39 Indicted In DC Taxicab Bribery Scandal

VIA MYFOXDC:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The corruption probe involving the D.C. Taxicab industry widened considerably Friday with the indictment of 37 people– most of them cab drivers– all charged with conspiracy to commit bribery.

The FBI also raided the home of a former chairman of the D.C. Taxicab commission, searching it for several hours. It’s all connected to the arrest last week of D.C. City Councilman Jim Graham’s chief of staff.

According to the indictment, people in the taxicab industry filled shopping bags with cash and gave it to the current chairman of the D.C. Taxicab Commission– all of it in return for fraudulent taxicab licenses.

Around mid-morning Friday, FBI agents raided the home of Causten Toney, the former chairman of the commission. Agents spent more than three hours inside, leaving with several boxes.

Toney, a lawyer, is not named in the indictments and he was not taken into custody. No one answered the door in the minutes after the agents left.

By mid-day Friday, the FBI had in custody 27 of the 37 people under indictment.

Most of them are cabbies accused of conspiracy to commit bribery, handing over as much as $330,000 in cash to the current chairman of the Taxicab Commission, Leon Swain, who the government says was cooperating with the FBI, working undercover, accepting money in exchange for fraudulent licenses.

Read more here.