D.C. IT bribery suspect to remain in jail; judge says evidence 'overwhelming'

Computerworld - WASHINGTON — Yusuf Acar, who has been working as acting chief security officer in the District of Columbia's IT department, was back in federal court today to seek his release from jail, where he has been held since his arrest on bribery charges last Thursday. But despite an impassioned effort by Acar's defense attorney to portray him as man with strong family ties, U.S. District Court Judge John Facciola was unsympathetic.

The judge ordered Acar to remain in custody, saying that the evidence underpinning the bribery charge is "overwhelming" and siding with federal prosecutors who contended that Acar might try to flee the country if he's released on bail.

The bribery case has a political side that reaches into the White House as a result of President Barack Obama's appointment, just two weeks ago, of Vivek Kundra to be the federal government's first official CIO. Until then, Kundra was the district's chief technology officer and Acar's boss.

However, there are no indications from court documents that Kundra had any knowledge of the alleged illegal activities that led to the arrests of Acar and the CEO of an outsourcing contractor. After the arrests were made, Kundra took a leave of absence from his CIO job. But a White House spokesman confirmed late today that Kundra has now been reinstated to that position.

In court today, the only legal question at issue was whether Acar should be released from jail. Other questions were left for subsequent hearings, including the fundamental mystery of what might have motivated Acar — who was earning an annual salary of $127,468, according to court documents — to take part in the alleged bribery scheme.

The government claims that Acar and Sushil Bansal, CEO of Advanced Integrated Technologies Corp. in Washington, collaborated to overbill the D.C. government on software purchases by submitting purchase orders for more licenses than were actually delivered. The two men, who were arrested in concert with a raid on the district's IT offices, also added "ghost workers," or nonexistent employees, to the IT department's payroll and created time sheets for them so payments could be made in their names, according to the charging documents.

Acar, who is a native of Turkey, married a U.S. citizen and ultimately become a citizen himself in 1995. But prosecutors, in arguing for his continued detention, cited secretly recorded conversations in which he allegedly indicated a willingness to return to Turkey. He also claimed that he could have money transported overseas via diplomatic pouches and talked about opening bank accounts in Kenya, prosecutors said.

None of that was true, responded Dani Jahn, a court-appointed attorney who represented Acar at today's hearing. No bank accounts had been opened overseas, and Acar didn't have the ability to use diplomatic pouches to move cash, Jahn said, describing such talk on his part as mere bravado.