A new series of charges filed against D.C. Councilman Jim Graham’s former chief of staff brings an alleged taxi industry bribery scheme to Graham’s door, but does not go through it.
In September, Ted Loza was charged with two counts of bribery stemming from his alleged acceptance of $500 in return for helping get passed taxicab legislation that would help his accused co-conspirators gain control of the industry.
In the new indictment filed Thursday, Loza is accused of being offered or accepting more than $30,000 in cash, trips, and free taxi and limousine rides since April 2007.
In October, 39 taxi drivers and industry leaders were indicted on bribery charges as part of a massive FBI takedown of a cash for licenses scheme allegedly run by cab company owner Yitbarek Syume and Ethiopian community leader Abdul Kamus.
According to the newest indictment, Kamus met in October 2007 with Taxi Commissioner Leon Swain, who was cooperating with the FBI, and discussed offering Graham and Loza a trip to Ethiopia in exchange for Graham’s support on legislation that would limit taxicab licenses. On Jan. 6, 2008, Kamus told Loza that he could buy Loza and Graham a trip to Ethiopia as a “reward for their help enacting” the legislation. Kamus reportedly told Loza six days later that both tickets had been purchased.
On Jan. 28, 2008, Syume spoke to an unindicted co-conspirator, telling him that “for ‘safety’ reasons [Graham] would not travel to Ethiopia until after the moratorium on the issuance on taxicab company licenses had been enacted.”
Graham told the Washington Examiner on Thursday that he “did not take a trip to Ethiopia in 2008.” Graham has taken trips to that African country in other years.
Loza, however, did take the trip to Ethiopia in August 2008, authorities said. It came one month after the D.C. Council passed the taxi cab legislation Kamus wanted.
Before Loza took the Ethiopia trip he allegedly accepted $4,000 in cash from an undercover FBI agent posing as a potential taxi cab industry investor, the indictment said. That FBI agent also offered to cover the cost of a trip to Miami for Loza and Graham. The indictment indicates that Graham didn’t take the trip, but Loza later solicited the agent for the cash, and took a $2,000 trip to Miami in November 2008.
Staff Writer Michael Neibauer contributed to this report.
