The former chief of staff to Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham, Ted Loza, will spend eight months in prison, another four on supervised release, and 150 hours doing community service.

Loza, who pleaded guilty to taking $1,500 in gratuities in connection with legislation on the taxi industry, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court, four months after his guilty plea. U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman said he was considering more than the money; he was looking at "the measure of a man," as he imposed sentencing. Prosecutors had asked the judge to send Loza to prison for 14 months, the maximum time allowable under sentencing guidelines for his offense. Loza's defense attorneys had asked for probation. (Due to an editing error, this post originally said Loza had pleaded guilt to taking bribes, not gratuities.)

In arguing for the longer sentence, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Crabb had asked the judge to send a clear message: "You sell your position. You go to jail." In arguing that Loza's history of community service should earn him probation, Loza's lawyer, Pleasant Brodnax, decided to read a poem at one point: "Not, how did he die? But how did he live?" the poem starts.

The poem is called the "Measure of a Man," and the judge referred back to it several times while explaining his sentencing decision. "One considers the measure of a man like Mr. Brodnax said, the good bad and the ugly," Friedman said. "I guess I'm mixing my metaphors."

Leaving the hearing, Loza, who apologized for his actions in court, seemed to think the proceeding had gone well. "It was a good day," he told some supporters.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

After a hearing in which Ted Loza, former staffer to Councilmember Jim Graham, pled guilty to two charges related to accepting gratuities and one charge related to making a false statement, his lawyer Pleasant S. Brodnax wanted to make something clear: "This case is not about bribery, it's not about conspiracy, it's not about extortion." As Loza, flanked by family members and looking tired, stood by, the lawyer explained that Loza wasn't copping to the most dramatic of the charges the government lobbed at him. The ones explicitly about bribery, conspiracy and extortion.

Brodnax said that Loza's case could have been wrapped up in September 2009, when Loza was first arrested.The lawyer seemed to think that a plea deal similar to the one cemented today could have been struck back then, if prosecutors would have given up on convicting Loza on charges like bribery. "The government had a different theory of the case," said Brodnax.

Now that the government has come around, Loza faces a potential 8 to 14 month sentence, if the judge decides to adhere to voluntary sentencing guidelines. A May 12 sentencing date has been set by Judge Paul L. Friedman. "Ted is glad to put this behind him," Brodnax said. Loza managed a smile now and then.

When, during the hearing, the government summarized its case against Loza, they mentioned that they had video of Loza pocketing $1000 in cash in exchange for pushing taxi cab legislation. "It's just comes down to Mr. Loza accepting responsibility for what he did,"  Brodnax said. He also explained that "Ted always acted in the best interest of the citizens of the District of Columbia."

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

"Last night at its endorsement meeting, the D.C. Latino Caucus overwhelmingly voted to endorse the candidacy of Bryan Weaver for Ward One Councilmember.

'I am deeply honored to receive this important endorsement from a community that is not only becoming one of the most important and influential voting blocs in the District of Columbia and nationally, but is also near and dear to my heart.  Being married to a Colombian-born wife and raising two Latino children in a Spanish-speaking household, the issues I have fought for as a community advocate and an 8-year Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner, and will continue to fight for on the DC Council on behalf of the Latino community, are deeply personal to me and my family.

"From economic empowerment, good-paying jobs, quality education, affordable housing, small business development, smart crime prevention, and importantly, comprehensive immigration reform and fighting against a disturbing but growing nationwide trend of anti-immigrant local laws and ordinances, I will be a tireless advocate for Latinos in Ward One and the District of Columbia. In fact I was the first elected official in the District to strongly speak out, publicly condemning the Secure Communities initiative and urging Chief of Police Lanier to refuse the District of Columbia's participation in this deeply flawed initiative.

I also vow to bring much needed accountability, transparency and oversight to the Council of the District of Columbia.  There has been a disturbing lack of all three with the current leadership and that hurts Latinos and indeed all residents of Ward One.  I will be the voice for those who have none and will fight for those who cannot fight for themselves, and I will be beholden to all residents of Ward One, and not the special interests.'"

