Ifediora Oli, 41, a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) employee from Silver Spring, Maryland, was sentenced Friday, Oct. 25, to 18 months in federal prison for conspiring to defraud the District of Columbia and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Columbia.
As a result of the conspiracy, a private company owned and operated by Oli improperly received over $1 million, the department stated.
Between 2018 and 2023, Oli worked at the USDA while simultaneously serving as Principal of Highbury Global Group, Inc., court records confirm.
Co-defendant, Obinna Ogbu, an IT support manager at WMATA who occasionally acted as a contracting officer’s technical representative, collaborated with Oli to direct WMATA IT contracts to Highbury, the department stated.
In exchange for Ogbu’s misuse of his position, Oli provided items of value, enabling Highbury to receive nearly $500,000, according to court documents.
In a related case, co-defendant Bridgette Crowell, a former WMATA employee, misused her role to help Highbury secure a $630,000 COVID-19 testing supply contract with the Department of Forensic Sciences.