USAID Watchdog Debarments Expose Two Schemes Diverting American Foreign Aid

The USAID Office of Inspector General this week announced debarments in two separate foreign-aid cases, one in Colombia and one spanning Kenya and Guyana. Investigators said U.S.-funded assistance meant for migrants, HIV patients, and government health stores was diverted for personal profit. In the Colombian case, the watchdog also alleged sexual exploitation of program beneficiaries.

On September 22, USAID issued five-year debarments to Luis Meneses, founder and former president of the Colombian nonprofit FUVADIS; the organization itself; and Leonardo Meneses, his brother and current legal representative. Debarment blocks new federal contracts, grants, and program participation for the stated term.

FUVADIS provided aid to Venezuelan migrants, LGBTQI+ beneficiaries, and people living with HIV under a USAID/Colombia cooperative agreement. The OIG said its investigation found allegations that Luis Meneses engaged in sexual quid-pro-quos with program participants in exchange for benefits. Investigators also said he committed fraud by diverting donor-provided HIV medications that were supposed to be free and selling them for personal gain. At least six organizations working in the region cut ties with FUVADIS after the allegations surfaced. The OIG referred the brothers and the nonprofit for suspension and debarment after concluding the group failed to mitigate and address the misconduct claims.

The second case produced three-year debarments for Davendra Rampersaud, a 42-year-old Guyanese national, and his company, Caribbean Medical Supplies Inc. USAID OIG said that between 2015 and 2019 Rampersaud illegally sold stolen medical supplies taken from the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority, a Kenyan government corporation that at the time held a $650 million USAID award. He used Caribbean Medical Supplies to sell the goods to the Guyanese government. Investigators also found that he and the company acquired and sold HIV test kits stolen from a separate USAID program. OIG announced Rampersaud’s conviction on September 30, 2025, for conspiring to divert U.S.-funded global health commodities, then referred him and the company for debarment.

A senior Trump administration official told Just the News the White House is “putting an end to sending Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars overseas to sleazy criminal enterprises, which USAID IG continues to expose and bring to justice.” The same official called the Kenya-Guyana case “a major win for Attorney General Blanche, Secretary Rubio, and the USAID Inspector General office for crossing oceans to uncover and break up crime rings diverting American foreign assistance.”

The Rampersaud case sits alongside a larger Kenyan pharmacy investigation the OIG announced earlier this month. That separate operation, also tied to supplies stolen from KEMSA, produced two arrests, compelled 11 people to report for investigative or court proceedings, and closed at least four pharmacies. OIG said some of those products were suspected to have come from U.S.-funded global health programs.

Debarment is an administrative penalty, not a criminal sentence. The OIG summaries describe the Colombia findings as allegations that supported the five-year exclusions. The Kenya-Guyana matter includes a reported conviction plus the three-year government-wide bars. USAID OIG said it continues to investigate fraud, corruption, and diversion across U.S.-funded foreign assistance and asked the public to report suspected misuse through its hotline.

The two cases add concrete names, dates, and commodities to a longer watchdog record of diverted medicines, stolen inventories, and implementers who treated aid pipelines as inventory for resale. They do not, by themselves, quantify a total dollar loss for either scheme. They do show how U.S. awards moved through local nonprofits and government supply agencies, then left the intended beneficiaries.