Tag: foreign aid

Marco Rubio Reveals Just How Little USAID Funding Was Helping the Needy

Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered some shocking data points about American foreign aid spending before the Trump administration reformed the system.

During testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, the top diplomat revealed that the White House discovered a foreign aid regime that was distracted and inefficient.

Only 12 cents of every dollar spent by USAID reached recipients.

“That means that in order for us to get aid to somebody, we had to spend all this other money supporting this foreign aid industrial complex,” Rubio said, per a State Department transcript.

In other words, while a mere 12 cents went to recipients, the other 88 cents was pocketed by third parties.

“We’re going to find more efficient ways to deliver aid to people directly, and it’s going to be directed by our regional bureaus, and it’s going to sponsor programs that make a difference, and it’s going to be part of a holistic approach to our foreign policy,” he told lawmakers.

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UK Contractor Extradited to U.S., Pleads Guilty in Massive USAID Fraud Scheme Tied to Pakistan Energy Program

A UK citizen who ripped off American taxpayers through a U.S.-funded foreign aid program has been sentenced to time served after a brazen kickback scheme drained nearly $100,000 in USAID funds — and he’ll now be handed over to immigration authorities.

Stephen Paul Edmund Sutton, 53, of the United Kingdom, pleaded guilty in Washington, D.C. federal court Monday to conspiring to commit theft concerning a program receiving federal funds, a felony offense.

Sutton was a Logistics Operations Manager for a contractor implementing the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Power Distribution Program (PDP) in Pakistan — a five-year effort that was supposed to help modernize Pakistan’s failing electric utilities.

Instead, Sutton and his co-conspirator, who remains under indictment, lined their pockets by setting up bogus shell companies that funneled inflated contracts for forklifts and crane services — all under the guise of helping Pakistan’s struggling power grid. Sutton personally pocketed at least $21,000 in kickbacks.

More from DOJ:

 According to court documents, PDP was a component of U.S. government assistance to the government of Pakistan to support its energy sector.

Launched in September 2010, the five-year program was designed to facilitate improvements in Pakistan’s government-owned electric power distribution companies through interventions and projects addressing governance issues, technical and non-technical losses, and low revenue collection.

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.

From May through November 2015, Sutton and his co-conspirator, an employee supervised by Sutton, participated in a kickback scheme by creating two companies, obtaining PDP purchase orders for forklift and crane services for the companies, and distributing the profits to themselves.

As part of the scheme, his co-conspirator arranged for low-grade local vendors to provide the services for at least half the contract rates, and Sutton ensured that the company paid the invoices despite suspicions raised by an accounts payable officer.

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.

Sutton’s co-conspirator is also charged by indictment and his case is pending disposition.

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USAID: Hungary Claims U.S. and EU Gave over $63 Million to Anti-Orbán Media in Bid to Topple Government

The head of Budapest’s Office for the Protection of Sovereignty claimed that tens of millions of dollars from the United States and the European Union have funded left-leaning media institutions over the past three years, with the intent of overthrowing the conservative government of Viktor Orbán in Hungary.

Supposedly independent media outlets in Hungary have been propped up by money from the now-axed United States Agency for International Development (USAID), other State Department programmes, as well as from the European Commission, Tamás Lánczi said this week.

The top man at the Office for the Protection of Sovereignty said that the globalist influence schemes were intended fund “propaganda” in the hopes of toppling the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, one of the leading opponents of the neo-liberal open borders and socially far-left agendas favoured by elites in Brussels and Washington.

According to Lánczi, the American government and the European Commission — the executive arm of the EU — gave over HUF 23 billion ($63.5 million) to media outlets, which he claimed were in fact political pressure groups, over the past three years, alone.

“It’s not micro-donations, it’s not reader support, it’s not a voluntary offering, it’s money from foreign powers… It’s not charity, it’s a HUF 23 billion foreign intervention. This money was used to buy media workers, activists and politicians,” he said per the Magyar Nemzet newspaper.

The watchdog said the majority of the funding came from the European Commission, accounting for HUF 19.5 billion ($54 million) of the total. However, Lánczi said that USAID — under the Biden administration — directed HUF 3.5 billion ($9.7 million) to fund anti-Orbán media.

