Former OCTO Employee Charged in Federal Bribery Scheme

WASHINGTON—Farrukh Awan, a former employee at the District of Columbia’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer, has been charged in a federal complaint for his role in an alleged bribery scheme, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor, Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division C. André Martin, and Charles J. Willoughby, Inspector General for the District of Columbia, announced today.

Awan, 37, of South Riding, Virginia, was charged in a two-count complaint that charges him with Conspiracy to Commit Bribery and Conspiracy to Launder Monetary Instruments. Awan was taken into custody this morning by FBI agents as part of an ongoing investigation. The defendant was presented on the charges this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate John Facciola in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

The maximum penalty for conspiracy to commit bribery is 5 years’ incarceration and the maximum penalty for conspiracy to launder monetary instruments is 20 years’ incarceration.

According to the Affidavit in Support of the Arrest Warrant, the defendant is alleged to have participated in a conspiracy that stole large sums of money from the District of Columbia through a bribery scheme between October 2005 and April 2007, and laundered the proceeds of that scheme by attempting to make payments between co-conspirators appear to be legitimate income.

This matter continues to be an ongoing investigation.

A complaint is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed a violation of criminal laws and every defendant is presumed innocent until, and unless, proven guilty.

In announcing the indictment, U.S. Attorney Taylor, FBI Assistant Director in Charge Persichini, IRS Special Agent in Charge Martin, and D.C. Inspector General Willoughby commended the outstanding investigative work of the special agents of the FBI and D.C. Office of the Inspector General. They also acknowledged the efforts of Assistant U.S. Attorneys Thomas Hibarger and Glenn Leon, who will prosecute the case.