Obama appointee Vivek Kundra on leave pending more details: reports
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Obama appointee Vivek Kundra is on leave from his White House post following the arrest Thursday of one of his former colleagues on suspicion of bribery and money laundering.
Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs called the FBI investigation of Yusuf Acar, Kundra's former staffer at the District of Columbia technology office, "a serious matter," according to published reports.
Kundra does not appear to be a target of the investigation.
Obama last week named Kundra as the White House's first chief information officer, placing him in charge of strategic planning for federal technology spending. Kundra had previously served as chief technology officer for the District, overseeing its technology purchases and policies.
Kundra will be on leave until further details of the FBI investigation become known, according to a White House official.
According to documents released by the U.S. Attorney's office for the District of Columbia, the FBI obtained permission on Thursday to arrest Acar on charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, wire fraud and money laundering.
Kundra's name does not appear anywhere in the documents.
The documents describe a scheme whereby Acar allegedly stole money from the district by inflating the size of orders from technology vendors, falsely recording that the full order was received, and then pocketing part of the remainder after a smaller quantity of goods were actually purchased.
A second scheme described in the documents featured the district office under Acar's supervision billing vendors for so-called "ghost employees" who didn't actually perform any work.
Acar, the office's chief security officer, allegedly stated that he was prepared "to go to Turkey and disappear" if caught, according to a recorded conversation cited in the documents.
Sushil Bansal, chief executive at D.C. technology company AITC, is also named in the documents as allegedly conspiring with Acar.
One scheme described in the documents describes alleged over-billing for security software from McAfee Inc. provided through AITC.
According to the documents, AITC submitted a quote to the D.C. technology office for the purchase of 2,000 licenses to the McAfee software, though McAfee only provided 500 licenses.
The District's Web site for the chief technology officer now advises employees at its 441 4th St. NW office to "not report to work until further notice."Powered by ScribeFire.
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