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Andre De Moya, 51, of Temple Hills, and District resident Davoud Jafari, 72, will possibly spend years behind bars for their respective roles in multi-year schemes, federal authorities announced on Thursday.
Specifically, De Moya was sentenced to 30 months in prison, while Jafari was hit with 24 months for their roles in the schemes.
In both schemes, the bribe payments and communications were facilitated by middleman Anthony Merritt. Merritt, a former employee of the DC Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs who held himself out as a permit and licensing expediter, and was also primarily responsible for introducing the business owners to the scheme.
The employee who received the bribes, Vincent Slater, resigned from Office of Tax and Revenue in December 2017, concluding both schemes, each of which had lasted over five years, launching the extensive investigation.
In June last year, a federal jury found De Moya and Merritt guilty of bribery, conspiracy, and wire-fraud offenses arising from the scheme.
According to the government’s evidence, the businesses that benefited from De Moya’s participation in the scheme included concert venue Echostage, as well as downtown bars and nightclubs such as Eyebar (later renamed Eden), Ultrabar, L8 Lounge, and Barcode.
Officials say that evidence at trial showed that De Moya also introduced additional business owners to Merritt, leading to similar schemes by Merritt and Slater involving restaurants Café Asia and Umaya and nightclub Muse Lounge.
In September 2023, Merritt pleaded guilty to bribery, conspiracy, and wire-fraud for his role in passing bribes to Slater on behalf of Jafari, who owned and operated Zeba Bar in Columbia Heights through a company called Gevani, Inc.
Jafari was found guilty at trial of bribery, conspiracy, and wire-fraud offenses.
Prior to both trials, Slater pleaded guilty to erasing or helping a number of D.C. business owners, including De Moya and Jafari, evade over $3 million of dollars of tax obligations, in exchange for the bribe payments he split with Merritt.
Slater is scheduled to be sentenced next month.
According to court documents, De Moya and Jafari were responsible for combined losses to the District of over $925,000.
"The majority of the taxes they evaded through the schemes comprised a 10 percent sales and use tax on food and beverages that was charged to customers and held in trust by the business owners pending transfer to the District," officials said.
In addition to the prison terms, both men were ordered to serve three years of supervised release, while De Moya will provide 200 hours of community service and Jafari will pay upwards of $1,000 in fines.
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