FBI bribery case against Indian CEO
By John Abraham

President Obama’s appointment of 34-year old Indian-born technocrat, Vivek Kundra, to the position of Federal CIO of the US Government, was reported extensively in India. The Federal CIO has a say in every important decision regarding technology used by the US Govt.  Vivek is on leave after a corruption racket was unearthed at his previous Office as CTO for Washington DC.

Vivek Kundra was the CTO for Washington DC and a member of the Presidential transition team before being tapped to become the Federal CIO.  Even though Vivek Kundra has not been charged with anything, the embarrassment of heading a section which has some corrupt activity may force him to withdraw from the post for ‘personal reasons’.  In politics, perception is as important as reality.

When the FBI raided the Technology department of the Government of Washington DC they arrested Government employee Turkey-born Yusuf Acar, 40, who reported to Vivek Kundra before his elevation to the post of CIO.  They also arrested Indian tech consultant Sushil Bansal, 41, whose company AITC provided a number of computing services to the Government of Washington DC.

According to the FBI, Washington DC Government employee Yusuf Acar colluded with IT consultant Sushil Bansal to defraud the Govt Computing Department of millions of dollars.  Sushil Bansal has an Indian passport and was on an H1B Working Visa at the time of his arrest.  Currently, he is on bail.  The FBI is trying to enlist Sushil to testify against the Government officials involved in the racket.  In turn, Sushil will be given a lighter sentence.

So what are the FBI allegations against Sushil Bansal?  The FBI documents lodged with the court have their case in black and white against Sushil Bansal.

The Affidavit in support of the application for the  arrest warrant of Sushil Bansal prepared by FBI special agent Andrew Sekela documents that Bansal and Yusuf Acar, the Turkish technology manager, and ‘others’ not mentioned had conspired to commit a whole lot of  offenses against the government of  Washington including stealing money through a number of schemes.

This is what the FBI has concretely accused Bansal of in their affidavit.

In the FBI documents, Bansal is listed as a former DC government employee, and President and CEO of AITC or the Advanced Integrated Technologies Corporation and his wife ‘A.B” is listed in bank account documents as corporate VP of AITC. Bansal is also an officer of Innovative IT Solutions or IITS.

Two schemes in which Bansal is involved with Acar in cheating the government of Columbia are described in the affidavit. One scheme is this:

“A quantity of goods is ordered by the OCTO (the Office of the Chief Technology Officer) from a firm like AICT, and the firm orders a lesser amount from the distributor but bills the OCTO for the higher quantity. Acar, or a similar official, certifies receipt of the greater quantity of goods and firms like AICT get paid accordingly. The conspirators share the booty.”

The second scheme alleged in the FBI documents involves ghost employees:

“Contract employees are hired by a vendor like AICT to perform specific works for the government of Columbia and the government is billed for the employee’s hours. In reality the employees on the list actually never perform any work nor do they get paid. The proceeds here are again split by the conspirators.”

The affidavit further points out that both AITC and IITS are certified business establishments in the District of Columbia. Located at addresses at different suites of the same floor of the same office building in Washington DC, the rent handling of IITS was done by AITC.

 In 2008 alone AITC initiated a bank transfer worth 2 million dollars from its Wachovia bank account to its bank in India. Public records show that between March 2004 and February 2009, AITC did over 13 million dollars of business with the Columbia government, primarily OCTO. Between July and November 2008, IITS did a business worth 2200000 dollars with the DC government.

A firm Circle Networks Inc which has done a business of 2.2 million dollars with the DC government has an account at Navy Federal Credit Union whose authorized signatories are one D.L. and Yusuf Erkan Acar who are listed as co-owners. In 2008, various amounts from a company Advanced Integra, believed to be a truncated version of AICT, has been deposited into the account. The debits were confirmed with the AICT account too.