Weaver is going to need a lot more endorsements to overcome Graham's name recognition, hefty war chest, and deep ties in the ward. But this win may mean that at least some community leaders are dissatisfied with Graham's tenure—particularly in the wake of the Ted Loza mess.

LL cycled down through the drizzle to the District's federal courthouse this morning to catch a hearing in the Ted Loza bribery case.

Things have been rather quiet in the prosecution of Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham's former chief of staff, and LL was hoping prosecutors might be filing the new charges they've indicated that might be on the way. Alas, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Crabb told LL no such charges would be forthcoming today.

So LL turned around and left, exiting through the courthouse annex. A few steps up 3rd Street NW, lo and behold, was Loza, running late for his 10:15 hearing. It was the first time LL had encountered him since his arrest.

"Life is good," Loza said, dressed in blue suit and red tie.

Conversation quickly moved to the state of his case: "I'm innocent. This is bullshit," he told LL, declining to speak in any further detail.

He proceeded take umbrage at LL's reporting last fall on Loza and his personal and professional dealings. "You didn't do me any justice," he said.

There's always next time, LL replied.

Loza's trial was set today for Oct. 4—bad news, incidentally, for Graham's Democratic challengers who might have enjoyed some pre-election bad press for the incumbent. Only an independent or Republican will be in a position to make political hay out of any revelations that might be aired at trial.

File photo by Darrow Montgomery

Come summer, nine people were lost
When train control signals got crossed
Commutes were enraging
Since Metro is aging
But fixing it comes at great cost

A self-proclaimed pol "who is moral"
Turned stalkerish after a quarrel
It got convoluted
But problems were rooted
In lack of attention, um, oral

The lesson that Graham learned this year
Was watch whom you're keeping too near
With interns so shooty
And Loza's cab booty
It's huge that Jim's still in the clear

Forgive me for what I have missed
(I know it's a really huge list)
There's Rhee and there's Fenty
For now, this is plenty
It's time to go out and get kissed!

"You know I need it. That's why I take it, you know."

—Ted Loza, chief of staff to Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham, June 19

Federal agents swarmed the John A. Wilson Building on Sept. 24, after a sting operation caught Loza accepting a $1,500 bribe to influence taxi legislation on behalf of Abdulaziz Kamus, an Ethiopian community leader. (He offered the above rationalization in the process.) Loza, long one of Graham's top aides, had a close relationship with his boss—close enough that Graham bankrolled a 2006 abortion for a woman that Loza had abused. But Graham consistently denied any wrongdoing, and the federal probe soon turned away from city hall and into the District's taxi industry. Later in the fall, the feds arrested taxi mogul Yitbarek Syume and dozens of aspiring cab drivers, as part of what was revealed to have been a long-running investigation that involved the cooperation of wire-wearing, whistleblowing Taxicab Commission chair Leon Swain. But political fallout is ongoing—though Graham hasn't been personally implicated in any illegalities, the scandal has emboldened at least two Ward 1 community activists—Jeff Smith and Bryan Weaver—to explore runs against him in 2010.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

More from LL's Quotes of 2009

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."

Says another: “He talked a little bit about the investigation. He went back and forth from sort of defending Ted and throwing Ted under the bus a little bit. He talked about how Kamus was a really good friend of the office and a good personal friend of Ted’s.…That’s when he came up with the FBI entrapment….It’s a close friend of Teddy’s who got caught up in the investigation.” [See pictures of Loza and Kamus].

And finally, here's one more source from the KCA meeting: "I heard him talk about the taxicab investigation and how tragic everything was....It gets you paranoid. You don’t be expecting to be talking to someone and thinking you are talking to the FBI."

Pretty deep insights from the Grahamstander.

When we asked the councilmember to confirm or deny his comments, a staffer offered up a very unique retort.

