From Martha’s Vineyard to NBA suites: USAID official and contractors defraud taxpayers of $550 million



A decade-long fraud and bribery scheme involving the United States Agency for International Development further reinforced the Trump administration's case for restructuring the fraud-plagued agency.

On Thursday, Trump's Department of Justice published a press release announcing that a former USAID official and three senior leaders from three private companies pleaded guilty to a massive plot to defraud American taxpayers dating back to 2013.

The scheme involved at least 14 contracts totaling over $550 million in taxpayer funds.

'A former USAID employee and three others were using funds to pay for things like a lavish country club wedding and a Martha's Vineyard estate, all on the taxpayer's dime.'

Roderick Watson, who previously worked as a USAID contracting officer, agreed to receive bribes from Darryl Britt, then owner and president of Apprio Inc., to influence contracts awarded to the company.

Early in the scheme, PM Consulting Group LLC, doing business as Vistant, was a subcontractor to Apprio on one of the awarded contracts.

RELATED: USAID program contractor defrauds taxpayers of $100,000 in latest agency scandal

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Between 2018 and 2022, Apprio lost its eligibility to be a prime contractor for new USAID contracts under the SBA 8(a) contracting program. Apprio and Vistant responded by switching around their scheme, allowing Vistant to act as the prime contractor and Apprio its subcontractor.

Britt and Walter Barnes, Vistant's then-owner and president, bribed Watson, often funneling money through Paul Young, then president of a subcontractor to the two companies. Britt and Barnes also hid their illegal activities through fake invoices and falsely listed Watson and shell companies on electronic bank transfers.

Their bribes also included electronics, suite tickets to an NBA game, two residential mortgage down payments, and employment for relatives.

Watson allegedly received $1 million in bribes.

The DOJ explained how Watson used his influence to ensure that Apprio and Vistant received the USAID awards.

"In exchange for the bribe payments, Watson influenced the award of contracts to Apprio and Vistant by manipulating the procurement process at USAID through various means, including recommending their companies to other USAID decisionmakers for non-competitive contract awards, disclosing sensitive procurement information during the competitive bidding process, providing positive performance evaluations to a government agency, and approving decisions on the contracts, such as increased funding and a security clearance," the press release read.

In connection with the fraud scheme, Apprio and Vistant agreed to admit criminal liability and engage in deferred prosecution agreements for three years, which require the companies to submit disclosures to the DOJ.

"As part of these resolutions, both Apprio and Vistant admitted to engaging in a conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official and securities fraud," the department stated.

The DOJ noted Apprio's and Vistant's cooperation in its investigation and credited the companies for their "timely remedial measures."

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Photo by LUIS TATO/AFP via Getty Images

Watson pleaded guilty to bribery by a public official and faces up to 15 years in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for October 6.

Barnes pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official and securities fraud. His sentencing is slated for October 14, and he faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

Britt pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official and faces up to five years in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for July 28.

Young pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official. He is looking at a maximum penalty of five years in prison and faces sentencing on September 3.

A senior State Department official told Blaze News, "These guilty pleas further underscore the need for State Department oversight over U.S. foreign aid. A former USAID employee and three others were using funds to pay for things like a lavish country club wedding and a Martha's Vineyard estate, all on the taxpayer's dime. The Trump administration remains relentless in defending American taxpayers' dollars and weeding out waste, fraud, and abuse from our federal government."

Apprio Inc., and Vistant did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

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USAID program contractor defrauds taxpayers of $100,000 in latest agency scandal



A former contractor with a program funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development admitted to defrauding taxpayers of nearly $100,000, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

On Monday, Stephen Paul Edmund Sutton, a 53-year-old United Kingdom citizen, pleaded guilty to participating in a fraudulent kickback scheme from May through November 2015.

'This is why shutting down USAID is such a good policy.'

Sutton, employed through a contracting firm, previously worked as a logistics operations manager on a power distribution program in Pakistan that USAID funded.

The program, launched in September 2010, aimed to support Pakistan's energy sector by facilitating improvements to the country's "government-owned electric power distribution companies."

The U.S. Attorney's Office explained, "The main goal of the PDP was to improve the commercial performance of the participating distribution companies through technology upgrades and improvements in processes, procedures, and practices, as well as training and capacity building. Under the PDP contract, Sutton's employer subcontracted through purchase orders with vendors in Pakistan for certain goods and services."

RELATED: USAID staff told to shred, burn sensitive documents

RELATED: Trump admin slashes 83% of USAID programs: Rubio

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

While employed, Sutton received "kickbacks of USAID funds used to pay for the services rendered."

