Meet The Other Defendants In the Taxi Bribery Scandal
By now, District residents have been well versed on the heroics of Taxicab Commission Chairperson Leon Swain Jr. in the bribery scandal, and the alleged failings of Jim Graham's Chief of Staff Ted Loza. But the majority of the defendants aren't well known.
They are parking lot attendants, gas station workers, people who struggle in the service economy to make ends meet. These defendants are the ones who allegedly bribed Swain for under-the-table taxicab licenses. You can find the indictments here.
We decided to do a piece on these anonymous men. Who are they? What did they really know about the bribery scheme?
The answers surprised us. You can read the full story which details what they did, what they knew, and how they were arrested.
One defense attorney framed the government's case as a really weak RICO case: “It would be as if in the Kevin Gray prosecution, the government charged the two top kingpins and 35 addicts as their co-defendants."
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11:32 am
I have emailed the Taxi Commission about an alternative to the current taxicab business models that are the root of the corruption scandal. My model eliminates any corruption because it eliminates the fleet operators.
Feel free to contact me and I can explain to you what motivates these people and why the fleet operators have no reason to be concerned about any of this mess. Any expression of concern is simply 'crocodile tears'.