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REPORT: USAID Officer Charged With Pandemic Bailout Fraud

When USAID came under the microscope of DOGE, people on the left absolutely flipped out. They all acted like USAID was above reproach and that the world would come to an end if it wasn’t fully funded.

Not only did the world not end, but now we’re learning that a senior officer for the organization has been charged with bailout fraud from the pandemic.

We are probably going to see fraud like this uncovered for years to come.

The Daily Wire reports:

USAID Contracting Officer Charged With Pandemic Bailout Fraud

A USAID employee in charge of managing contracts for the agency created a fake company to fraudulently secure coronavirus benefits for himself, federal prosecutors said Friday.

“Yusuf Akoll worked as a Senior Procurement Contract Specialist at the U.S. Agency for International Development,” according to a previously unreported court document. “From at least in or around March 2021, and continuing through at least in or around August 2021, Akoll [made] materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements…that resulted in Akoll receiving two [Paycheck Protection Program] loans totaling approximately $16,666 that he was not entitled to receive.”

Prosecutors said that in November 2020, Akoll registered a company in Virginia called Naagode Consulting LLC, then applied for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan under the coronavirus bailout package, claiming he worked at Naagode and the money was necessary to prevent job losses.

Only companies in operation in February 2020 were eligible, so he falsely said it was established in January 2020. To establish a loss of income, he said the company had $40,000 in income in 2019 when it actually had no income, prosecutors said.

Is anyone really shocked by this?

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Acting US Attorney Ed Martin Claws Back $1 Million From Consulting Firm That Overbilled USAID

Acting US Attorney Ed Martin clawed back $1 million from a consulting firm that overbilled USAID by inflating its employee salary costs.

This is one of the reasons why the Democrats and RINOs are stonewalling his confirmation.

Per the US Attorney’s Office of DC:

Stax Inc., a private consulting based in Boston, Massachusetts, has agreed to pay $1 million to resolve allegations it overbilled the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in claims for salary reimbursement in the implementation of the U.S. Government funded Sri Lanka@100 project.

This matter came to the U.S. Attorney’s Office from the USAID Office of the Inspector General which found that Stax overbilled USAID more than $850,000 by inflating its employee salary costs.

During an administrative audit, it was discovered that Stax put hidden profit in its proposed salary for its employees. This hidden profit violated the terms of the cooperative agreement entered into by USAID, and further was in direct contradiction to expressed statements to Stax informing them that they were not to get any profit from this cooperative agreement.

During the investigation, Stax was bought out by another company that immediately began to cooperate with the investigation and instituted remedial measures. The new company fired the official who directed that the profit be hidden in the salaries, revamped Stax’s compliance procedures, and placed new personnel with extensive compliance experience into leadership positions. As a result of the earned cooperation credit, the parties agreed to settle for 1.2 times the single damages for a settlement total of $1 million.

Ed Martin is currently the Acting US Attorney for DC and Trump recently announced he nominated him for a permanent position as one of the country’s top cops.

If Ed Martin is not confirmed by May 20, federal court in DC will appoint an interim US Attorney until he is confirmed. There is currently no vote scheduled to confirm Ed Martin.

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 Here are the Three Biggest US-Backed Interferences in Austrian and German Democracy

In February, a federal judge ordered health care agencies to restore websites about transgenderism that President Donald Trump removed by executive order. Elon Musk revealed on X that the judge’s wife had received funding from USAID, calling him “corrupt.”

Despite the attention USAID has received in the U.S., its role in meddling with democracy in Austria and Germany is not well understood.

Surprisingly, foreign interference from the U.S. not only undermines democracy abroad, but also on American soil.

In 2017, the German journalists Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer demanded “solidarity” and a “collaborative investigation” from the media against President Donald Trump.

Obermaier and Obermayer, who broke the Panama Papers for the Süddeutsche Zeitung two years earlier, were and still are part of several USAID-funded networks that have caused the first impeachment against Trump.

Similar playbooks were used in Austria and Germany which had a much more pronounced impact than the Trump impeachment, which ultimately failed.

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Zelensky demands ‘at least’ Israel-style support from US

Kiev expects Washington to provide long-term security assistance modeled on the US relationship with Israel, Vladimir Zelensky has said, after Ukraine’s European backers reportedly rejected several points of US President Donald Trump’s proposed peace plan.

