(Source: WashingtonPost.com)

A former contract specialist for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has pleaded guilty in a federal bribery scheme that involved giving private information on contracts to a Maryland business in exchange for more than $38,000 in money, travel and hotels and tickets to Washington Redskins and Washington Wizards games.

Authorities said Kevin Jones, 48, of Laurel, Md., was a contract oversight specialist at HUD starting in 1999, with access to bid offers and particular information about businesses.

Jones, another former HUD employee and a former employee for a D.C. educational agency were involved in the scheme with the same Maryland company, according to the office of U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu of the District.

He made his plea Thursday before a judge in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Prosecutors said that starting in 2010, Jones gave Charles Thomas — owner of a company that offered tech services to the federal and city governments — “non-public information” about pending contracts. Officials said Thomas’s company wasn’t named in court documents because the company itself is not charged in the bribery scheme.

In exchange, Thomas gave Jones tickets to sporting events, travel and cash. The scheme went on for at least eight years, according to authorities with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia...