Washington D.C. cut ties with contractor guilty of giving bribes

Natasha Tikasz November 4, 2024

SiGMA news

Washington D.C. cut ties with contractor guilty of giving bribes

On Friday, the District of Columbia (D.C.) cut ties with a firm implicated in a bribery scandal involving a lottery and sports gambling contract. The company in question, District Services Management (DSM), is owned by Allieu Kamara, a city contractor who admitted guilt in August for bribing city officials to secure numerous contracts valued at millions of dollars.

Kamara pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and bribery. D.C. has since revoked the firm’s certification and cut it from the lottery contract. The scandal is one of the biggest hits in D.C. politics in over a decade, and the revelations show the extent of corruption in the D.C. government.

FBI affidavit details suggest Kamara to be the cooperating witness who offered Council member Trayon White cash envelopes. White was arrested in August and has pled not guilty. His case is still ongoing. According to unsealed court records, another city official was bribed along with White.

Contract rundown

Specifically, District Services Management entered the lottery business in 2019 as a subcontractor for D.C.’s $215 million no-bid contract with Intralot, which was responsible for the city’s troubled Gambet DC app. DSM earned $1.2 million from this deal. In mid-July, D.C. granted a one-year extension for the contract. However, three weeks later, federal prosecutors charged Kamara with bribery and fraud related to separate city contracts.

According to the extended contract documents, DSM was to make $217,000. Details of this contract included the provision of “staff augmentation services for managed warehousing for Intralot as needed” and assistance with “distribution” and “installation services for Intralot equipment.” Under the original 2019 contract, DSM acted as the “primary data centre” host for the sports betting system.

Kamara enters plea agreement

Additionally, court documents unsealed last Thursday reveal Kamara’s plea agreement with prosecutors on August 9 to become a cooperating witness. According to court filings, Kamara would typically face a prison sentence of 7.5 to 10 years, but he is expected to receive a more lenient sentence. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and bribery, and the agreement includes the possibility of him entering the witness protection programme.

While the bribery scandal gained attention, Intralot asked to have District Services Management removed from the lottery contract on September 12, according to a letter from the D.C. Department of Small and Local Business Development.

Seven weeks after Intralot’s request, the department’s director, Rosemary Suggs-Evans, informed Intralot’s general counsel on Friday that the agency “grants Intralot’s request and hereby permits it to remove DSM.”

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