A second guilty plea in the corruption case of former D.C. Councilman Harry Thomas Jr. is just the tip of the iceberg in a wide-ranging investigation targeting four organizations and more than a half-dozen individuals across the city.
Marshall Banks’ guilty plea last week to concealing Thomas’ theft from city taxpayers came exactly one week after Thomas’ own guilty plea, and all indications are that more takedowns are on the way. As part of his plea, Banks, a Howard University professor and head of the nonprofit Langston 21st Century Foundation, is also agreeing to help prosecutors with their investigation and could testify against future defendants.
Tim Day, the former Republican Ward 5 council candidate who first alerted authorities to Thomas’ questionable spending, said the scope of the scandal was a “disgrace” upon the city.
“The fact that there are people involved in this who are outside of Ward 5 validates that there are multiple people who carry weight in the city who could care less about African-American kids in the District of Columbia,” Day said.
Banks associate Jimmy Garvin, the general manager of the Langston Golf Course, is likely the next to defendant to fall. He will sign a plea agreement as early as next week, according to Vandy Jamison, the attorney for both Garvin and Banks.
Not all the organizations or people being investigated are publicly known. But based on descriptions in the charging documents in Thomas’ case, others authorities are looking at include Thomas’ former chief of staff, Ayawna Webster, and council committee director Neil Rodgers, the D.C. Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation and its former Chief Executive Officer Millicent Williams, and the D.C. Young Democrats.
According to charging documents, Rodgers wrote many of the false expense reports on behalf of nonprofits funneling money back to Thomas and Webster withdrew $100,000 from the Young Democrats to help pay vendors from the 51st State Inaugural Ball.
The youth investment trust at Thomas’ direction passed nearly $400,000 in District funds to Langston 21, which gave most of the money to Thomas through his for-profit and nonprofit corporations. After Banks found out Thomas was spending that money on himself, he helped conceal the deception, according to his charging document.