Brian DeBose, Graham's new spokesperson, replied via e-mail: "It was an off-the-record meeting. That means you want him to verify something. He wants to know what you want him to verify before he talks to you." (This item initially misspelled DeBose's last name)

I replied that there's no such thing as an off-the-record public meeting. DeBose replied: "Incidentally, I know a community meeting is by definition not off the record. However, Dennis James assured the Councilmember it would be."

Denis James did not return calls seeking comment.

Bryan Weaver, an ANC Commissioner in Adams Morgan, says the meeting was not advertised as off-the-record. “I don’t know how you can have public meeting be off the record," he says. "It’s impossible. They had probably a 100 signs up in the community featuring Jim Graham as the speaker…It was the only thing on the poster.”

Eventually, Graham agreed to be interviewed. Yesterday, I was told that he would be calling. He never did. This afternoon I got another, final response from DeBose: "The councilmember was unavailable for comment by press time."

*photo by Darrow Montgomery.

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."

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!"

He's apparently talking about Kamus. From there, Swain went on to sell LL that there was no way he was in with the feds. Now LL's courtroom stenography skills are not stellar (the U.S. Attorney's Office says it will be providing copies of the tape early tomorrow), but here is what he was able to pick up:

—Syume saying that he had spoken to Kamus, who had told him, "He said no. He didn't do this, he said."

—Swain tells Syume: "'Graham is still OK. But Teddy..." He goes on to say the following: "Kamus got Graham moving to do that Ethiopian deal he put out there."

—Syume says, "We don't know anything." Swain says, "We don't know shit!"

—The name "Tony" or "Toney" is all over the tape. This is almost certainly a reference to Causton Toney, Swain's predecessor on the Taxi Commission. Says Swain at one point, "Toney is OK. Toney knows about the stuff with Kamus." Later, Swain asks, "Where's Toney?" Syume says, "Nobody knows." Later Swain adds, "I know Toney knows about all these companies and all this other shit." Says Syume, "I know he knows."

—Swain tries to gauge his own vulnerability with Syume. He tells him, "I hear rumors you were pissed at me and you were going to take me out." Says Syume, "Oh, no, trust me."

—Swain, amazingly, convinces Syume to continue on with the scam. He tells him, "We'll do that class next Thursday or Friday." That's a reference to a fake "class" the feds set up to capture drivers offering bribes for hack licenses. Those busts indeed happened last Friday. Syume was arrested the same day.

—Swain ends the conversation saying, "I'll be as strong as you are." That's when Syume mentions "eliminating" Kamus; Swain talks about getting him "off the face of this earth." Syume assures him: "We will know soon; they will come to him."

OK, the matter at hand: Will Syume be jailed pending trial? Unclear: Robinson continued the hearing after prosecutor John Crabb noted that in prior telephone conversations (one of "thousands" recorded, Crabb said) that Syume had threatened to "put a bullet in Mr. Kamus' head" and had made "veiled-type threats" against Swain. Tomorrow, Crabb is expected to present those tapes. In an initial ruling, Robinson held that Syume's risk of flight alone wasn't enough to keep him jailed. She'll give a final ruling tomorrow afternoon, once she gives hears evidence on whether Syume is a "danger to the community."

ORIGINAL POST: Today, Mike DeBonis is reporting live from U.S. District Court where the issue of taxicab bribery defendant Yitbarek Syume's threats are being aired and debated. This afternoon, prosecutors played a tape of Syume talking with Leon Swain Jr. (pictured) and an undercover F.B.I. agent.

Syume is alleged to have discussed killing off Abdulaziz Kamus. Kamus is the Ethiopian bigwig turned FBI informant who allegedly bribed Councilmember Jim Graham's chief of staff Ted Loza.

On the tape, Swain does most of the talking. Syume mentions a name that is slowly becoming a player in this scandal: former head of the taxicab commission Causton Toney. Syume says Toney knows all about this. Swain expresses much concern about Toney.

