It’s absolutely amazing where the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) finds taxpayer money and how it gets there.
The Daily Wire has been investigating a small USAID-linked organization that described itself to Congress as “a low-overhead charity sending its money to Africans.” But the African Development Foundation was actually a grifter’s paradise, siphoning taxpayer money in the name of charity and sending it to friends and cronies in Africa and the U.S.
Mathieu Zahui, the Foundation’s chief financial officer, became something of a left-wing hero when Elon Musk and DOGE showed up for an audit. Bravely, Mr. Zahui stood up and demonstrated “how one tiny agency stood up for its mission and the rule of law.”
No one is really sure what its “mission” is. And as far as “the rule of law,” you decide.
Mr. Zahui’s objections may not have been based on principle as much as covering up a crime scene.
For years, workers at the small, USAID-adjacent federal agency focused on Africa have told oversight bodies about allegations of self-dealing, procurement violations, and mysterious offshore bank accounts, many of them involving Zahui. But little was done about it, several told The Daily Wire.
One action that raised eyebrows was Zahui’s insistence on directing both grants and contracts to a company in Kenya called Ganiam Ltd. According to spending records, it was awarded nearly $800,000 in contracts without competition. For example, a one-year, $350,000 contract for “transport, travel, relocation” services was executed in March 2020, when few people were traveling or holding conferences because of coronavirus.
According to a search warrant application uncovered by The Daily Wire, USAID’s inspector general established by August 2024 that the company’s owner had secretly wired money to Zahui’s personal bank account at times that matched up with the federal contracts. To date, the Department of Justice has not charged either man with a crime.
The Foundation has an annual budget of just $45 million. Perhaps its tiny size allowed it to get away with so much corruption. “Its employees have been sounding the alarm for years about a culture of self-dealing, abuse, and anti-white discrimination, while those who now object to DOGE’s shuttering of the agency did nothing to help fix it,” reports DW.
The Foundation filed a lawsuit to try and keep its books from the prying eyes of DOGE. It couldn’t keep law enforcement at bay, however, and search warrants opened up the entire, rotten operation.
Mr. Zahui had a friend, Maina Gakure, with whom he had previously worked at the Department of Veterans Affairs. After they both left the government, Gakure started a company in order to get construction contracts by gaming the federal contract rules that require a 10% set-aside for minority contractors. Gakure set up a company in Africa and began a very profitable business relationship with Zahui.
According to a search warrant application uncovered by The Daily Wire, USAID’s inspector general established by August 2024 that the company’s owner had secretly wired money to Zahui’s personal bank account at times that matched up with the federal contracts. To date, the Department of Justice has not charged either man with a crime.
Ganiam Ltd. is owned by Maina Gakure, whom Zahui has known for decades. Both worked at the Department of Veterans Affairs in San Diego and later moved to Fairfax, Virginia. Gakure had been in charge of awarding contracts at the VA, then created his own company designed to get government construction contracts by taking advantage of a minority preference program. It was called Ganiam LLC and was based out of a house in Virginia. Gakure similarly created a company based in Kenya called Gakure Ltd. The African Development Foundation is permitted by law to give grants only to African entities.
In February 2024, agents of the inspector general got a hold of Zahui’s phone and found some interesting transactions.
“Agents found text messages showing at least eight instances of wire transfers or electronic payments from Gakure to Zahui’s Bank of America account, totaling over $10,000. These payments coincide with USADF’s awarding of sole-source contracts to Ganiam,” they wrote. The non-competitive bidding contracts were given to Zahui’s pal Gakure because, he said, he was “lazy” and didn’t want to find a new vendor. Both men were able to steal millions using gambits like this.
Another scheme Zahui used was to hire independent contractors instead of employees and then get one of his clients overseas to pay them under the table. It wasn’t only Zahui who was drifting. CEO Travis Adkins was up to his eyeballs in this muck.
An assistant to Adkins said after she asked why her paycheck was lower than agreed upon, Adkins informed her that the remainder would be coming from an overseas account.
He “sent me an email connecting me with this guy in Africa who asked for my banking information. Within a few days this guy wired me $17,000,” she told The Daily Wire on condition of anonymity. The Daily Wire reviewed bank paperwork showing the transfer from an account in Kenya.
Read both parts of the Daily Wire report. It’s just incredible how much taxpayer cash these crooks were walking out the door with and how inventive they were in doing it.
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