Former U.S. Agency Official Gets Prison Time in $600K Contract Scheme, Prosecutors Say

An ex-top finance official at the U.S. African Development Foundation was sentenced on May 26 to four months in prison after admitting he steered more than $600,000 in federal contracts to a friend’s company in exchange for cash payments.

59-year-old Mathieu Zahui of Fairfax, Virginia, was sentenced in U.S. District Court earlier this year. He pleaded guilty to receiving a gratuity as a public official and making false statements to federal investigators.

Chief Judge James E. Boasberg also ordered Zahui to serve 12 months of supervised release and pay a $12,000 criminal forfeiture judgment. Federal prosecutors had asked for a 21-month prison sentence.

Prosecutors said Zahui abused his authority for several years while serving as Director of Financial Management at the U.S. African Development Foundation. It is an independent federal agency that supports African-owned businesses and enterprises.

“Mathieu Zahui spent fifteen years rising to the top of his agency’s financial operations and then used that authority to steer taxpayer-funded contracts to a friend while pocketing cash for himself,” U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro said in a statement.

“When federal agents sought answers, he didn’t come clean; he doubled down with repeated lies,” she added.

According to court records, Zahui joined the agency in 2010 as a budget analyst and later became its Finance Director, effectively acting as chief financial officer (CFO). He also served as a Contracting Officer Representative in late 2020 and received ethics training tied to conflicts of interest.

Despite those rules, prosecutors said Zahui directed the agency in March 2020 to award several sole-source contracts to a friend’s company without arranging any competitive bidding. Reportedly, the total of the contracts was more than $617,000 and was supposedly for logistical support services.

Investigators said much of the work was never performed. The contracts included awards worth about $173,640, $350,544, and $93,200. All exceeded the $100,000 limit for sole-source awards.

Authorities shared that Zahui approved invoices even though he knew the claims were unsupported.

He also arranged for legitimate contractors working with the agency to route payments through his friend’s business. The company then added markups ranging from 17% to 66% despite doing no work.

One time, a staffing company issued a $120,000 invoice to the friend’s company at Zahui’s direction. The company then billed the agency $140,653, creating a markup of more than $20,000.

Over three years, the friend’s company submitted more than 20 pass-through invoices and collected nearly $135,000 in markups, according to prosecutors.

To avoid scrutiny, investigators said Zahui made sure invoices described the work as logistical support, despite the fact that it had nothing to do with logistics.

In return, prosecutors said Zahui received eight cash payments totaling $12,000. When federal agents interviewed him in 2024, Zahui denied receiving benefits from his friend and claimed they spoke only a few times a year. Investigators later found phone records and emails showing the two communicated every day during some periods.

The case was investigated by the USAID Office of Inspector General and prosecuted by the Justice Department’s Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.