The massive scale of corruption exposed in this report is mind-blowing.
From the Daily Wire: President Joe Biden’s USAID awarded an $800 million contract to a business operating out of a Virginia home even after it formally ruled that its key manager lacked “honesty or integrity” — a reference to the fact that, according to a May 12 guilty plea, he had secured USAID contracts through bribery for a decade.
The contract was for addressing “issues affecting the root causes of irregular migration from Central America to the United States” — the work that Biden assigned to Vice President Kamala Harris, but which she never appeared to address, a Daily Wire investigation found.
The Department of Justice announced Friday that Walter Barnes III, the founder of government contractor Vistant (previously known as PM Consulting Group, or PMCG) and Roderick Watson, a USAID contracting official, pleaded guilty to a bribery scheme in which Barnes and two others conspired to pay Watson $1 million in exchange for $544 million in contracts.
What has not been reported is that the Biden administration continued to steer contracts to Vistant/PMCG even after it knew of the massive corruption: the migration contract, even larger than the $544 million in the indictment, and others that are still active.
The $800 million contract went to a joint venture between Barnes’ company and CollaborateUp, a tiny consultancy run out of a suburban home in Falls Church, Virginia, where its CEO, Richard Crespin — who runs the company while also working at a think tank — lives. The Virginia home was the address listed on the $800 million contract.
In announcing its $800 million contract, CollaborateUp said it would address the “irregular migration from Central America to the United States” by addressing “climate change.” Its website also touts its work “advancing DEIA” and combating “misinformation.”
Here’s another stunning excerpt from the report:
On November 6, 2024 — the day after the presidential election — GSA awarded the joint venture an indefinite delivery contract through 2029, whose cap was listed as $999,999,999,999.00. It paid $2,500 as the opening salvo.
On December 19, shortly before the Biden administration left office, GSA gave it another indefinite delivery contract with similar terms. According to its GSA Price List, the company rents administrative assistants to the government for $93.68 an hour. CollaborateUp did not return a request for comment.
READ MORE from the Daily Wire. It’s WILD!
Daily Wire reporter Luke Rosiak shared the following in a series of posts on X:
USAID OIG long knew of the $544M bribery scandal involving Walter Barnes that DOJ wrapped up this month
On November 9, 2023, the feds barred Barnes and his company from contracting based on “lack of business honesty/integrity”
That same day, it chose him for an $800M contract
— Luke Rosiak (@lukerosiak) June 17, 2025
CollaborateUp says USAID let it “co-develop” its “procurement reform” policies. It then teamed up with a company that was criminally bribing USAID to get contracts. And when contracting officials said that was a problem, they asked a judge to force USAID to give them the $. pic.twitter.com/4ywpsjFtJp
— Luke Rosiak (@lukerosiak) June 17, 2025
The contract to a residence in Virginia was to solve the “root causes of irregular migration from Central America to the United States” — the work that Biden assigned to Vice President Kamala Harris, but which she never did.
The company’s answer was to tackle “climate change” pic.twitter.com/LYeLoEpPoU
— Luke Rosiak (@lukerosiak) June 17, 2025
I thought the $544M USAID bribery scandal couldn’t get any worse.
But it’s much, much worse.
Read this story involving USAID, DEI, bribery, Kamala Harris, judges’ injunctions, and root causes of migration: https://t.co/DNDzkH9cPA
— Luke Rosiak (@lukerosiak) June 17, 2025
The fact that these patently farcical & inflated contracts for HALF A BILLION DOLLARS, to companies that couldn’t possibly have plausibly performed the work, seemed unremarkable instead of obvious bribery from the beginning, drops a nuclear bomb on USAID.https://t.co/GJ9rJFT5BQ
— Luke Rosiak (@lukerosiak) June 14, 2025
