The judge ordered Acar to remain in custody, saying that the evidence underpinning the bribery charge is "overwhelming" and siding with federal prosecutors who contended that Acar might try to flee the country if he's released on bail.

The bribery case has a political side that reaches into the White House as a result of President Barack Obama's appointment, just two weeks ago, of to be the federal government's . Until then, Kundra was the District's chief technology officer and Acar's boss.

However, there are no indications from court documents that Kundra had any knowledge of the alleged illegal activities that led to the arrests of Acar and the CEO of an outsourcing contractor. After the arrests were made, from his CIO job. But a White House spokesman confirmed late Tuesday that Kundra has now been reinstated to that position.

In court Tuesday, the only legal question at issue was whether Acar should be released from jail. Other questions were left for subsequent hearings, including the fundamental mystery of what might have motivated Acar - who was earning an annual salary of US$127,468, according to court documents - to take part in the alleged bribery scheme.

The government claims that Acar and Sushil Bansal, CEO of Advanced Integrated Technologies Corp. in Washington, collaborated to overbill the D.C. government on software purchases by submitting purchase orders for more licenses than were actually delivered. The two men, who were arrested in concert with a , also added "ghost workers" - nonexistent employees - to the IT department's payroll and created timesheets for them so payments could be made in their names, according to the charging documents.