A federal contracting officer and three businessmen pleaded guilty Thursday to participating in a $550 million bribery scheme involving the embattled US Agency for International Development (USAID).
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.
Watson, 57, pleaded guilty to bribery of a public official and faces up to 15 years in prison. He’s scheduled to be sentenced in October.
As part of the elaborate scheme, 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, according to the Justice Department.
The three businessmen each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official. Barnes pleaded guilty to securities fraud as well.
The scheme dates back to 2013, when Watson, working as a USAID contracting officer, agreed to use his influence at the government agency to steer contracts to Britt’s Apprio firm in exchange for bribes, according to the DOJ.
Britt’s company had been eligible for lucrative federal contracts as a designated “socially and economically disadvantaged” business by the Small Business Administration (SBA).
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 USAID official received “cash, laptops, thousands of dollars in tickets to a suite at an NBA game, a country club wedding, downpayments on two residential mortgages, cellular phones, and jobs for relatives,” from the three businessmen as part of the scheme.
Shell companies, fake invoices and fraudulent payroll sheets were all used to hide the corruption, according to the DOJ.
Barnes, 46, Britt, 64, and Young, 62, each face a maximum of five years behind bars.
“The defendants sought to enrich themselves at the expense of American taxpayers through bribery and fraud,” Matthew Galeotti, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said in a statement. “Their scheme violated the public trust by corrupting the federal government’s procurement process.
“Anybody who cares about good and effective government should be concerned about the waste, fraud, and abuse in government agencies, including USAID,” he added. “Those who engage in bribery schemes to exploit the US Small Business Administration’s vital economic programs for small businesses — whether individuals or corporations acting through them — will be held to account.”
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk made USAID one of his first targets for sweeping cuts when he led the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
In February, President Trump declared that USAID’s spending was mostly “corrupt or ridiculous,” adding, “the whole thing is a fraud,” in remarks from the Oval Office.
Musk has alleged that the agency is run like a “criminal organization” by a “viper’s nest of radical left Marxists who hate America.”
DOGE slashed more than $8 billion in funding and fired nearly all USAID employees and contractors as part of its efforts to dismantle the agency.
