There was long story short, it’s very controversial. And Judicial Watch had asked for records about this in a FOIA lawsuit regarding corruption there. And at the hearing in our case, the Justice Department announced an ongoing criminal investigation related to the agency. And this announcement, as we say, comes after years of whistleblowing by Judicial Watch clients Jasmine Battle and Mateo Dunn, the UNNE, who bravely have come forward and blew the whistle on what is quite obvious corruption it looks like at the U.S. African Development Foundation. We sued the agency in August of 2025 for records regarding its expenditures and deposits related to credible allegations of waste, fraud, and abuse committed by senior officials, contractors, and grantees in retaliation against whistleblowers as well as its attempt to block Department of Government efficiency audits.

Now, let me be blunt. I don’t think we would have found out or even had this criminal case, but for Judicial Watch’s tenacious representation and the bravery of these whistleblowers. They said, and it’s rare for the Justice Department to say in a FOIA case, it’s never really happened before. I mean, I’ve been doing this at Judicial Watch. Let’s put it this way. There’s no one who sued under FOIA more than Judicial Watch. So we’re talking hundreds of cases. Never ever happened again. Where the government said, never ever happened before. I mean, where the government said, oh, we’ve got a criminal investigation going on.

And they announced it at the FOIA hearing. That’s what they did in our case. And then what happened next is today it’s announced that a key official at the U.S. African Development Foundation pled guilty to crimes. You can be sure it was tied to Judicial Watch pressure through the FOIA and the brave whistleblowers. So incredible developments. This is an example of Judicial Watch pursuing a case of waste, fraud and abuse. And it leading to the exposure of criminal acts. In this case, criminal acts have been admitted to. So it’s not like a question.

He’s pled guilty. And this has been floating around for a while. And of course, it was buried initially by the Trump, excuse me, the Biden administration. A senator wrote November 2023, according to whistleblower complaints received by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Complaints that I understand have also been shared with the Office of Inspector General. Current President and CEO, Trey up Travis Atkins, former President and CEO, C.D. Glenn, Managing Director for Finance Administration, Matthew Sowie, Chief Program Officer and former Acting President and CEO, Elizabeth Felicky and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Jack Leslie, are aware of and may be complicit in corrupt and potentially unlawful practices.

So that’s the senior leadership of that agency. The whistleblower allegations included misuse of official funds, conflict of interest and inappropriate partnerships, discriminatory employment practices and retaliation against employees who dared to raise questions about this misconduct. Now, of course, some folks dropped the ball. Institutions designed to protect whistleblowers, including the USAID Office of Inspector General, the Office of Special Counsel and the EEOC, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, failed to provide meaningful protection or relief. So, you know, this is what happens. Whistleblowers come forward, and the agencies and the officials that are supposed to be helpful aren’t helpful.

And this is what the value, this is part of the value judicial watch brings, is that we can help them. It’s still very difficult. And we’re fighting the swamp. But in this case, to the credit of the Trump administration and his team, they took, it looks like, I mean, the proof is the pudding. I mean, the whistleblowers come forward with allegations. And lo and behold, there’s a plea deal. And it looks like there may be other criminal charges to follow. For years, battle and done cooperating with law enforcement, including the Department of Justice, resulting in today’s public announcement, or it should be yesterday’s, right, resulting in the public announcement of an ongoing criminal investigation.

But for speaking out against a corrupt agency, they have been retaliated against, mistreated and maligned. The systems that were created to protect them as whistleblowers, as I said, like the USAID Office of Inspector General, the Office of Special Counsel and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, have thus far failed them. Today’s announcement is vindication for the years they spent exposing government corruption. And so that announcement in court, clearly they were pressured by our FOIA lawsuit and our whistleblowers to pursue this. And they released next the details of a plea agreement which show extraordinary corruption and infuriating corruption over at the Director of, over at the US African Development Foundation.

And here’s the press release, the Justice Department released today, Friday, January 30th. I want you to look at that headline, and I would be remiss if I didn’t point out the intrepid reporting of Luke Rosiek of the Daily Wire, who also exposed a lot of this corruption as well. But look at that headline again. If you’re a Judicial Watch supporter, that’s the results in part from your support of Judicial Watch. Judicial Watch, in partnership with the Whistleblowers, helped achieve that. And look at the details here. Mattoud de Zawie is charged with accepting payments from a government contractor and then abusing his position by directing the African Development Foundation funds to that contractor for little to no work.

