Press Release

Four men, including a government contracting officer for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and three owners and presidents of companies, have pleaded guilty for their roles in a decade-long bribery scheme involving at least 14 prime contracts worth over $550 million in U.S. taxpayer dollars.

WASHINGTON—Stephen Paul Edmund Sutton, 53, a United Kingdom citizen, pleaded guilty and was sentenced today for his participation in a fraud scheme, perpetrated when he was employed by a  contracting firm that implemented a U.S. Agency for International Development-funded (USAID) power distribution program (PDP) in Pakistan, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro and Acting Assistant Inspector General for Investigations Sean Bottary.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A federal jury convicted a Virginia man and Maryland woman yesterday on charges of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering for their parts in defrauding a non-profit corporation dedicated to global public health.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Boston, Massachusetts - On April 29, 2025, U.S. Agency for International Development Office of Inspector General (USAID OIG) Special Agents arrested a former project director of a North Carolina-based non-profit organization (“Company 1”), which regularly implements projects funded by USAID on a federal indictment alleging she defrauded Company 1 of approximately $240,000.

WASHINGTON – Stax Inc., a private consulting based in Boston, Massachusetts, has agreed to pay $1 million to resolve allegations it overbilled the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in claims for salary reimbursement in the implementation of the U.S. Government funded Sri Lanka@100 project.

This matter came to the U.S. Attorney’s Office from the USAID Office of the Inspector General which found that Stax overbilled USAID more than $850,000 by inflating its employee salary costs.

Tampa, FL – U.S. District Judge Mary S. Scriven has sentenced Jeanty Cherilus (54, Lakeland) to one year and six months in federal prison for wire fraud. As part of his sentence, the court also entered an order of forfeiture in the amount of $370,000, the proceeds of Cherilus’s criminal conduct. Cherilus pleaded guilty on January 22, 2025.

Nikhil Parekh, 37, of Randallstown, Maryland, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in connection with the theft and sale of hundreds of government-issued smartphones, laptop computers, and other IT devices that had been slated for destruction.

The plea was announced by U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin Jr., Chief J. Thomas Manger of the U.S. Capitol Police, and USAID Special Agent in Charge Sean Bottary of the USAID Office of Inspector General.

The week of January 20th, Paul Martin, Inspector General (IG) of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), led an Office of Inspector General (USAID OIG) delegation to Israel. The purpose of the trip was to further USAID OIG’s independent oversight of USAID-funded humanitarian assistance to Gaza. Since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, 2023, following Hamas’ terrorist attacks in Israel, the United States has provided over $1.2 billion in humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people with at least $641 million of this aid programmed by USAID.

WASHINGTON – Chemonics International, Inc. (Chemonics), a private international development firm based in Washington, DC, has agreed to pay $3,119,582 to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by submitting fraudulent claims for payment to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).  Chemonics disclosed the fraudulent billing to the United States in 2020.

WASHINGTON – Mahmoud Al Hafyan, 53, a Syrian national, has been charged in a 12-count indictment, unsealed today in U.S. District Court, alleging major fraud against the United States for illegally diverting more than $9 million in U.S.-funded humanitarian aid intended for Syrian civilians to armed combatant groups, including the Al-Nusrah Front (ANF), which is a designated foreign terrorist organization affiliated with al-Qaida in Iraq.