The USAID Office of Inspector General (OIG), a statutorily independent law enforcement agency, previously announced the conviction and sentencing of Abiodun Ogunwale, of Virginia, and Abimbola Ajayi, of Maryland, on charges of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering for their parts in defrauding a USAID funded non-profit corporation dedicated to global public health.
OIG’s investigation uncovered a scheme that involved Ogunwale, who served as Director of Business Development for the non-profit, and Ajayi, a consultant for the nonprofit. Specifically, Ajayi submitted fraudulent invoices created by Ogunwale to make it appear that she performed work when she had not. Ogunwale then approved the fraudulent invoices and payments to Ajayi. In addition, Ajayi submitted fraudulent receipts claiming business expenses for which her company, AbbiFabDynamics, LLC, received payment. Ajayi funneled a portion of the money back to Ogunwale by a variety of means, including depositing cash into his company’s account and paying his credit card bills.
OIG referred the parties in this case to USAID for suspension/debarment consideration. Based on OIG’s findings and the subsequent convictions, USAID has debarred Ogunwale, Ajayi, and Ajayi’s company AbbiFabDynamics from working or contracting with the U.S. government for a period of three years.
USAID OIG continues to investigate fraud, corruption, diversion, and other misconduct impacting U.S.-funded foreign assistance programs and operations across multiple agencies. Please report any alleged misuse of U.S. taxpayer dollars impacting American foreign assistance to the OIG Hotline through https://oig.usaid.gov/report-fraud.
For more on USAID OIG’s investigative activities, please visit https://oig.usaid.gov/our-work/investigations.