Four men have pleaded guilty to charges coming out of a $550 million USAID fraud scheme, pulling back the curtain on some of what went on in the federal operations that were targeted by Elon Musk when he was working with the Department of Government Efficiency.
His plan essentially gutted that program, and now some of the details are emerging.
One report confirmed that the defendants in the case “used YOUR tax dollars to buy NBA tickets, country club weddings, and laundered MILLIONS in cash through corrupt entities.”
The report said, “One defendant ‘exploited his position at USAID to line his pockets with bribes in exchange for more than $550 million in contracts.’”
Four men have officially pleaded GUILTY to a $550 MILLION USAID fraud scheme
And democrats pretended like @elonmusk‘s exposure of the agency was just a conspiracy theory
They used YOUR tax dollars to buy NBA tickets, country club weddings, and laundered MILLIONS in cash… pic.twitter.com/cYIISL0cYO
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) June 20, 2025
A New York Post report said the defendants included a federal contracting officer and three businessmen.
They pleaded guilty on Thursday to participating in that scheme.
“Roderick Watson, of Maryland, is alleged to have received bribes valued in excess of $1 million while working at USAID in exchange for using his position as a trusted overseer of taxpayer money to direct 14 prime federal contracts to two consulting companies, Apprio and Vistant,” the publication reported.
The 57-year-old pleaded guilty to bribery of a public official and could get up to 15 years in prison.
Walter Barnes, owner of Vistant, and Darryl Britt, owner of Apprio, used Paul Young, the president of a subcontractor used by both Vistant and Apprio, as a middleman to conceal some of the bribes destined for Watson, the Department of Justice charged in the case.
Each of the business operators pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official and Barnes pleaded to securities fraud.
The DOJ explained it was back in 2013 when Watson, working at USAID, agreed to use his influence to push contracts to Apprio, which was given the privilege of lucrative federal deals because of its status as a “socially and economically disadvantaged” business.
“When Apprio ‘graduated’ from the SBA 8(a) program, the scheme shifted, and Watson began awarding prime contracts to Barnes’ Vistant company – an Apprio subcontractor – between 2018 and 2022, in exchange for bribes,” the report said.
The money went to, among other things, an NBA game suite, a country club wedding, down payments on two homes, cell phones and even “jobs for relatives,” the DOJ said.
The skimming operations where concealed with shell companies, fake invoices and fraudulent accounting documents.
The Trump administration, in its demands to shut down USAID, charged that there was widespread waste, fraud and abuse there.
A DOJ spokesman said the four “violated the public trust by corrupting the federal government’s procurement process.”