After battling extradition for over two years, he pleaded guilty on Monday to "one count of conspiracy to commit theft concerning a program receiving federal funds."

Sutton was sentenced to time served and turned over to federal immigration authorities.

Sutton's supervisor also allegedly participated in the scheme. They apparently created two companies to obtain purchase orders for equipment. However, they reportedly distributed the profits to themselves by hiring "low-grade local vendors" to perform the work at a fraction of the contract rates.

"U.S. government sentencing documents indicate the agency was defrauded of almost $100,000 and that for his part, Sutton received at least $21,000 in kickbacks," the U.S. Attorney's Office stated. "Sutton's co-conspirator is also charged by indictment, and his case is pending disposition."

A State Department spokesperson told Blaze News, "This recent legal victory in federal court delivers much-needed accountability on an individual who conspired to steal tens of thousands of dollars from American taxpayers and divert resources away from lifesaving assistance."

"It is also just another reason why ensuring foreign aid contracts have proper oversight under the State Department is crucial to the future of how America administers aid," the spokesperson added.

USAID waste

Since President Donald Trump began his second term, USAID has been heavily scrutinized for its wasteful spending and vulnerability to fraudulent activity.

The Department of Government Efficiency previously uncovered millions of dollars in wasteful spending on propaganda, climate hysteria, LGBT advocacy, and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

As a result, the Trump administration has pushed to significantly restructure USAID, including moving it under the domain of the Department of State and eliminating most of its programs.

Oversight Project President Mike Howell told Blaze News, "A great way to prevent fraud and abuse in government spending is to throw less money around third-world countries that passes through the hands of contractors and other entities. The idea that we can ever competently and safely spend money in those regions without it being siphoned off is lunacy. This is why shutting down USAID is such a good policy."

Editor's note: Mike Howell is a contributor to Blaze News.

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Federalist Investigates: Serbian Revolutionary Linked To USAID Now Works For ‘Bidenbucks’-Affiliated Group

This 'looks like an insidious intersection of the Bidenbucks and USAID scandals,' said Adam Gibbs, Foundation for Government Accountability.

USAID staff told to shred, burn sensitive documents



United States Agency for International Development staffers were instructed to shred or burn sensitive documents this week.

According to an email obtained by Politico, the USAID acting executive director, Erica Carr, told workers on Tuesday to destroy "classified safes and personnel documents" at the agency's former Washington, D.C., headquarters at the Ronald Reagan Building. Carr called the directive an "all day" event.

'More fake news hysteria!'

"Shred as many documents first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break," Carr's email read. "If you need to use the burn bags, do not overfill, and ensure the burn bags can be closed with staples at the top."

She directed staff to use a dark marker to label burn bags as "SECRET" and "USAID/B/IO/," which refers to "bureau or independent office."

While her correspondence did not note a reason for the destruction of documents, it comes on the heels of the Trump administration announcing massive cuts to the agency. Earlier this week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio shared that the White House had canceled 5,200, or 83%, of USAID's contracts.

Politico stated that most of the agency's staff has either been laid off or placed on administrative leave. In late February, reports surfaced that an email had been sent to staffers, revealing that roughly 2,000 workers would be impacted by the layoffs.

Customs and Border Protection is slated to take over USAID's former headquarters.

White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly responded to concerns about Carr's directive.

"This was sent to roughly three dozen employees. The documents involved were old, mostly courtesy content (content from other agencies), and the originals still exist on classified computer systems," she wrote in a post on X.

"More fake news hysteria!" Kelly declared.

A union representing USAID contractor workers requested that a federal judge move to block the destruction of the documents, the Associated Press reported.

The American Foreign Service Association stated it is concerned that the documents "may be relevant to ongoing litigation regarding the termination of USAID employees and the cessation of USAID grants."

The State Department did not respond to the AP's request for comment.

Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow with the Heritage Foundation, claimed that the USAID workers were "committing felonies under 18 USC 1519 in destroying Gov documents." He called for all of the staffers involved to "be criminally prosecuted," adding, "especially [the] acting director of USAID."

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Trump admin slashes 83% of USAID programs: Rubio



Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Monday that the Trump administration has slashed 83% of the United States Agency for International Development's programs.

The Department of Government Efficiency has scrutinized USAID for its wasteful spending, highlighting grants for LGBT, climate, and diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Even before President Donald Trump took office and the department was officially formed, the DOGE set its sights on rooting out USAID's questionable awards.

'Pushing radical left politics.'

"USAID spends $40B+ of taxpayer dollars to fund foreign aid," DOGE wrote in January.

