Dept. of Commerce Employee Arrested on Bribery, Corruption Charges

A Bristow man who worked for a branch of the Department of Commerce was arrested Tuesday and charged with conspiracy to pay and receive bribes, and receiving bribery payments from a public official.

According to the indictment, Raushi Conrad, 42, served as the Director of Systems Operation and Security within the Bureau of Industry and Security, a branch of the Department of Commerce. In that position, Conrad was designated to oversee and manage a project whereby computer files were transferred from an old BIS computer network that had been infected by a virus to a new, uninfected network, and to ensure that the transferred files were free of viruses and, in some instances, retained the full functionality of the files that had resided on the old network.

The indictment alleges that while serving as the project manager for the data migration project, from at least 2008 through October 2011, Conrad solicited and received bribes from a local businessman in return for steering a lucrative subcontract and contract to perform the data migration work to companies owned in whole or in part by the bribe payer.

One of the bribe payer’s companies reportedly made $208,000 in payments to a restaurant business owned by Conrad, and many of these payments were concealed through false and fictitious invoices created by Conrad. The fake invoices made it appear that Conrad’s restaurant business had performed various services for the bribe payer’s company, when in fact no such services had ever been provided. According to the indictment, the bribe payer’s company also arranged for various subcontractors to perform over $7,000 worth of free renovation work at Conrad’s residence.

Conrad faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison if convicted of conspiracy, and 15 years in prison if convicted of bribery. Sentencing has not yet taken place.