Former Employee of D.C. OCTO Pleads Guilty to Bribery and Engaging in Monetary Transactions in Property Derived from Specified Unlawful Activity

WASHINGTON—Yusuf Acar, the former Acting Chief of Security Officer of the District of Columbia’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) has pled guilty to Bribery and to Engaging in Monetary Transactions in Property Derived from Specified Unlawful Activity for his role in an alleged bribery and kickback scheme, Acting U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips, Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, and Charles Willoughby, Inspector General for the District of Columbia, announced today.

Acar, 41, of Washington, D.C., pled guilty before the Honorable Henry H. Kennedy, Jr. today to a two-count information that charges him with Bribery and to Engaging in Monetary Transactions in Property Derived from Specified Unlawful Activity. Sentencing is set for March 12, 2010.

During his guilty plea, Acar admitted that between September 2005 and March 12, 2009, on at least 59 occasions he accepted bribes from Sushil Bansal, who owned a company called Advanced Integrated Technologies Corporation (AITC). Bansal paid Acar a total of $558,978.50 in bribe payments during this time. Acar also admitted to engaging in 17 transactions, each over $10,000, that involved the bribe money and which utilizing financial institutions.

Acar also agreed that he is jointly and severally liable with Bansal for $507,463.50 in restitution and jointly and severally liable with Bansal and Farrukh Awan for $44,315 in restitution. Acar is also solely responsible for an additional $7,200. Acar also agreed to forfeiture of $206,153.75 and to the forfeiture of $69,550 in cash seized at the time of his arrest.

The maximum penalty for Bribery is fifteen years and the maximum penalty for Engaging in Monetary Transactions in Property Derived from Specified Unlawful Activity is ten years. The applicable sentencing range under the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines, with all of the enhancements the government believes apply, is 108 to 135 months’ incarceration.

In announcing the guilty plea, Acting U.S. Attorney Phillips, FBI Assistant Director in Charge Persichini, and D.C. Inspector General Willoughby commended the outstanding investigative work of Special Agents Mary Gleason, Joseph Gordon, Julie Lenkart and Andy Sekela of the FBI 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 are prosecuting this case.