This is my shocked face
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Well, no, it’s actually that of one Mathieu Zahul, just one of the many parasites who’s been hiding within the layers of federal bureaucracy and gorging himself on other people’s — that would be yours and my — money for decades. If you wonder why the opposition to DOGE by Democrats and Republicans alike has been focused on Elon Musk, rather than the fraud he’s been exposing, wonder no more; Mr. Zahul is just one of (hundreds of?) thousands.
Foreign Aid Official Who Resisted DOGE Took Secret Payments After Steering Africa Money To Friend
A foreign aid official who refused the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to his agency’s financial records may have had a reason to keep auditors out: he steered illicit contracts to a friend who sent him secret payments, according to a law enforcement affidavit obtained by The Daily Wire.
Mathieu Zahui, chief financial officer of the African Development Foundation, refused to grant DOGE access to its books and told the White House that the agency would not acknowledge President Donald Trump’s appointee as chairman of the board. After a dramatic showdown in March, DOGE physically took over the building with U.S. Marshals, but control of the agency is now the subject of a lawsuit objecting to “swooping in with DOGE staff, demanding access to sensitive information systems” — an objection that reads differently in light of the criminal probe.
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.
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 January 2024, inspector general agents interviewed Zahui about the Ganiam contracts, and he acknowledged having known Gakure personally since 1999, and having been to his apartment. He “could not explain why the contract with Ganiam was sole-sourced instead of being competitively bid,” the agents wrote.
Zahui was named chief financial officer of the federal agency after he declared bankruptcy and had his house foreclosed on. He acknowledged to investigators that the travel contract was executed after COVID had already shut down travel. He told them the contract was actually used for IT services, but since Ganiam had no expertise in IT, it subcontracted it to a different company. A Department of the Treasury contracting official told the agents that was not allowed.
Zahui continued to give more contracts to Ganiam without competition, which he justified by saying he was “lazy” and didn’t want to find a new vendor. “Zahui stated that he did not receive any direct or indirect benefits from Gakure,” agents wrote.
But in February 2024, the agents seized Zahui’s work phone and examined a subset of the data.
“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.
…. This February, President Trump fired the African Development Foundation’s board members, and its CEO, Travis Adkins, resigned. A three-person committee, including Zahui, took over the duties of CEO.
On February 21, DOGE “demanded immediate access to USADF systems including financial records and payment and human resources systems,” but Zahui stalled them. On February 28, the White House emailed Zahui that Pete Marocco, the Trump operative tasked with dismantling USAID, had become acting chairman of the African Development Foundation. Zahui told the White House that agency staff would not honor the appointment because Marocco had not been confirmed by the Senate.
When DOGE returned, staff locked the doors and refused to let them in, creating a dramatic showdown, according to a lawsuit filed against DOGE by the now-fired board. DOGE eventually gained access to the building using U.S. Marshals, and put the staff on leave.
There’s much, much more in the full article, including off-shore bank accounts and hidden assets, and,the article itself is just “part one of a series of investigative reports on the African Development Foundation, which gained notoriety for resisting the microscope of the Department of Government Efficiency.”
The African Development is just one of at least 400 agencies being run for the benefit of their participants and friends, so we can safely assume that whatever Zahui has been up to, his defalcations can be multiplied many, many times over. From Google’s new AI asistant:
The US government has numerous agencies, but it's difficult to pinpoint an exact number. The federal government consists of 15 executive departments, along with numerous other agencies and commissions. A comprehensive list includes around 400 federal agencies and sub-agencies, according to a post on Reddit. These agencies, including those within the 15 cabinet departments, are responsible for a wide range of functions. [1, 2, 3]
Cabinet Departments: There are 15 executive departments, each headed by a cabinet secretary, who advises the President. [1, 4, 5]
Independent Agencies: These agencies operate independently of the cabinet departments and have specific missions. [1, 6]
Regulatory Agencies: These agencies oversee specific industries or activities, ensuring compliance with regulations, according to The Regulatory Group. [6, 7]
Government Corporations: These are government-owned businesses that perform specific functions, such as Amtrak. [6]
Other Agencies: There are also numerous other commissions, boards, and offices that perform various government functions. [1, 8]