Former federal government employee Ifediora Oli has been sentenced to 18 months in prison, after pleading guilty to charges of conspiring to commit fraud against local agencies in Washington D.C., and for falsifying records to cover up his illicit activities. Oli, a former employee of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), was found to have worked in collaboration with local officials to channel over $1 million to his privately owned company, Highbury Global Group, Inc.
This corruption saga was unraveled thanks to the efforts of U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves, and others from the FBI, WMATA Office of Inspector General, and the D.C. Office of Inspector General. Oli’s sentencing, which also encompasses three years of supervised release and a combined restitution payment of $150,000 to the District of Columbia and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), was detailed in a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
The scandal also implicated two other government officials: Bridgette Crowell and Obinna Ogbu. Crowell, who has already been sentenced to seven months in prison, colluded with Oli while she was managing contracts for the District’s Office of Contracting and Procurement (OCP) and previously for WMATA. She facilitated the contract fraud that allowed Highbury and another company, Nupath, to profit from nonpublic information and manipulated contract bids. Ogbu is scheduled for sentencing on October 28. Using his positions within WMATA and OCP, he also played an integral role in the conspiracy, receiving kickbacks that included over $100,000 and luxury items like cars and vacations…