Tony Cheng, the owner of a popular Chinatown restaurant that bears his name, and his son were indicted today on federal charges that they attempted to bribe District officials in hopes of obtaining taxicab licenses.
Cheng and his son, Anthony R. Cheng Jr., are charged with one count each of attempting to bribe a public official, U.S. Attorney Ron Machen announced. According to a press release from Machen’s office, the Chengs, over a period spanning November 2010 through June 2011, allegedly tried to influence officials at the D.C. Taxicab Commission and the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs to give them licenses to operate a taxi company.
In addition to his namesake restaurant, the elder Cheng has deep ties to D.C.’s officials and has served as a conduit between the District government and the city’s Asian-American community. Last year, Cheng served as an ambassador in healing a rift created by anti-Asian comments made by Councilmember Marion Barry (D-Ward 8). Records in the District’s Office of Campaign Finance show that the Chengs have made donations to several candidates for D.C. elected offices, including Linda Cropp, Adrian Fenty, Jack Evans, and Vincent Orange. The indictment against the Chengs does not appear to refer to any office holders.
Machen’s office alleges that during the period described in the indictment, the Chengs attempted to obtain business licenses for their taxicab company from D.C. regulatory agencies by presenting falsified documents suggesting their company was incorporated in 2009, before the implementation of a moratorium on the issuance of new taxi licences.
Prosecutors say that in early 2011, the Chengs approached an individual identified as “Public Official Number One” and offered him $1,500 cash and a 10 percent cut of profits in exchange for taxi licenses. The indictment refers to that official as the then-chairman of the D.C. Taxicab Commission. In early 2011, that position was occupied by Leon Swain, who was fired that April. Swain had faced a similar situation before. In 2007, he refused a bribe and reported it to the FBI; since then, he has been a cooperating witness in investigations into public corruption.
The Chengs also allegedly offered $250 to “Public Official Number Two”—supposedly a DCRA official—for backdated certificates of occupancy for the two cab companies they planned to start. But “Public Official Number Two” was, in fact, an undercover FBI agent.
“We cannot tolerate the culture of pay-to-play in the District of Columbia,” Machen says in a press release announcing the charges. “
The Chengs’ attorney, Ken Robinson, did not respond to DCist’s request for comment. But Robinson tells The Washington Post that his clients intend to fight the charges. Robinson also says that since January, Machen’s office has been attempting to get the Chengs to cooperate in the ongoing probe of political corruption in D.C.
