Councilmember Jim Graham has generally kept quiet on the taxicab bribery case that has so far snared his right-hand-man Ted Loza. But at a recent Kalorama Citizens Association meeting, Graham apparently couldn't help himself. According to sources in attendance, he blasted federal law enforcement for busting Loza.

Recalls one source who was there: “[Graham] basically said Ted was entrapped by the FBI. The gentleman Kamus…He said he and Ted were very, very good friends. I thought it was a very bizarre thing to say."

Read More "Graham Slams Feds At Community Meeting; Claims His Remarks Were ‘Off The Record’" »

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.

Read More "Meet The Other Defendants In the Taxi Bribery Scandal" »

UPDATE, 6:50 P.M.: LL here. This much is clear: Leon Swain is an amazing informant.

On Sept. 25, he wore a recording device, along with FBI agent John McNair, while meeting with alleged bribery ringleader Yitbarek Syume. The tape was played today in Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson's courtroom during a hearing on whether Syume should be jailed pending trial.

Context was this: The day prior, D.C. Council aide Ted Loza had been arrested, exposing an ongoing federal investigation into taxicab-related bribes, and named in a Washington Post story as a stool pigeon in that bust was Abdulaziz Kamus---a Ethiopian community leader supposedly in thick as thieves with Syume and his crew. Syume read the WaPo article, by Del Quentin Wilber, and brought a printout of the story to a meeting with his "accomplice," Taxicab Commission honcho Swain. Tagging along was Swain's "nephew"---aka McNair. It took place in a parking lot near commission headquarters in Anacostia.

First words out of Swain's mouth to Syume: "What the fuck happened?....I thought this was your boy!"

Read More "Taxi Bribery Case: Syume on Tape Threatening FBI Informant" »

Right now, Abdulaziz Kamus has a lot on his mind. First, there's the fact that he's a central figure in the Ted Loza bribery case (Kamus allegedly joined the Fed probe, wired up, and paid Jim Graham's Right Hand Man $1500 in bribes). Today, we learned that key players in the bribery scandal discussed killing Kamus after the Loza story broke. Several community leaders say that Kamus has not appeared in public since his law enforcement activities became public.

Now comes the claim that Kamus wasn't such a great community organizer. We had previously heralded the man as the major player within the Ethiopian community. Yesterday, I was cautioned that this just wasn't the case at all.

Daniel Belayneh, the executive director of the Ethiopia Community Services and Development Council, laughed when I mentioned Kamus as a leader.

"Mostly he was working with the Latino community," Belayneh said. "He's more with Latinos."

Read More "Claim: Kamus Is No Community Organizer" »

Details are still fairly scarce as the federal taxicab investigation develops, but this much is clear: Most of those targeted are members of the East African community.

First came revelations that the man who bribed D.C. Council aide Ted Loza was none other than Abdul Kamus (pictured), a man this paper once hailed as the "de facto leader of D.C.’s Ethiopian community." Kamus' links to Loza's boss, Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham, are deep.

From the 2004 WCP article by Jonathan O'Connell:

Read More "D.C. Taxi Probe: Who Are These People?" »

Today, 27 individuals have been arrested in connection with the growing taxicab bribery scandal. Moments ago, two indictments were unsealed. You can read them here and here. Nearly 30 individuals have been indicted in federal court.

One indictment concerns three individuals: Yitbarek Syume, Berhane Leghese, and Amanuel Ghirmazion. They have been charged with bribing and conspiring to bribe the chairperson of the taxicab commission---Leon Swain Jr., who then cooperated with authorities. If convicted, the three each face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. These three individuals are alleged to have:

knowingly and willfully conspired and agreed together and with each other, and with other persons both known and unknown to the grand jury, to commit the following offenses against the United States: that is to directly and indirectly, corruptly give, offer, and promise things of value to the Chairperson, with intent to influence official acts....[they] agreed to give approximately $220,000 in cash to the Chairperson in return for the Chairperson's agreement to issue numerous multi-vehicle taxicab company licenses.

According to the indictment, they agreed to pay the Chairperson approximately $10,000 per license for multi-vehicle taxicab companies.

Read More "Breaking: Read the Taxicab Indictments; Suspects Tried To Bribe Leon Swain Jr." »

WaPo is reporting that more than two dozen individuals have been indicted in the ever-expanding taxi-cab bribery scandal:

"The suspects are cab drivers or others with financial ties to the industry, said the sources, who requested anonymity because the case is actively under investigation. The indictments remained sealed on Friday.

FBI agents and local police, the sources said, were going to try to round up as many of the suspects as possible on Friday."

The investigation started 18 months ago when people tried to bribe a member of the taxicab commission.

Read More "More Than Two Dozen Indicted In Bribery Scandal" »

Pictures sent in by a helpful reader:

Read More "Jim Graham Gets Pasted @ 18th and Columbia Road NW" »

All this week Councilmember Jim Graham has strayed from his usual m.o.: He's been press shy. He has stayed relatively quiet, refusing to answer questions about his indicted chief of staff Ted Loza and the various fallout issues that have come up.

