DISTRICT BRIEFING

City Auditor Pleads Guilty to Accepting Bribe

A 36-year-old former auditor at the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court to receiving a $6,000 bribe to lower a business's taxes.

El-Hadj Drame, who resigned from the tax office as part of the plea, faces up to 18 months in prison under federal guidelines at his sentencing Feb. 18. Drame acknowledged that he collected the cash from a business owner as FBI agents were swarming the tax office while investigating an unconnected scam that siphoned $48.1 million from the District government.

Authorities said Drame approached the owner of an unidentified business he was auditing last November. The men met twice that month at a Silver Spring fast-food restaurant, where Drame solicited the bribe, prosecutors said. The business owner gave Drame an envelope filled with the cash Nov. 14, 2007, prosecutors said.

-- Del Quentin Wilber

Man Admits to Extorting Surgeon Over Affair

A Nigerian man acknowledged in federal court that he extorted a married neurosurgeon to keep quiet the doctor's affair with a nurse, who was in on the scheme.

Adriane Osuagwu, who most recently lived in California, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit extortion and is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 30. The doctor, who lives in the Washington area, is married to a prominent World Bank official. He had an affair with a nurse, Queen Nowye, who was a former lover of Osuagwu's, prosecutors said. Osuagwu and Nowye extorted the doctor in 2006, collecting $185,000 to keep them from telling his wife about the liaisons. Osuagwu pocketed $174,000, prosecutors said. Nowye was convicted last year of conspiring to commit extortion by a federal jury and was sentenced in June to 20 months in prison. Under sentencing guidelines, Osuagwu faces 21 to 27 months behind bars.

-- Del Quentin Wilber