Bribes Land Businessman 14 Months Behind Bars

WASHINGTON – A brazen scheme to bribe federal and D.C. employees has landed a Washington DC businessman behind bars. Charles M. Thomas, 47, was sentenced to 14 months in prison for paying bribes to two employees of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as well as to an employee of the District of Columbia Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) in return for favorable treatment on contracts for his business.

Thomas, of Lusby, Md., pleaded guilty in May 2018 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and two counts of conspiracy to pay gratuities and violate the Procurement Integrity Act. He was sentenced by the Honorable Randolph D. Moss.

As part of his plea agreement, Thomas is required to pay restitution to the D.C. Office of the State Superintendent of Education in the amount of $179,999. He also must pay a forfeiture money judgment in the same amount. Following his prison term, he will be placed on two years of supervised release.

Thomas, the sole owner and president of a Maryland company that provided information technology services to agencies of the federal government and educational services to public school children in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, admitted to carrying out three schemes. One involved his dealings with a former management analyst of OSSE, an agency of the District of Columbia government.

The others involved his dealings with a former contract oversight specialist, Kevin Jones, and a former supervisory contract specialist, LaFonda Lewis, with HUD. In 2013 and 2014, Thomas made approximately $53,000 in payments to OSSE employee Shauntell Harley. In return, she provided him with information needed to create fraudulent invoices reflecting the provision of early intervention services that Thomas’s company did not provide.

Thomas provided Jones with tickets to sporting events, travel, cash, and other items worth more than $50,000, in exchange for Jones providing Thomas and his company with non-public information about pending HUD contracts. He provided Lewis with tickets to sporting events, designer handbags, cash, and other items worth more than $23,000, in exchange for non-public information about contracts.

The investigation into Thomas’s activities was led by the FBI’s Washington Field Office, HUD’s Office of the Inspector General, and the District of Columbia Office of the Inspector General. The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.