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Former District of Columbia Project Manager pleads guilty to bribery

Washington, D.C. - A former District of Columbia Project Manager, Narase Bob Oudit, has pleaded guilty to bribery, U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Wainstein, Joseph Persichini, Jr., Acting Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Washington Field Office, and D.C. Inspector General Charles J. Willoughby announced today.

Oudit pled guilty to the charge earlier today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia before the Honorable Paul L. Friedman. Sentencing is scheduled for January 12, 2007. Pursuant to the federal sentencing guidelines, Oudit faces a likely sentence of between 37 to 46 months in prison.

During today's plea hearing, Oudit, 50, of Washington, D.C., admitted that he used his position as a project manager in the District of Columbia's Office of Property Management ("OPM") to demand over $300,000 in bribes from construction contractors.
Oudit was a General Engineer at OPM, where he oversaw construction projects for the Department of Parks and Recreation. Oudit supervised the performance of contractors and had the ability to inflict financial harm upon contractors or to reward them. Oudit supervised construction at the North Michigan Park, Sherwood Recreation Center, and Kenilworth Recreation Center projects.

According to the government's evidence, Oudit demanded bribes from contractors at each of these three projects during 2002 and 2003. Specifically, Oudit demanded $294,000 from a contractor at North Michigan Park, threatening not to approve a necessary time extension. The contractor paid Oudit $13,500 in FBI funds. After not receiving the balance, Oudit informed the contractor's bonding company that OPM was prepared to terminate the contract. Regarding Sherwood Recreation Center, Oudit demanded that a contractor submit a fraudulent request that a $312,519 subcontract be awarded to a construction company that Oudit controlled. Finally, Oudit demanded that a third contractor, who was installing gymnasium floors at North Michigan Park and Kenilworth Recreation Centers, pay $38,500 to the construction company that Oudit controlled.

In announcing today's guilty plea, U.S. Attorney Wainstein, Acting Assistant Director Persichini, and Inspector General Willoughby praised the hard work and perseverance of FBI Special Agent Michelle Rankin and former Special Agent George Scavdis of the Inspector General's Office. They also acknowledged the efforts of Legal Assistant April Peeler, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Howard Sklamberg, who indicted the case and negotiated the guilty plea, and former Assistant U.S. Attorneys Richard Chapman and Michelle Merola, who investigated the case and secured the guilty plea of a cooperating witness.