The federal contract officer pleads guilty in a massive corruption scandal in the USAID

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), an agency mainly dismantled by DOGE in the midst of complaints of democrats according to which waste reduction would harm poor countries, is at the center of a scandal of massive corruption.

A federal contract manager and three businessmen have pleaded guilty in a program involving bribes such as species, NBA tickets and a wedding of Country Club in a scandal that the Ministry of Justice (DoJ) said it was part of a $ 550 million scam, Fox News Washington correspondent Mike Emanuel reported on Friday.

Roderick Watson, 57, worked as an agent of USAID contracts, according to a Doj press releaseAnd pleaded guilty to “the corruption of an official”.

According to the Doj, Watson sold its influence from 2013, with Walter Barnes entrepreneurs, Vistant owner, and Darryl Britt, owner of the approach, channeling the gains by the subcontractor Paul Young to hide their traces.

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The demonstrators and legislators gather against President Donald Trump and his ally Elon Musk as they disrupt the federal government, including the dismantling of the American agency for international development, in Washington on February 5, 2025. (APO photo / J. Scott Applewhite)

“During the program, Britt and Barnes paid bribes in Watson who were often hidden by passing them through Young, who was the president of another subcontractor at the approach and in the belly,” said the press release.

“Britt and Barnes also regularly channeled bribes to Watson, especially in cash, laptops, thousands of dollars of tickets for a suite during a NBA match, a country wedding, drawbacks on two residential mortgages, cell phones and jobs for parents. of the program.

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The former USAID employees left the headquarters in Washington on February 27, 2025. (Leigh Green for Fox News Digital)

Vistant was awarded in November 2023, within the framework of a joint venture, a contract of a value of up to $ 800 million with one of the objectives of this contract being to solve “a variety of problems affecting the profound causes of irregular central America migration to the United States”, a problem that President Joe Biden charged from the time, the President of the Void, Kamala Harris.

Several days later, this contract was canceled after the USAID published an opinion which says Vistant was excluded from government contracts due to “proof of conduct of a lack of commercial honesty or integrity”.

The joint venture then succeeded in continuing the government for being registered on this exclusion list and was grouped the contract and received a payment of $ 10,000 in August 2024.

“Corruption in government programs will not be tolerated. Watson has abused his position of confidence for personal purposes while federal entrepreneurs engaged in a payment program,” said the acting assistant inspector for the Sean Bottary investigations of the USAID Office of Inspector General (USAID-OIG) in the press release.

“USAID-OIG is firmly determined to eliminate fraud and corruption within American foreign assistance programs. Today’s announcement underlines our unwavering concentration on the exposure of criminal activities, including corruption regimes by those responsible for faithfully attributing government contracts.

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The demonstrators have signs as Pete Marocco, assistant administrator designated at USAID, attended a meeting with members of the congress to discuss foreign aid on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 5, 2025. (Kent Nishimura / Reuters)

USAID was one of the public faces and the most radical examples of Doge’s efforts to reduce waste, fraud and abuse to the government, and the effort led to the reduction of agency’s programs by 83%, while the programs deemed vital was transferred to the State Department.

The USAID website has become dark and the employees were prohibited from entering its head office on February 3, while others suspended their work. The Trump administration then announced that all the USAID direct rental staff would be on administrative leave.

The agency has been criticized for many financing choices, in particular by allocating $ 1.5 million to a program that sought to “advance diversity, equity and inclusion in workplaces and Serbia business communities” and a $ 70,000 program for “Musical music of I” in Ireland.

During the scanning of Doge, it was revealed that the US dollars found themselves in the hands of groups linked to terrorism, such as funds offering “full funding” for the al-Qaeda terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki to attend the university in Colorado, previously reported Fox News Digital.

While Doge dismantled USAID, many Democrats and media exploded the cuts, saying that they would harm poor beneficiaries around the world and some, including singer U2 Bono, who said that the cuts would lead to more than 300,000 deaths.

Several Democrats of the Chamber and the Senate protested outside the registered office of the USAID in early February, expressing indignation in the face of layoffs and cuts, The hill reported.

“Anyone who cares about a good and effective government should be concerned about waste, fraud and abuse in government agencies, including USAID,” said Matthew R. Galeotti, head of the criminal division of the Ministry of Justice, in the Doj’s press release.

Diana Stancy of Fox News Digital and Rachel Wolf contributed to this report.