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.
Among the numerous bribes Loza is accused of taking from Kamus and other individuals connected to the taxicab industry, according to the Post: several trips to Ethiopia, a trip to Miami valued at $2,000, a free parking space in Adams Morgan for his girlfriend worth $3,000, and a series of cash payments between between August 2004 and November 2008 ranging from $500 to as much as $4,000.
Graham has not been charged with any wrongdoing in the case, and there’s no indication that he ever will be. But transcripts from recorded conversations between Loza and Kamus show that Loza led Kamus to believe he was accepting the payments in exchange for pushing his boss to introduce legislation that would be favorable to taxi drivers. In June of 2009, Graham introduced a bill that placed a moratorium on the number of taxicab licenses issued by the city.