Obama technology appointee’s office raided by Feds – Bribery Sting
Earlier today, federal agents searched the office of Washington, D.C.’s Chief Technology Officer. ‘The search of the office at 1 Judiciary Square is part of “an ongoing investigation,” said a spokeswoman for the FBI’s D.C. Field Office, Lindsay Gotwin, said,’ Politico reports.
She said two men, Yusuf Acar and Sushil Bansal, had been arrested.
Acar is an information security officer who was also, according to online requests for proposals, responsible for contracting. Bansal is listed on the city’s procurement website as the CEO of the Advanced Integrated Technologies Corporation, which was awarded two technology contracts last year worth a total of $350,000.
The Washington Post and WTOP Radio report that the men are being held on bribery charges.
The outgoing Chief Technology Officer, Vivek Kundra, was appointed last week Chief Information Officer by the Obama administration. His last day at the city government office was March 4, a spokeswoman for D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, Leslie Kershaw, said. He was appointed to the Washington post in 2007, and held it when Bansal’s contract was awarded.
As Ed Morrissey explains at Hot Air, Obama’s nominee nightmare isn’t going away:
Obama has nominated a number of people with tax problems and conflicts of interest that floated to the surface after their appointments were publicly announced. He has lost three Cabinet appointments, two to tax problems, and his Chief Performance Officer, Nancy Killefer, over her tax issues. The raid on the DC CTO’s office will confirm again the impression that Team Obama has a real problem in vetting potential appointments.
Of course, one or two bad appointments can hardly be blamed on Obama himself. But this is quickly becoming a habit. Many of his appointees have very serious problems. You’d expect better from a man who presents himself as a man without experience but with sound judgment.
From MSNBC:
I don’t get this. If the FBI was investigating, wouldn’t you think that would’ve been mentioned in the FBI’s vetting?
The trend of appointing / “palling around with” bad company doesn’t reflect well on our President. Quite frankly it is worrisome, but was expected from the beginning, by many as a trend we would see more of as time went on.
I know, PM. It seems like the FBI is headed up by yet another incompetent Obama appointee.
Oh, wait a minute…
I do agree, though. Why didn’t they mention an investigation? That should have been enough to scare the pants off the Obama administration. Of course, after knowing about tax issues for at least two of its three appointees, one wonders.
I agree that this does not bode well for the Presidents cabinet, but you must also understand that the FBI does not come under direct control of the Executive Branch of our government and therefore is not required to advise the President on any ongoing investigations, for those of you who can remember just look at Hoover during J.F.K’s. administration or Louis Freeh during Clinton administration. So it is not unusual for a President to have so many choices with bad backgrounds, we normally do not hear about it as former Presidents (like Bush) kept things like this secret until they were sure they were not to be embarrassed. President Obama has chosen to release all names and deal with the consequents as a matter of public record. We have only had two Presidents who chose this route President Grant and President Lincoln. They too were criticized for not having vetted better. You can not blame the administration for the lack of truthfulness on the part of the perspective appointees who are just want a ride on the history train instead of actually serving the people of this great nation as public official. As a nation we are to blame for this situation. I feel it is refreshing to have a public official put himself out there to try to make a difference instead of one creates a conflict to deflect attention
Thank You