The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) on April 2 took into custody Ifediora Oli, a dual citizen of Nigeria and the United States, for allegedly working with two individuals to defraud the District of Columbia’s public transportation system after had secured a Covid-19 test kit. contract worth over half a million dollars.
Documents seen by the Peoples Gazette showed that Oli, 41, rushed to buy plane tickets for himself, his partner and his daughter to travel to Nigeria as soon as he learned he was under criminal investigation by the US government for his questionable dealings with a contract worth $659,000. to provide pandemic testing kits to the District of Columbia Department of Forensic Sciences (DFS).
FBI Special Agent Deborah Frye gathered evidence for the complaint filed March 28 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that led to Mr. Oli’s arrest in his hometown of Silver Spring, Maryland, on April 2.
Mr. Oli, a U.S. Department of Agriculture employee who illegally ran his own side business, Highbury Global Group, Inc., allegedly plotted with his longtime friend, identified as Co-Conspirator 1 – a Metropolitan Transit staffer Authority “WMATA” – and co-conspirator 2 (romantic partner of co-conspirator 1) to extract and share the proceeds of a government contract deemed a violation of US law, Ms. Frye has been interrogated in court.
Co-conspirator 2, also known as BriBri, worked as a contract specialist at the Office of Contracting and Procurement (OCP), a U.S. agency responsible for awarding government contracts to bidding companies.
As a contract specialist at the OCP, Co-conspirator 2 was tasked with selecting a company that would supply the medical test kits to the DFS in 2021. But it is not just that she allegedly influenced the selection of Mr Oli’s Highbury company for the bid , she benefited from it too. of it, said Mrs. Frye.
Co-conspirator 2 allegedly used her position as a contract specialist to subtly pressure her colleagues to expedite the award of the contract to Mr. Oli.
“Co-conspirator 2 wrote to the official again about Highbury and asked, ‘Are we not moving forward with the award? The seller has already confirmed immediate delivery upon receipt of the purchase order.” Ms. Frye stated this in her March 28 statement.
The FBI agent said that after receiving $630,000 in payment for a job done in 2021, Mr. Oli transferred $145,000 in two tranches to Co-conspirator 1 with explicit instructions to give Co-conspirator 2 $15,000 in cash presumably as a token of appreciation for winning the election. contract bid.
“I’m adding 5k for BriBri,” read a June 2021 WhatsApp message obtained by the FBI from Mr Oli’s phone. “Cash only for bri bri.”
In another WhatsApp message in October 2021, after the completion of the Covid-19 contract, Mr Oli asked his friend: “Give bri bri 10k.”
The cash gift violated provisions of a U.S. law that states “district employees may not benefit” from awarded contracts.
“No officer or employee of the District shall be admitted to any share or portion of this contract or to any benefit which may arise therefrom,” the provision expressly states.
Mr Oli is represented by Nigerian-American criminal lawyer John Iweanoge.
U.S. Attorney Timothy Visser of the Fraud, Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section is prosecuting the case to prove that Mr. Oli deprived the U.S. government of money and honest services to its employees.
