Look, if you haven't yet taken a couple of minutes to listen to the newly released recordings of former Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson and his wife, former county councilmember Leslie Johnson, talking on the phone in the minutes before federal agents busted down their door and took them into custody on bribery-related charges, we're going to go ahead and recommend that you do that now. more ›

Yesterday, authorities arrested four men in connection with a massive bribery scheme inside the Army Corps of Engineers. The details of the alleged crime should ring familiar for many D.C. residents. more ›

UPDATE (11:45 a.m.): Federal investigators are now raiding eight other buildings in the District and Virginia in connection with the bribery claims. The names of the the four arrested had not yet been released, though Machen will hold a press conference this afternoon to identify them and the complete slate of charges. more ›

During his arraignment in federal court this afternoon, former Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson pled not guilty to eight criminal charges. Johnson's attorney, Billy Martin, entered the plea and also requested a jury trial. Johnson's wife and alleged co-conspirator Leslie Johnson was not in attendance at the arraignment. After entering his plea, Johnson told reporters that he was "extremely disappointed" and didn't "recognize the person" in the charges. Johnson also promised that he was "going to fight" for his reputation. more ›

Former Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson will be arraigned in a federal court this afternoon, and is expected to enter a plea on eight counts of bribery, conspiracy and extortion. more ›

Former Jim Graham chief of staff Ted Loza pled guilty this afternoon to two charges of accepting gratuities and one charge of filing a false statement. more ›

Ted Loza, former chief of staff to Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham, is reportedly scheduled to appear in court for a plea hearing this afternoon. The hearing will be held at 3 p.m. more ›

Two pieces of courtroom action to keep track of from today. more ›

The U.S. attorney's office filed a new indictment Thursday that spells out additional charges against Ted Loza, D.C. Council member Jim Graham's former chief of staff. Loza was arrested in September and charged with two counts of bribery on allegations he accepted $1,500 from taxicab industry lobbyist Abdulaziz Kamus. But as the Washington Post reports, Loza now stands accused of accepting a total of "more than $30,000 in benefits, including cash, trips, transportation and other gifts." The charges against the former staffer now include one count of conspiracy, an additional count of bribery, one count of extortion and one count of making false statements. more ›

Looks like a grand jury will soon hand down additional charges against former Jim Graham staffer Ted Loza, D.C. Wire reports. Loza was indicted on bribery charges last fall after he allegedly accepted $1,500 in cash and other favors and trips from a taxicab lobbyist. No word yet on what the new charges might look like, just that we should expect them in the "next two to four weeks." more ›

Federal authorities believe former D.C. Taxicab Commission chairman Causton Toney participated in a long-running bribery scheme while he held that position from 2005-2007, the Washington Post reports this morning. A recently unsealed affidavit lays out the FBI's suspicions against Toney, who has not been charged with any crime, but whose home was raided in October. more ›

Chalk up another guilty plea in the OCTO bribery and embezzlement case. Following in the footsteps of fellow ex-OCTO cohort Yusuf Acar, Farrukh Awan admitted his guilt in federal court on Friday, and will be sentenced to up to two-and-a-half years in prison for his part in the kickback scandal. Awan, who was arrested in March, is the third individual to plead guilty in the scheme, in which OCTO employees took kickbacks and falsified invoices in an effort to funnel funds to Sushil Bansal's Advanced Integrated Technologies Corporation. Since form seems to be holding in these proceedings, I suppose we should expect a guilty plea from Sarosh Mir any day now. more ›

Yusuf Acar, the former D.C. computer security official who was arrested and charged in March for his part in a bribery scheme that allegedly funneled phony contracts and pay checks through the District's Office of the Chief Technology Officer, is expected to plead guilty, the Examiner reports. more ›

If you've been following the large-scale FBI investigation into attempts to bribe public officials associated with the D.C. taxicab industry, you've got to read Jason Cherkis's cover story this week in the Washington City Paper. Cherkis spent some time with a few of the 30+ men named in the indictment, and found that federal prosecutors may well be overreaching in their attempts to prosecute some of these guys. more ›

Ward 1 D.C. Council member Jim Graham is relinquishing his lead role in oversight of the city's taxicab industry, despite an earlier determination from Council Chair Vincent Gray that Graham should keep taxis in his portfolio as chairman of the public works and transportation committee. Graham has asked Gray to transfer taxicab oversight powers to the Committee of the Whole. more ›

That's the word from U.S. District Court this afternoon, where the Washington Post's Del Quentin Wilber was on hand for a brief hearing to set a trial date for Loza, the Jim Graham staffer accused of accepting cash and other gifts from a taxicab lobbyist. Writes Wilber: "Assistant U.S. Attorney John Crabb disclosed the existence of the plea offer during the hearing and said it would expire in two weeks. He declined to comment as he left the courtroom." Loza's attorney said he still needed to review the offer. more ›

