Results tagged “taxicabindustry”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

D.C. taxicab drivers made good on their promise to boycott the busy Adams Morgan nightlife district between the hours of 1 a.m and 4 a.m. on Saturday night. WJLA covers the reaction, and at least one friend of DCist told us he nearly managed to flag down a taxi on Columbia Rd. during that time, but then the driver, apparently suddenly remembering the strike, abruptly pulled away before he could enter the cab.

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 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!

After first merely postponing a hearing on his recently proposed taxicab legislation in the wake of related federal bribery charges against his chief of staff, Ward 1 D.C. Council member Jim Graham has gone ahead and withdrawn the bill entirely, Tim Craig is reporting at D.C. Wire. In a rich bit of political theater, Graham is also apparently trying to sell reporters on the notion that this decision has "nothing to do" with the charges against Ted Loza. "Graham said he is pulling the bill because of confusion and opposition within the taxicab industry to a medallion system." Suuuuuure.