Leader of USAID-Linked African Development Foundation Pleads Guilty to Bribery: 'Corrupt Pattern of Fraud'

A leader in a group linked to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will plead guilty to accepting bribes.

The news surrounds the U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF) Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Mathieu Zahui who has admitted laundering money through poor overseas nations and back to Washington, DC insiders, the Daily Wire reported Friday.

The foundation allegedly shipped $800,000 to a company in Kenya headed by Zahui’s friend who paid him $12,000 while the company pocketed over $130,000 in the scheme, but did no work for it.

In a press release, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Public Affairs said in 2024 federal law enforcement asked Zahui about his relationship with the company, but he allegedly lied and said he never received benefits from it.

He has since agreed to plead guilty to one count of accepting gratuities from the company and a single count of making a false statement to law enforcement.

“He faces a maximum penalty of two years in prison for the gratuities charge and five years in prison for the false statement charge,” the DOJ news release said.

In a statement regarding the case, Acting Assistant Inspector General for Investigations Sean M. Bottary of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of Inspector General (USAID-OIG) said, “The USADF Director of Financial Management’s fraudulent acts betrayed the trust of the American people. As the Inspector General with continued oversight jurisdiction over U.S.-funded foreign assistance, we will utilize our global investigative reach to aggressively detect and disrupt those who defraud taxpayer dollars programmed overseas.”

The Wire report noted that leftists praised the foundation when Zahui prevented the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from entering its building.

Meanwhile, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) recently introduced legislation to terminate the foundation his office said was “made defunct by an Executive Order from President Trump.”

Lee’s office pointed to the fact Zahui plead guilty to corruption and accepting bribes and the Terminate Unaccountable Spending, Abuse, Deception, and Fraud (USADF) Act would cut the foundation from statutory law.

Lee said, “The USADF has shown a clear and corrupt pattern of fraud for which its Director of Financial Management has just pled guilty. This sorry excuse for an agency misused taxpayer dollars to hand out government contracts and evaded DOGE to cover up the deceit. President Trump was right to shut this down, and the Terminate USADF Act will make its elimination permanent so that no further fraud can occur.”

USAID was one of the federal agencies President Donald Trump’s administration zeroed in on during its efforts to root out government waste, fraud, and abuse, per Breitbart News.