USADF Finance Director Pleads Guilty in Contractor Gratuities Bribery Case

A senior official at the United States African Development Foundation (USADF) has agreed to plead guilty to federal criminal charges after admitting to accepting illicit gratuities from a government contractor and making false statements to law enforcement. The case highlights persistent vulnerabilities in public sector contracting oversight, particularly in the management of overseas development funds.

On 30 January 2026, the US Department of Justice announced that Mathieu Zahui, the Director of Financial Management at USADF, was charged by criminal information and has agreed to plead guilty to one count of accepting gratuities and one count of making a false statement to federal investigators. Zahui, who referred to himself internally as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), held a senior fiduciary role within the agency responsible for funding economic development initiatives across Africa.

According to court documents, between June 2020 and December 2023 Zahui orchestrated a scheme that routed USADF payments through a Kenya-based intermediary company owned by a long-standing associate who was also a government contractor. Rather than paying vendors directly, Zahui approved invoices submitted by this intermediary company, which acted purely as a pass-through while adding significant mark-ups for no legitimate services provided.

More than 20 invoices were approved under this arrangement, resulting in USADF paying at least $617,625.49 in bribes to the intermediary. Of that amount, $134,886.34 was retained as unjustified mark-ups, with individual uplifts ranging from 17 per cent to 66 per cent. In one example, a routine $50,000 membership fee owed by USADF was invoiced via the intermediary with an additional mark-up of $9,900.08, falsely attributed to logistical support services that were never delivered.

In exchange for facilitating the bribery and approving inflated invoices, Zahui accepted $12,000 in cash payments from the contractor. Neither Zahui nor the contractor disclosed these arrangements to the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, the body responsible for overseeing and authorising USADF’s external payments. Invoices submitted under the scheme misrepresented the nature of services provided, masking the true purpose of the transactions.

The misconduct extended beyond financial abuse. When interviewed by federal law enforcement officers in 2024, Zahui denied receiving any personal benefits from the contractor, despite having accepted the cash payments. This false statement forms the basis of the second criminal charge.

Zahui now faces a maximum sentence of two years’ imprisonment for accepting gratuities and up to five years for making false statements. Sentencing will ultimately be determined by a federal judge, taking into account the US Sentencing Guidelines and statutory factors. The investigation was led by the Office of Inspector General at the US Agency for International Development (USAID-OIG), reflecting its continued oversight role over US-funded foreign assistance programmes.

From a compliance and governance perspective, the case underscores the risks posed by weak segregation of duties, inadequate invoice scrutiny and excessive reliance on trusted individuals in senior finance roles. It also illustrates how pass-through arrangements and opaque overseas counterparties can be exploited to conceal conflicts of interest and extract improper financial benefits.

For organisations involved in public sector contracting or international development funding, the case serves as a reminder that robust financial controls, independent oversight and effective challenge mechanisms are essential safeguards against corruption, even at the most senior levels of management.

Read the press release here.