Last Defendant Pleads Guilty for D.C. Contract Kickbacks
Tom Ramstack
The Legal Forum, offering legal representation, language translation, media services.
WASHINGTON -- The third of three defendants pleaded guilty last week in a contract procurement fraud scheme directed primarily at the Washington, D.C., public transit system.
Ifediora Oli, 41, was accused of paying kickbacks to government officials for his company to obtain information technology contracts from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
He also won a $659,000 contract to supply COVID-19 test kits to the D.C. Department of Forensic Sciences.
Oli was a U.S. Department of Agriculture employee while he ran a government contracting business called Highbury Global Group, Inc. out of his home in Silver Spring, Md.
His alleged co-conspirators were Bridgette Crowell and Obinna Ogbu, both of whom pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the District and WMATA.
Crowell was a contracts manager in the District’s Office of Contracting and Procurement and, before that, WMATA. Ogbu was a WMATA information technology customer support manager who sometimes also served as a contracts technical representative.
The FBI says Ogbu and Crowell agreed to steer contracts to Highbury Global Group in exchange for part of the money Oli received.
After receiving a $630,000 contract in 2021, Oli allegedly wired $145,000 to Ogbu with instructions to give Crowell $15,000 in cash.
“I add 5k for BriBri,” read a June 2021 WhatsApp message obtained by the FBI from Oli’s phone. “Cash only for bri bri.”
BriBri appeared to refer to Crowell.
In another WhatsApp message in October 2021, after the COVID-19 contract with the Department of Forensic Sciences, Oli told Ogbu, “Give bri bri 10k.”
The relevant District of Columbia law says, “No officer or employee of the District will be admitted to any share or part of this contract or to any benefit that may arise.”
Highbury Global Group received a total of more than $1 million in government contracts from the kickbacks, according to the FBI.
Oli pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money, property, and honest services wire fraud, and one count of falsifying records. His sentencing is scheduled for October 16 in U.S. District Court.
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