Corruption by senior officials representing the United States cheats American taxpayers and rigs the system against honest work, and that’s the nice way of putting it. This guy stole money to give to his friend. The plea agreement demonstrates the criminal division’s pursuit of bad actors who engage in waste and abuse of government contracting. So according to the court documents, the CFO arranged for the foundation to pay vendors and contractors through a Kenya-based company, which they call Company One. Company One was owned by a government contractor whom Zawie had known for over 20 years.

And so for three years, Zawie arranged for the company to act as a pass-through for foundation payments to certain vendors rather than have the foundation pay the vendors directly. For example, when the foundation needed to pay a pass-through debt for staffing due to a staffing vendor, Zawie directed the vendor to Invoice Company One instead of the foundation. Company One then invoiced the foundation for the vendor’s pass-through amount, but added a markup of over $20,000 to the amount owed. What a racket! Zawie approved Company One’s invoice even though he knew Company One had provided no services related to the vendor’s work.

So we’re talking at least about $800,000. Zawie approved pass-through invoices that included markups ranging from 17% to 66% above the amounts owed to the vendors. In total, Company One submitted more than 20 pass-through invoices of this total amount to pay at least $617,000 to Company One. And of that, $135,000 were retained as a markup. And that’s just kind of the tip of the iceberg. It’s pretty clear. And of course, when he was interviewed by law enforcement agents, Zawie was asked about his relationship with the company, and he lied. He falsely stated that he didn’t receive any benefits when in fact he got, it looks like a $12,000 kickback.

So he agreed guilty to one count of accepting gratuities, which is bribes essentially, and then making a false statement. He faces upwards of two years in prison for the gratuities charge and five years for the false statement charge. So eventually there will be a plea hearing and then he’ll be sentenced. And now I know he pled guilty here. He may be cooperating. I don’t know that, but he may be, I would presume. So the sentence may not be as much as you might think. But my understanding of Justice Department policy from prior Judicial Watch work is that they, you know, if you plead guilty, you kind of have to plead guilty and be willing to spend time in prison, even if you are a cooperator.

So there’s going to be jail time as a result of Judicial Watch’s work, our excellent whistleblowers, some independent media, and let’s be fair Doge. Because Doge and Elon Musk’s team, they focused in on this agency. They were told, oh, no problem. You know, there’s nothing here. And the leadership there was vicious in attacking Musk and making all sorts of outrageous smears and allegations to defend themselves from being held accountable under the rule of law and to taxpayers. I mean, this is basically, you know, there’s this, the left funds itself through agencies like this, right? But there’s also a corruption component, it looks like.

It’s confirmed here. So not only is it used to kind of advance the left and take care of outside leftists and just, you know, just keep the the left board going, but they take money for themselves. I mean, this is what is proven here. He’s admitted to it. And look at this tweet by Elon Musk. I think I responded to it. Oh, so Luke, who’s the reporter who wrote the story for the Daily Wire, said, when Doge went to audit the African Development Foundation at CFO locked them out. The move was heralded by Democrats and the media as heroic.

Turns out when people resist audits, because they have something to hide. Today, the agency CFO admitted taking bribes and Elon Musk tweeted that out. They tried to hide their crimes. As I noted below, Judicial Watch, I misspelled Judicial Watch, honored to represent the whistleblowers who came forward about this corrupted agency. So stay tuned for more. I think it’s, this is a pretty significant victory for the rule of law. It shows you that every, you know, it’s not the first time they’ve been criminal investigations as it relates to Judicial Watch’s findings.

You know, Hillary was criminally investigated, but they never did anything with her. You know, thanks, you know, it was because of Judicial Watch, she was criminally investigated. But in this case, these whistleblowers, it’s clear they came forward. The plea agreement followed. The proof is the pudding, right? So just great work for our legal team and our investigators. And you know, we still got the FOIA. I mean, can you imagine the FOIA records about what these people are up to? So stay tuned for more. Thanks for watching. Don’t forget to hit that subscribe button and like our video down below.

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