It noted that $45 million in taxpayer funds went to DEI scholarships in Burma and $520 million to environmental, social, and governance projects in Africa. According to the DOGE, another $1.2 billion went to "undisclosed recipients."

On Monday, Rubio explained that a six-week review of USAID was recently completed, resulting in the cancellation of 83% of its programs.

"The 5200 contracts that are now cancelled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States," Rubio wrote in a post on X.

"In consultation with Congress, we intend for the remaining 18% of programs we are keeping (approximately 1000) to now be administered more effectively under the State Department," he continued.

"Thank you to DOGE and our hardworking staff who worked very long hours to achieve this overdue and historic reform," Rubio concluded.

— (@)

Elon Musk, who has been working alongside the DOGE as one of President Donald Trump's advisers, called the USAID audit "tough, but necessary."

"Good working with you," Musk told Rubio. "The important parts of USAID should always have been with Dept of State."

Last week, Musk accused USAID of "interfering in governments throughout the world and pushing radical left politics."

Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) warned on Monday that Congress' current proposed continuing resolution would fully fund USAID despite the announced cuts.

"Despite @DOGE's findings of loony left-wing USAID programs, the Republican spending bill continues to fund the very foreign aid @elonmusk proposes to cut!" he wrote in a post on X.

"The bill continues spending at the inflated pandemic levels and will add $2T to the debt this year. Count me as a hell no!" Paul declared.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) has similarly noted that the CR would fund the federal government at existing levels through September 30.

"Rand is correct. I'm a No as well on this CR," Massie wrote in response to Paul's post.

In a separate X post, he noted that the CR "does fund USAID."

"If it passes this week, the CR obligates Trump (from now until September) to spend the same amounts of money on generally the same things Biden spent money on in his last 15 months in office," Massie explained. "We could pass recisions later to undo some things, but there's no commitment to do so."

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Chinese scientist with reported ties to USAID finds new bat coronavirus that could infect humans like COVID



Chinese scientists have said that they discovered a new bat coronavirus that could infect humans in the same manner as the virus that causes COVID-19. The lead scientist in the new study has reported links to USAID.

According to a report from the South China Morning Post, the researchers are from the Guangzhou Laboratory, the Guangzhou Academy of Sciences, Wuhan University, and the infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The lead scientist in the new bat coronavirus study reportedly had prior financial ties to the embattled United States Agency for International Development.

The new infectious disease is called HKU5-CoV-2. The new coronavirus was first identified in the Japanese pipistrelle bat in Hong Kong.

HKU5-CoV-2 is a coronavirus that is part of the merbecovirus subgenus, which also includes the virus that causes Middle East respiratory syndrome.

Researchers claim that HKU5-CoV-2 uses the ACE2 receptor to infect organisms. The ACE2 receptor is the same receptor used by SARS-CoV-2 to infect human cells.

"We report the discovery and isolation of a distinct lineage (lineage 2) of HKU5-CoV, which can utilize not only bat ACE2 but also human ACE2 and various mammalian ACE2 orthologs," the study said.

The researchers wrote, "Authentic HKU5-CoV-2 infected human ACE2-expressing cell lines and human respiratory and enteric organoids. This study reveals a distinct lineage of HKU5-CoVs in bats that efficiently use human ACE2 and underscores their potential zoonotic risk."

"Bat merbecoviruses, which are phylogenetically related to MERS-CoV, pose a high risk of spillover to humans, either through direct transmission or facilitated by intermediate hosts," the scientists stated.

The researchers from China added, "The potential human spillover risk of animal merbecoviruses remains to be investigated."

The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Cell on Tuesday.

The study was led by Shi Zhengli — a leading virologist who had been the director of the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Zhengli is often dubbed the "bat woman" by her colleagues because of her extensive research on bat coronaviruses since 2004, including virus-hunting expeditions in bat caves.

The World Society for Virology said of Zhengli, "Her group has discovered diverse novel viruses/virus antibodies in bats, including SARS-like coronaviruses, adenoviruses, adeno-associated viruses, circoviruses, paramyxoviruses and filoviruses in China."

The lead scientist in the new bat coronavirus study reportedly had prior financial ties to the embattled United States Agency for International Development.

A 2021 article in Vanity Fair noted: "Shi Zhengli herself listed U.S. government grant support of more than $1.2 million on her curriculum vitae: $665,000 from the NIH between 2014 and 2019; and $559,500 over the same period from USAID. At least some of those funds were routed through EcoHealth Alliance."

According to 990 tax exemption forms it filed in 2018 with the New York state attorney general’s Charities Bureau, EcoHealth Alliance received as much as $15 million a year in grant money from federal agencies, including the Defense Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and USAID.

