An official with a government agency that President Donald Trump targeted for elimination has pleaded guilty, along with three businessmen, to being part of a decade-long bribery scheme that involved more than $500 million in taxpayer money, the Justice Department has announced.
In a news release published Thursday, the DOJ said Roderick Watson, 57, a contracting officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development, steered contracting work to specific companies in return for bribes.
The payments, according to the release, included “cash, laptops, thousands of dollars in tickets to a suite at an NBA game, a country club wedding, downpayments on two residential mortgages, cellular phones, and jobs for relatives.”
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