Washington presented its draft deal to end the hostilities between Kiev and Moscow during talks in Paris last week. At a follow-up meeting in London on Wednesday – which was downgraded at the last minute after Zelensky publicly rejected key US suggestions – Ukrainian officials and their NATO European counterparts reportedly put forward a counterproposal.

Speaking to journalists on Friday, Zelensky insisted that any future peace deal with Moscow must be backed by sustained US military, financial, and political support.

“Discussions in London have focused on security guarantees from the United States. We hope them to be at least as robust as those provided to Israel. Additionally, we anticipate support from our European partners and are actively developing the infrastructure necessary for these guarantees,” Zelensky said.

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‘We Give Israel $4B a Year – That’s a Lot’: Trump Tells Netanyahu He May Not Drop Tariffs

President Donald Trump on Monday told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the US might not drop its new 17% tariff on Israel because we “give [them] four billion dollars a year” and they’re “one of the highest” recipients of foreign aid.

When asked by a reporter if the US would reduce the new 17% tariff on Israeli goods, Trump responded: “Well, we’re talking about a whole new trade — maybe not, maybe not.”

“Now, don’t forget we help Israel a lot. You know, we give Israel $4 billion a year. That’s a lot. Congratulations, by the way. That’s pretty good,” Trump quipped. “But we give Israel billions of dollars a year. Billions. It’s one of the highest of any — we give a lot of countries money.”

The US not only gives Israel over $4 billion a year but also fights their wars (which in the case of the war in Iraq cost $2 trillion).

Israel’s not simply “one of the highest recipients” of foreign aid but the highest recipients of foreign aid — and it’s not even close. The aid money we give to Egypt is also a bribe to normalize relations with Israel.

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Bill Gates Lobbying White House to Reverse USAID Cuts: Report

The cuts made to the so-called “foreign aid” agency USAID (which doesn’t actually have humanitarianism as its primary purpose) in the first days of the Trump 2.0 administration affected various global vaccine initiatives, many of which were pet projects of self-styled philanthropist Bill Gates.

Via Reuters (emphasis added):

Soon after his January 20 inauguration, President Donald Trump moved to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, cutting more than 80% of contracts and freezing billions of dollars for everything from emergency food assistance to malaria prevention.

The Trump administration, led by the State Department, is reviewing what kinds of foreign aid will remain under its “America First” policy, with a list of around 30 global health projects for consideration, one of the sources said…

[The list includes] rganizations such as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, as well as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, among others. They are on the shortlist for review by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump. The U.S. gives around $300 million annually to Gavi, and more than $1 billion to the Global Fund.

Several projects under the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) are also on the review shortlist, the source said.

In an attempt to ensure these projects remain federally funded, Gates has reportedly been quietly lobbying the administration behind the scenes to protect the billions that flow to his “non-profit” ventures.  

Putting aside the ultimate question of why Bill Gates isn’t under a federal prison, why do we allow creatures like this to slink around the White House trying to convince Trump, our duly elected president, and his lieutenants to reinstate his own personal scheme that for some reason require public subsidy even though Gates has a net worth of $108 billion?

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How USAID and NED Funded the Bloody Biden Color Revolution in Bangladesh with $1.73 Billion

Ever since the elected Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina was overthrown on 5 August 2024, radical Muslims close to Clinton-related  “interim” dictator Muhammad Yunus have been conducting violent pogroms against Hundus, Sikhs and Christians, as The Gateway Pundit reported. A new report details how the violent overthrow of the democratically elected government was funded by USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy.

The report “American Aid and Regime Change in Bangladesh: A Primer” by Jaibal Naduvath was published by the Indian Observer Research Foundation.

Sheikh Hasina ran afoul of the US Deep State “Blob” regime change apparatus over her refusal to take sides in the US-Russia conflict over Ukriane. “Hasina has accused Washington (read: USAID and NED) —of undermining her government through an extensive web of influence operations, allegedly in retaliation for her refusal to cede control of Saint Martin’s Island in the Bay of Bengal to the US which was planning to set up an airbase there to counter China,” the ORF report states.

Bangladesh was delaying signing two military agreements pushed by former Under-Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, which would bind Bangladesh to closer military-to-military cooperation with Washington, as Jeffrey Sachs wrote on Common Dreams.

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