The article spotlighted emails obtained by a Freedom of Information request, including one sent by Peter Daszak, a zoologist and former president of EcoHealth Alliance. The email showed that Zhengli allegedly carried out potentially dangerous gain-of-function experiments.

Under the subject line, “No need for you to sign the 'Statement' Ralph!!,” he wrote to two scientists, including UNC’s Dr. Ralph Baric, who had collaborated with Shi Zhengli on the gain-of-function study that created a coronavirus capable of infecting human cells: “you, me and him should not sign this statement, so it has some distance from us and therefore doesn’t work in a counterproductive way.” Daszak added, “We’ll then put it out in a way that doesn’t link it back to our collaboration so we maximize an independent voice.”

During a House Oversight Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic hearing in March 2023, former U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield said he believes American tax dollars funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab.

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) asked Redfield, "Is it likely that American tax dollars funded the gain-of-function research that created this virus?”

Redfield replied, "I think it did, not only from NIH, but from the State Department, USAID, and DOD."

Zhengli has gone on record to say that she does not believe in the lab-leak theory that COVID-19 came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology — a biosafety level-4 lab, which requires the highest level of safety protocols and equipment because of the study of high-consequence biological agents.

Blaze News reported in July 2021 that Zhengli purportedly had "collaborated with two military scientists on coronavirus work, one of whom is now deceased under unknown circumstances."

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DataRepublican exposes 'uniparty' government thriving beyond taxpayer reach in first-ever interview with Steve Deace



Last week, during her first-ever public interview, DataRepublican spoke with Steve Deace on BlazeTV's "Steve Deace Show."

DataRepublican, a database kernel engineer who develops machine learning algorithms, has leveraged her platform on X to expose the federal government's egregious and corrupt spending practices.

'The system exists outside of our control, and we need to get it back.'

"I wanted to make sure we did this interview, first and foremost, just to say, 'Well done, good and faithful servant.' What you have done with this work the last few weeks has been nothing short of extraordinary," Deace told DataRepublican.

DataRepublican, who is deaf and nonverbal, responded through her translator, explaining that she decided to release the awards database, USASpending.gov, on her own website after finding that it was "really, really hard to search." She aimed to make it significantly easier for people to navigate and gain a clearer picture of federal government spending.

"Now my tool has become very popular and went absolutely viral," DataRepublican added.

She described the network of nongovernmental organizations and federal grants as "incredibly complex," noting that analyzing the depth of potential waste, fraud, and abuse would likely be impossible without artificial intelligence tools.

"It's really a soft power structure that was built around these eight core NGOs with the NED — that's the National Endowment for Democracy," DataRepublican continued. "That's really at the center. And it's an organization that President [Donald] Trump just defunded."

She explained that the NED and its partnership with the NGOs were initially created to unite Republicans and Democrats in combatting communism. However, it never disbanded after the Soviet Union's collapse. Instead, the mission was "rebranded" as "defenders of democracy."

"They literally became a government all to themselves," DataRepublican stated.

The "parallel government" operates beyond taxpayer control, she added.

"What was the most just weird and disturbing thing for me was finding the existence of what I'm calling a true uniparty. The uniparty is real," she continued.

DataRepublican explained that the NED "accidentally created a system where both parties operate together under the same umbrella."

"But at the same time, they're pretending to be opponents," she said.

She argued that most Americans do not feel they are receiving the benefits they pay for as taxpayers, suggesting that the funds must be going elsewhere.

"Where is the money going? It's not just vanishing into thin air. One person, somebody, is benefitting from this. And when you see that these politicians in Congress are designed to have these moderate salaries and then they leave as millionaires, you have to ask, 'Huh, is that really a coincidence?'" she continued.

Deace asked DataRepublican whether any so-called Christian churches are "directly involved in the grift pyramid."

She explained that "many churches" have accepted funding from the United States Agency for International Development, noting that restrictions prevent them from using the funds for evangelism.

"Christianity is built specifically on one great commission, and Jesus was very clear about that — about spreading the gospel. And it's hard to imagine Him accepting funding that required Jesus to stay silent about faith," she continued.

DataRepublican further explained that because churches are not required to file a Form 990, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax, they have less financial transparency.

"That alone might make church government funding an attractive option for more cynical players, you know, bad actors who may not be motivated by religious beliefs," DataRepublican said. "I personally would be very skeptical of any Christian church which accepts USAID money or any federal funding."

She declared, "We are in the middle of the second American Revolution. I am not joking. The American public needs to engage and recognize that this is not about partisanship."

"The system exists outside of our control, and we need to get it back," DataRepublican concluded.

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