead guilty in the bribery and kickback scheme that shook up the District’s technology office.
Sushil Bansal, 43, chief executive of District-based Advanced Integrated Technologies Corp., was charged in a “criminal information” with counts of bribery of a public official and money laundering. A criminal information indicates that a plea deal has been worked out because the document can’t be filed without the consent of the defendant.
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Yusuf Acar, the chief of security officer for the District’s technology office, pleaded guilty late last year to accepting more than $550,000 in bribes from Bansal. His sentencing has been rescheduled to April 16.
Prosecutors said Bansal began showering Acar and other employees with money in 2005.
In exchange, Acar awarded millions of dollars in contracts toAdvanced Integrated Technologies. The two also faked invoices and time sheets for Bansal’s “ghost employees” in order to skim money from the city, according to court documents.
Most bribes were paid through companies linked to Acar or controlled by others in the conspiracy.
Acar has agreed to pay back more than $200,000 in stolen money, including $69,000 in cash that was seized at his Northwest Washington home.
The FBI began investigating Acar after receiving a tip from a D.C. employee who had been approached to participate in the scheme. The employee agreed to cooperate with investigators and wore hidden recording equipment that documented the fraud, prosecutors said.
The informant told investigators the scam also included buying lesser-quality equipment than was contracted for so the conspirators could pocket the difference, documents said.
At least 23 contract and full-time employees in the city’s technology office have been fired over the scandal. It even had touched Vivek Kundra, who left his post as D.C.’s chief technology officer a week before the arrests to become the nation’s first chief information technology officer.
The White House suspended Kundra while investigators made sure he was not directly involved in the scam. Kundra then resumed his duties.