Prosecutors allege that on the tape Syume says that "The one [Kamus] will be eliminated. You'll see...eliminated soon. Don't worry. Permanently eliminated."

According to court records [PDF], prosecutors state that their source asked when Kamus would be killed. Syume is alleged to have replied: "They will come to me. I will tell you."

Prosecutors argued in court documents: "This suggests that the defendant had solicited others in his efforts to harm the cooperating witness. The defendant also encouraged the source to destroy evidence. He instructed him to 'crash the computer' on which existed evidence of defendant's crimes."

Toney's house was raided last Friday by federal agents. Toney is a partner with Syume in UFM and Jet Cab. He has not been charged in this case.

The tape was made at about 10 a.m., the day after Loza was arrested, in a parking lot along Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE near the Taxicab Commission's office.

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."

Belayneh cautioned reporters writing about Kamus: "He's not as active as you guys think in terms of working with the community. What does he organize?"

*photo by Darrow Montgomery.

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:

On Sept. 16, [2004,] Kamus held a press conference in front of Dukem, a U Street Ethiopian restaurant, to request better police protection for African-owned businesses on the thoroughfare....At 1:30 p.m., a cream-colored Volkswagen Beetle convertible pulled up and Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham emerged, sporting a slight sunburn.

Graham had just returned from a five-week trip to Ethiopia, for which Kamus had arranged his travel and lodging. Graham, as well as his director of multicultural policy and community relations, Ted Loza, had spent the trip gathering a better understanding of Ethiopian culture. Upon following Kamus to the podium, Graham said “Tena yestelgn”—a greeting in Amharic, Ethiopia’s primary language. Kamus and the restaurant owners beamed.

Recently, Loza said he had never heard from an African-immigrant advocate before Kamus arrived. “He came to D.C., he asked the right questions, and [he] isn’t afraid to ask,” Loza said.

Kamus’ lobbying of Graham has paid off in big ways for the Ethiopian community. In March, after Metro fired about 30 Ethiopian parking-lot attendants after discovering millions of dollars in parking revenue was missing, Kamus complained to Graham, a Metro board member. Graham forcefully defended the fired Ethiopians at a press conference.

With Graham’s support, Kamus has tackled a variety of issues related to Ethiopian welfare in D.C. One of his greatest accomplishments was the April passage of the Language Access Act. Submitted by Graham, the law requires the city to provide translation services in Amharic. Kamus has since lobbied for the city to create a mayoral commission to serve the African refugee community, noting that the mayor currently has an nine-member Office on Latino Affairs and a five-member Office on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs.

Since then, Kamus (pronounced CAH-moo) has maintained his preeminent place in the city's Ethiopian culture. And, with taxi driving being a central part of that culture, it's no surprise he'd have a hand in that business.

Then there's Yitbarek Syume, who owns and operates both Jet Cab and United Fleet Management, a company that installs taximeters and does mechanic and body work for independent drivers. That outfit was named last week in a search warrant served to search Loza's office. This afternoon, LL stopped by UFM's headquarters in Eckington to find the premises vacant save for a single mechanic, who said Syume had left for the day.

But these business connections aren't exclusively Ethiopian: Washington Post reporter Del Wilber reports this afternoon that 'FBI agents Friday morning raided the home of Causton Toney in Northwest Washington, according to a law enforcement source.'

Toney, a D.C. Taxi Commission chair, is a partner with Syume in UFM and Jet Cab. He has not been charged.

File photo by Darrow Montgomery

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.

The indictment states:

The principal role of Ghirmazion was to raise money for the scheme; the principal role of Leghese was to prepare documents associated with the corruptly obtained multi-vehicle taxicab company licenses; and the principal role of Syume was to arrange for and make a series of bribe payments to the Chairperson.

The indictment goes on to state:

It was further part of the conspiracy that attempts were made to obtain corruptly large numbers of licenses for multi-vehicle taxicab companies from the Chairperson.

It was further part of the conspiracy that the DEFENDANTS intended to sell some of the licenses for multi-vehicle taxicab companies that they had corruptly obtained to finance their scheme, and to hold the balance of the licenses in anticipation of the licenses becoming more valuable.

