USAID official, 3 execs plead guilty in bribery scheme with over $550 million in contracts

A United States Agency of International Development (USAID) official as well as three corporate executives have pleaded guilty in a decades-long bribery scheme connected to over $550 million in contracts.

According to a press release from the Department of Justice, four men pleaded guilty to the charges of being part of the bribery scheme. The USAID official in the case was Roderick Watson, 57, of Maryland, who was a contracting officer and pleaded guilty to bribery of a public official. 

Walter Barnes, 46, of Maryland; Darryl Britt, 64, of Florida; and Paul Young, 62, of Maryland all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official while Barens also pleaded guilty to securities fraud.

Barnes and Britt were the owners of PM Consulting Group LLC (doing business as Vistant) as well as Apprio, Inc. respectively while Young was a subcontractor for both Vistant and Apprio. Both firms were certified businesses with the Small Business Administration 8(a) contracting program.

“Watson exploited his position at USAID to line his pockets with bribes in exchange for more than $550 million in contracts. While he helped three company owners and presidents bypass the fair bidding process, he was showered with cash and lavish gifts,” said Chief Guy Ficco of IRS Criminal Investigation.

According to court documents cited by the DOJ, while Watson was working as a contracting officer for USAID in 2013, he agreed with Britt to receive bribes so that contracts would be awarded to Britt's company Apprio. "Apprio could access lucrative federal contracting opportunities through set-asides and sole-source contracts exclusively available to eligible contractors without a competitive bid process," the DOJ said.

"Vistant was a subcontractor to Apprio on one of the contracts awarded through Watson’s influence," the DOJ said in a press release. After Apprio became ineligible for the SBA 8(a) program, and the scheme changed so that Vistant became the prime contractor with USAID and Apprio was the subcontractor of contracts awarded by Watson between the years of 2018 and 2022.

"Britt and Barnes paid bribes to Watson that were often concealed by passing them through Young, who was the president of another subcontractor to Apprio and Vistant," the DOJ added. Bribes such as cash, laptops, NBA game tickets, downpayments on homes, cell phones, as well as jobs for relatives were all bribes given to Watson which were valued at over $1 million in the scheme.

Watson would then make a variety of actions in order to get contracts awarded to Apprio as well as Vistant. Watson is facing 15 years in prison, Young, Britt, as well as Barnes are all facing five years in prison.