UNITED STATES—On June 12, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a press release announcing that four men pleaded guilty for their part in a bribery scheme that involved 14 prime contracts worth $550 million U.S. tax dollars. The crimes date back to 2013 and continued through at least 2018.
The government contracting officer for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Roderick Watson, 57 of Woodstock Maryland pleaded guilty to bribery of a public official.
Owner and President of PM Consulting Group LLC, DBA Vistant, under the Small Business Association (SBA), Walter Barnes, 46, of Potomac Maryland pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official and securities fraud.
President of Apprio, Inc., Darryl Britt, 64, of Myakka City, Florida pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official.
President and subcontractor of Vistant, Paul Young, 62, of Columbia, Maryland pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official.
In a May 2 press release the DOJ announced that Stax Inc., a private consulting group out of Boston Massachusetts, is to pay $1 million over allegations of overbilling USAID for salary reimbursements for the U.S. Government funded Sri Lanka 100 project.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office was notified by the USAID Office of the Inspector General who discovered that Stax overbilled USAID over $850,000 in inflated employee salary costs.
On February 3, the Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.) identified millions of dollars in erroneous spending. Canyon News provided a list of some of the U.S. funding that fell under the guise of U.S.AID, such as $470,000 earmarked for a DEI Opera in Colombia and $32,000 for the creation of a transgender comic book in Peru.
The Trump Administration first came under scrutiny when he took office and announced the creation of D.O.G.E. Democrat and liberal voters cried foul accusing Trump of interfering with people’s finances and taxes.
D.O.G.E. identified billions of dollars of waste and abuse by USAID. This is money used under the guise of Aid to foreign countries. The mainstream media reported that D.O.G.E. was shuttering USAID an organization that provided food and healthcare to impoverished countries.
On June 12, the Trump Administration came under scrutiny after Republicans voted to cancel $9.1 Billion in funding to USAID, NPR, and PBS.
On June 13, the headlines for Democracy Now read, “Millions of Lives At Risk-USAID Cuts Lead to Global Rise in Death, Hunger, Poverty, and Disease.”
