Obama CIO placed on leave after FBI raid

Vivek Kundra has been placed on leave

Just days after his appointment as US chief information officer, Vivek Kundra has been told to take leave after the FBI swooped on his former employer, according to reports.

An employee of the District of Columbia's Office of the Chief Technology Officer and a private contractor were charged with corruption after the FBI raid.

Yusuf Acar, 40, acting chief security officer at the CTO's office, was charged with bribery of a public official, money laundering, wire fraud and conflict of interest, according to a report on Washington’s WTOP news site.

Sushil Bansal, president and chief executive of Advanced Integrated Technologies Corporation, and a former government employee, is said to face the same charges.

Acar worked under chief information officer Kundra at the Columbia CTO office, but it is not thought that the latter is implicated in any wrongdoing.

The news will nevertheless be a setback to the Obama administration, which has yet to appoint a chief technology officer to work alongside Kundra.

At the time of Kundra’s appointment on 5 March, Obama said that he would play a key role in the "secure, open and efficient" running of the US government.

"I have directed him to work to ensure that we are using the spirit of American innovation and the power of technology to improve performance and lower the cost of government operations," he added.

Kundra is on leave until further details of the case become known, a White House source told Associated Press.