Last night, Graham played hard to get with us over this story concerning his intensely personal entanglements with Loza. All of a sudden Graham has become allergic to the cameras. This has got to be a first for the Grahamstander.

Today, Graham made his next move: killing the controversial taxicab legislation that has become part of the Loza bribery scandal, the Washington Post reports. The paper writes:

Reached Wednesday morning, Graham said he planned to withdraw the legislation. "This bill was introduced to provoke a conversation about the ever-increasing number of taxicab operators in D.C.," he said. In its place, Graham said he planned to hold a public hearing this month to discuss the state of the District taxi industry.

Graham went on to tell the Post that his killing of the bill has nothing to do with the growing bribery investigation.

Does he think D.C. residents are going to believe that?

Read More "A Time When Grahamstanding Fails" »

In this week's column, LL, with the assistance of Jason Cherkis, examines Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham's close personal and political ties to Ted Loza---his top aide accused of taking $1,500 in bribes.

Loza occupied a privileged post in an office known for high turnover and heavyhanded management, organizing and accompanying Graham on overseas trips. Graham on Thursday, after Loza's arrest, called him "someone I have grown to trust and have confidence in."

But was that trust misplaced?

Read More "Jim Graham’s Ties to Ted Loza Included Abortion" »

The Heights Life is pumped about the new fountain on 14th Street providing  pictures, a slideshow, and a written item. DCist has reporting from the opening of the finally completed plaza. Councilmember Jim Graham did not comment on the on-going-ness of the fed's bribery investigation which has already netted his Chief of Staff Ted Loza. There are more important things to talk about like fountains constructed across the street from a Target.WaPo couldn't get Fenty to comment about the bribery mess either.

Frozen Tropics reports that H Street Country Club will be the site of  a Skeeball League. Is skeeball the next kickball? The next ping pong?

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Hipsters Discover Skeeball" »

Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham has announced he's postponing a hearing on his taxicab medallion bill, one day after his chief of staff was arrested for accepting a bribe to influence it.

The hearing, which had been scheduled for Oct. 1, is being delayed to an unspecified date "[i]n light of the current context of events."

Graham's statement: "This bill was intended to be a catalyst for discussion of various ideas to address the ever increasing number of taxicab operators in D.C....That discussion can be appropriately postponed to a later date."

Alfonso Aguilar, executive director of Fiesta DC, can only remember one time when Ted Loza was humble.

Loza, the chief of staff to Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham arrested today on bribery charges, had called on Aguilar for a big favor. He wanted the man to give his wife a job.

More than a year ago, Aguilar says, he met with Loza and another board member at Millie & Al's, an Adams Morgan dive bar, to discuss Loza's wife's employment prospects at the organization, which organizes a yearly Latino festival in Mount Pleasant among other events.

At the meeting, Loza asked Aguilar to consider his wife for an administrative job. "My wife is looking for a job," Aguilar recalls Loza telling him. "Do you have something?"

Read More "Jim Graham, Ted Loza, and Fiesta DC: How They Came Together" »

Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham says he has placed his chief of staff, arrested today in a federal bribery probe, on paid administrative leave, saying he is entitled to a presumption of innocence.

He also reiterated that Ted Loza had not tried to sway him on taxicab legislation: "Nothing that happened that has been alleged whether it occurred or didn't occur, had any influence on any action I took in terms of the legislation on taxicabs....There's absolutely no impact of anything relating to these allegations on that legislation. Going one step further, I had never had any conversation with Teddy Loza where he came to me and he said, 'Will you do this or will you do that?'" He added that the legislation resulted from a task force that had engaged in a year's worth of deliberations.

Graham did say he had indeed met with one of the individuals alleged in the indictment to have bribed Loza, a day ahead of the legislative meeting where Graham introduced the bill. But he denied that the taxi matter even came up: "There were no changes to that legislation as a result of any meeting," he says.

Read More "Ted Loza on Paid Administrative Leave, Graham Says" »

The wife of Ted Loza, the aide to Jim Graham arrested today on bribery charges, is a paid employee of an organization that has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in D.C. Council-directed earmarks.

Ligia X. Munoz is listed as doing "finances and administration" for Fiesta D.C., the group responsible for putting on the annual Latino festival in Mount Pleasant. It's a group that received $200,000 in earmark funds last year ($100,000 of that directed through Graham's public works committee), with Graham wanting to give the group more money this year.

According to Rodrigo B. Leiva, who chairs the Fiesta D.C. board, Munoz's employment was "something discussed and approved by the board."

Loza was a member of that board, but was recently jettisoned after the group learned of the FBI investigation, Leiva says. Fiesta D.C. is cooperating fully, he says.

LL asked if there was any connection between the council funds and Munoz's employment. Says Leiva, "At this moment, we'd rather not make any comment because it's an ongoing investigation."