Ex-Auditor for D.C. Tax Office Sentenced to 4 Months in Prison for Taking Bribe

A former auditor at the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue was sentenced yesterday to four months in federal prison for taking a $6,000 bribe to lower a business's taxes.

El-Hadj Drame, 36, pleaded guilty in November in U.S. District Court to receiving a bribe, admitting that he collected the cash from a business owner in 2007. He conducted his scam at the same time that federal agents swooped into the D.C. tax office to investigate an unrelated scheme that siphoned $48.1 million from the government over two decades.

"You had a position, an important position, a position of trust in the D.C. government," U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman told Drame. "You need to be punished to send a message to people in similar jobs."

Drame faced up to 18 months in prison under sentencing guidelines but received credit for cooperating with federal agents in an unrelated case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ellen Chubin Epstein said in court yesterday that the offense damaged the tax office's battered reputation.

Drame's attorney, Thomas A. Key, said his client solicited the bribe because he faced financial hardships. Drame is a native of Guinea and was granted asylum, Key and prosecutors said. His wife is due with their second child in August, they said.

Drame apologized, saying he had learned his lesson.