What began as an obscure federal audit has now erupted into a historic scandal at the heart of U.S. foreign aid. At the center is the U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF)—an agency once presented as a symbol of humanitarianism and racial equity, now exposed as a decadent, lawless bureaucracy operating in a fog of corruption, fraud, abuse, and open racial discrimination.
The revelations—documented in whistleblower testimonies, internal memos, legal affidavits, and investigative interviews—paint a picture so damning, the agency’s closure by the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) now looks not just justified, but overdue.
Getting more dramatic now. They are trying to get into the office but the agency won’t let them. Here is a video, shared with permission, of Marocco and some of the DOGE folks outside the elevators pic.twitter.com/VkLmw3hodW
— Brett Murphy (@BrettMmurphy) March 5, 2025
When DOGE showed up to audit the USADF in March, officials refused entry. Doors were locked, records hidden, and lawsuits filed to block access. The mainstream Left quickly rushed to paint the agency as a victim of political persecution. But as evidence piled up, it became clear the real story was the inverse: DOGE wasn’t overreaching—it was cleaning house.
From wire transfers of U.S. taxpayer money into bureaucrats’ personal accounts to illegal pass-through payments disguised as African aid, whistleblowers say the agency had long operated more like a shadow racket than a development body.
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$2 million deposits to undisclosed accounts in Ghana
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Fake jobs and illegal salary disbursements through Kenyan and Mauritanian shell companies
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U.S. Marshals physically removing staff after obstructing an audit
The deeper investigators dug, the more rot they found.
Worse than the fraud, say many former employees, was the culture of racial discrimination, particularly against white employees.
Former CEO Travis Adkins—a Biden appointee—allegedly stated openly that he “would not hire a white person or a veteran.” Whistleblowers recount being told, “them white motherf—ers don’t need to know,” as Adkins openly bragged about concealing operations from the agency’s board.
Employees described being punished, isolated, or terminated for reporting wrongdoing. Some were paid through a patchwork of foreign shell companies to evade federal oversight, while others were kept in indefinite “contract” status to bypass hiring protections.
Earlier this week, a briefing with Pete Marocco (the architect of Trump’s illegal dismantling of USAID) left us with more questions than answers. Worse, he left early to take DOGE staffers and federal marshals to try and forcibly close the U.S. African Development Foundation. pic.twitter.com/Sxyf2gqL2g
— Senator Brian Schatz (@SenBrianSchatz) March 8, 2025
One whistleblower, General Counsel Mateo Dunne, uncovered widespread abuses but was immediately shut down and placed on leave before he could act. When he refused to abandon the evidence, the agency launched an internal smear campaign, falsely accusing him of making death threats.
What makes the scandal even more explosive is the brazen network of personal enrichment:
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John Agwunobi, an Herbalife executive and Obama-era board member, used the agency to promote Herbalife’s brand in Africa just months after the company settled $322 million in fraud penalties.
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Former CEO C.D. Glin, now head of the PepsiCo Foundation, directed funds to nonprofits and corporations tied to his own resume—and even used agency funds to pay for Harvard classes and prestige speaking slots.
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Grants were reverse-engineered to benefit U.S. friends and allies, often against the protests of African partners.
For years, USADF was lauded as a beacon of “equity-focused” foreign aid. But behind closed doors, it was rotting—propped up by a political class that looked the other way. Even with whistleblower complaints, government watchdogs failed to act until the Trump administration unleashed DOGE to do what the inspector general, the State Department, and Congress refused to do: demand transparency, enforce the law, and end the charade.
Now, the foreign policy establishment mourns the agency’s closure. But as whistleblower Mateo Dunne aptly stated:
“If it couldn’t be run correctly, then it shouldn’t be run at all.”