When D.C. voting rights advocacy organization DC Vote launched its "I Am DC" ad campaign earlier this summer, it placed posters featuring the faces and stories of 10 D.C. residents (including our own Martin Austermuhle) on Metrobuses and other visible spots around the city. But recently we noticed that images of the posters available for download on the DC Vote web site now number only nine. Who was on that 10th poster? It was embattled Jim Graham chief of staff Ted Loza. more ›

A creepy new development today in the ongoing federal investigation into allegations of widespread bribery attempts inside the D.C. taxicab industry, courtesy the Post's Del Quentin Wilber: court documents released today detail how one of the 39 men charged in the bribery ring, Yitbarek Syume, allegedly threatened to murder FBI informant Abdulaziz Kamus when his name surfaced in media reports shortly after the investigation became public.

The papers reveal that Yitbarek Syume met with an undercover FBI agent and an informant on the day after the top staffer of a prominent D.C. Council member was arrested on bribery charges. The three men discussed the high-profile arrest and how to avoid detection of their scheme, which funneled more than $300,000 to a D.C. government official, prosecutors wrote in court papers, citing a surreptitious recording of the meeting.

Federal authorities have arrested 27 people so far in a massive bribery case tied to the D.C. taxicab industry. Two indictments released today accuse a total of 39 individuals of conspiring to bribe city officials in order to obtain fraudulent taxi licenses between 2007 and 2009. more ›

More than two dozen people have been indicted in the rapidly expanding federal bribery investigation into the D.C. taxi industry, the Post's Del Quentin Wilber is reporting. That's a whole lotta people. So who, besides Ted Loza, are they? They're "cab drivers or others with financial ties to the industry," most of whom will probably be arrested today, according to anonymous sources. Keep your eye out for handcuffed cab drivers this afternoon! more ›

Even though a new Washington Post report today suggests D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) may not actually be a target of the corruption investigation that ensnared his chief of staff, the D.C. Republican Committee keeps hounding him like he definitely is. more ›

Two big updates today on the ongoing federal bribery probe into Ted Loza, chief of staff to Ward 1 D.C. Council member Jim Graham. more ›

Last week's arrest and indictment of Ted Loza, Ward 1 D.C. Council member Jim Graham's chief of staff, continues to put Graham in a rather unpleasant spotlight this morning. After WUSA9 first reported on Monday that the FBI investigation was also targeting the councilman, FOX-5 followed up last night with its own story, noting that Graham refused to go on the record all day on Monday in response to the allegations (earlier that morning when we saw him, Graham claimed he still hadn't read the story). more ›

Freshly delivered to our inbox is a press release from the office of D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1). The title? "Councilmember Graham Postpones Hearing on Taxicabs." Yeah, good call. more ›

Major, major news from D.C. Wire:

The chief-of-staff to D.C. Council Member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) was arrested Thursday morning by federal agents on bribery charges, according to a source familiar with the investigation. more ›

Hey wow, we had almost managed to forget about the ongoing investigation into a bribery and shady contracting ring operating out of the D.C. Office of the Chief Technology Officer. The Post is reporting that a fourth person has been charged in the case. Sarosh Mir, 44, of Herndon was charged last week with conspiring to commit wire fraud. Mir worked for Sushil Bansal, the outside contractor who has been charged with conspiring with OCTO employees Yusuf Acar and Farrukh Awan to steer contracts to Bansal's company, in exchange for bribes. more ›

D.C. Wire is reporting that Yusuf Acar, the Office of the Chief Technology Officer employee who was arrested by the FBI in March for allegedly running an elaborate kickback and bribery scheme, is in talks with prosecutors about a potential plea deal. An Aug. 3 hearing is now set on the progress of the plea agreement for Acar. Another city employee, Farruk Awan, was also arrested in the case, along with businessman Sushil Bansal. more ›

At least five D.C. DMV inspectors have been fired for accepting small cash bribes from cab drivers looking to sail through the inspection process despite deficiencies in their vehicles. Johnson's got photos, presumably taken by honest DMV employees, of the interiors of several taxis where drivers leave between $20-$50 for inspectors, hoping they'll look the other way. more ›

The Post is reporting that a guilty plea looks like it's been entered for former D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue employee El-Hadj Drame, who amazingly enough stands accused of corruption and bribery all on his own, without any help from Harriette Walters and her crew. Papers were filed that indicate a guilty plea for Drame, who is accused of receipt of a bribe by a public official for accepting a payment of $6,000 in exchange for lowering the tax liability of a business he was auditing. Doesn't seem like the business in question has been publicly named yet. Isn't it amazing that the recent tax office scandal makes this $6000 bribe seem like small potatoes? In case you missed the Post's big spread in Sunday's paper chronicling the full history of the $50 million, 20-year-long Walters-led embezzlement scheme, here's the link. more ›