Ifediora Oli, an employee of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), pled guilty to conspiring with other public officials to defraud the District of Columbia and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) of money, property and their employees’ honest services.
As a result of the conspiracy, a private company owned and operated by Oli improperly received over $1 million.
Oli, 41, of Silver Spring, Maryland, pleaded guilty to a criminal information charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit money, property, and honest services wire fraud and one count of falsifying records. U.S. District Court Judge Tanya S. Chutkan scheduled sentencing for October 16.
Co-defendants Bridgette Crowell and Obinna Ogbu pleaded guilty to conspiring with Oli to defraud the District and WMATA in related cases.
According to court documents, during the conspiracy—which was carried out between 2018 and 2023—Oli was employed at USDA while separately acting as the principal of Highbury Global Group, Inc. Ogbu was employed at WMATA as an information technology customer support manager who sometimes served as a WMATA contracting officer’s technical representative (COTR) on certain WMATA contracts.
Crowell was a public employee who managed contracts at the District’s Office of Contracting and Procurement (OCP) and, before that, WMATA.
Beginning in 2018, Oli and Ogbu agreed to use Ogbu’s official position and connection to Crowell to steer funds from WMATA IT-related contracts to Highbury. As part of the conspiracy, Oli and Ogbu agreed to commit bribery.
Specifically, Oli and Ogbu agreed that Oli would give Ogbu things of value in exchange for Ogbu misusing his position at WMATA to benefit Oli. By 2023, Oli and Highbury had received nearly $500,000 through this corrupt scheme.
Crowell also misused her official position at OCP and agreed with Oli to commit bribery as part of the conspiracy. In January 2021, OCP began the process of helping the District’s Department of Forensic Sciences (DFS) hire a vendor to provide DFS with COVID-19 testing supplies. Crowell managed the contract solicitation, offer, and award in her official capacity at OCP.
Crowell alerted Oli and Ogbu to the contracting opportunity, provided them with non-public information about the solicitation, including information regarding contract pricing, and steered the contract to Highbury. The District ultimately paid Highbury over $630,000 under the contract. In return, Oli paid Ogbu over $100,000 and instructed Ogbu to give Crowell $15,000 in cash in exchange for her corrupt acts.
Oli also pleaded guilty to unlawfully falsifying an annual financial disclosure record related to his USDA employment. As a USDA employee, Oli was required to complete an annual “Confidential Financial Disclosure Report” on a U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) form referred to as the “OGE Form 450.”
Oli admitted that he repeatedly falsified his annual OGE Form 450 filings to hinder the USDA’s ability to identify, investigate, and assess his activities with Highbury and any conflict of interests they may have caused.
