Thursday, March 12, 2009

2 arrested in FBI raid at Obama appointee's office

March 12, 2009 - 12:57pm

WASHINGTON - A D.C. Office of the Chief Technology Officer employee and a private contractor have been arrested in a federal bribery sting, sources tell WTOP. D.C. Office of the Chief Technology Officer employee Yusuf Acar and Advanced Integrated Technologies Corporation (AITC) President and CEO Sushil Bansal have been arrested, sources tell WTOP.

Acar, 40, was taken into custody Thursday morning by FBI agents at his home in Northwest D.C.

In 2008, Bansal's firm received .Net Development Support and Peoplesoft Consulting Support contracts from the D.C. Office of the Chief Technology Office totaling $350,000.

AITC has also received contracts from the D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles. In 2008, Bansal received the Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the Association of Indians in America, according to AITC's Web site.

The FBI is now serving a search warrant at the office of D.C.'s Chief Technology Officer, WTOP has learned.

"We are there as part of a continuing ongoing criminal investigation," FBI Washington Field Office spokesperson Katherine Schweit tells WTOP.

Schweit would not comment on the details of the investigation.

More than a dozen FBI agents - including evidence technicians - are at the office, located at 1 Judiciary Square on 4th Street in Northwest, WTOP's Mark Segraves reports.

Most of the employees have been told to go home. Other employees have been segregated into a waiting room.

Segraves reports the FBI's search has expanded from 9th floor offices to 10th floor offices.

The 10th floor has been closed to the public while the FBI searches the offices that house the Administrative Services Modernization Program, Segraves reports.

A spokesman for D.C.'s U.S. Attorney tells WTOP he cannot discuss the investigation, as it is currently sealed.

On March 5, President Barack Obama named D.C. Chief Technology Officer Vivek Kundra as the federal government's chief information officer.

Kundra's last day was March 4.

Kundra, who was in charge of technology in the District since 2007, has been a consultant to Obama since he won the election.

Kundra has not been linked to Thursday's raid.

To read the entire article: http://www.wtop.com/?nid=596&sid=1622618

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