Former Employee of D.C. Technology Office Sentenced to 14-Month Prison Term in Fraud Conspiracy

WASHINGTON—Farrukh Awan, a former employee of the District of Columbia’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO), was sentenced today to 14 months in prison following his guilty plea in November 2009 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud for his role in an alleged kickback scheme, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr., Shawn Henry, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, and Charles J. Willoughby, Inspector General for the District of Columbia, announced.

The Honorable Henry H. Kennedy, Jr. sentenced the defendant in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. In addition to the prison term, the judge ordered Awan, 38, of South Riding, Virginia, to pay $156,807 in restitution to the District of Columbia government. Awan also must forfeit $46,647.50 as part of the sentence, and he will be placed on supervised release for three years following his release from prison.

During his guilty plea, Awan admitted that between September 2005 and January 2007 he conspired with Yusuf Acar and Sushil Bansal to deprive the citizens of the District of Columbia and OCTO of their right to the honest services of himself and of Yusuf Acar, free from deceit, favoritism, bias, self-enrichment, self-dealing, concealment, and conflict of interest.

Awan admitted that he and Yusuf Acar were both in a position to influence the approval of candidates put forth by Bansal’s company, Advanced Integrated Technologies Corporation (AITC) for positions at OCTO. He also admitted that he and Acar both sat on panels responsible for assessing the candidates for certain positions and ultimately approved candidates for which they had a financial interest. Once these candidates were approved, Awan and Acar would receive kickbacks from Bansal. The kickback was a portion of the hourly wage paid to AITC for each employee placed at OCTO.

“Mr. Awan’s sentence should serve as notice to individuals serving as public officials who may be tempted to accept bribes and kickbacks,” said U.S. Attorney Machen. “If they violate the public trust by engaging in illegal conduct, we will prosecute them vigorously. The residents of the District of Columbia deserve an ethical government with ethical employees, and have the right to know that their money is being spent honestly and for the public good.”

Bansal, AITC, and Acar also pled guilty to federal charges.

Bansal was sentenced August 6, 2010 to two concurrent 20-month terms of imprisonment. In addition to the prison sentence, he and his company were ordered to pay $844,765.50 in restitution to the District of Columbia government. A three-year period of supervised release following Bansal’s release from prison also was imposed.

Acar is to be sentenced later today.

In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Machen, FBI Assistant Director in Charge Henry, and D.C. Inspector General Willoughby commended the outstanding investigative work of the special agents from the FBI’s Washington Field Office, and Special Agent Teddy Clark and the late Special Agent Lloyd Hodge of the D.C. Office of the Inspector General. They also acknowledged the efforts of U.S. Attorney’s Office paralegals Diane Hayes, Tasha Harris and Maggie McCabe, former legal assistant Lisa Robinson, as well as Assistant U.S. Attorneys Thomas Hibarger and Glenn Leon, who prosecuted the case.