*The bribery began in September 2007 with Syume giving the Chairperson a list of seven cab companies which he requested "licensing without proper authorization." That same day—Sept. 5, 2007—Syume gave $14,000 in cash in exchange for the requested licences.

*On Sept. 6, according to the indictment, Syume gave two more envelopes of cash to the chairperson totaling about $8,000.

*On Sept. 25, Syume received the licenses from the chairperson.

Syume continued to give the chairperson thousands of dollars in cash through October. For example:

On or about October 17, 2007, Syume again put a folded newspaper containing approximately $3,000 in cash into the Chairperson's automobile as partial payment for multi-vehicle taxicab company licenses.

On Nov. 8, 2007, Syume and Leghese, the indictment states, discussed via phone selling the licenses at $150,000 a piece. Less than a week later, Syume "gave a shopping bag containing approximately $59,880 in cash."

The bribes continued into the spring of 2008. The indictment ends in July 2008. But not before producing this chilling entry into the court record:

On or about July 5, 2008, Syume and Leghese spoke by telephone, at which time they discussed their concerns about the Chairperson; Leghese stated: 'We have to be careful that [the Chairperson] will not play any games, do you understand?'

The second indictment contains a whopping 37 defendants. It appears that much of their allegedly illegal activities are of a more recent vintage—last month:

From between Sept. 3 to Sept. 28, 2009, the defendants allegedly conspired to "directly and indirectly, corruptly give, offer, and promise things of value to the Chairperson, with intent to influence official acts, that is the DEFENDANTS agreed to give cash in various amounts to the Chairperson in return for his agreement to issue taxicab operator licenses to the DEFENDANTS.

Let's just say, the indictment paints a picture of a very well organized crew. The taxicab industry has failed to influence the public and, say, Mayor Fenty on meters. But they had this bribery thing down:

On or about September 3, 3009, Yitbarek Syume and Suraphel Ayalew met the Chairperson, at which time they discussed the method by which they would obtain corruptly taxicab operator licenses, including the preparation of applications, the location for meetings, and the amount of the bribes to be paid to the Chairperson.

On Sept. 11, a huge number of the defendants met the chairperson "at which time they paid cash to him for taxicab operator licenses that they were attempting to obtain corruptly."

A week later, Syume handed over $51,000 in cash to the chairperson. That same day, Syume and others received licenses. They repeated this several more times.

The final bit of action listed in the indictment took place on Sept. 28, 2009:  "Yitbarek Syume met the Chairperson at which time he discussed the logistics for the receipt of taxicab operator licenses by himself and the other co-conspirators."

The defendants have been charged with conspiracy to commit bribery, aiding and abetting, and "Causing an Act to be Done." If convicted, each of these defendants face up to five years in prison and a five of up to $250,000.

"The allegations contained in these indictments are serious–describing alleged corrupt activities at the heart of our taxicab industry–and reflect our determination to root out corruption in our government," stated Acting U.S. Attorney Channing Phillips in a press release. "Working closely with the FBI, we will continue to investigate this matter fully."

Twenty-seven defendants have been arrested so far. Five search warrants have been executed as well.

"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.

The Post goes on to write:

"The board member reported the bribe attempt to authorities, the sources said. Soon, the sources said, the taxi official was wearing a wire and working undercover for the FBI by taking bribes from people in the taxi industry. He played a key role leading up to Thursday's indictments, the source said.

More than $100,000 in bribes were collected as part of the investigation, the sources said."

So who was that good citizen on the board that refused taxi money?

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?

Graham tells the D.C. Wire:

"Withdrawing this bill has nothing to do with the investigation and I am going to prove this by going forward with the substance of this issue," Graham said. "I think there is a real issue, under my jurisdiction, under my oversight, with a real concentration (of cabs) and I just want people to know what the issue is."

Glad to see the Grahamstander is back in fine form.