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Government agencies may have been double billed for projects in Wuhan, records indicate

Follow the money to the Wuhan lab


Follow the money to Wuhan labs: Records show firms double-billing US government

03:44

According to records reviewed by CBS News, the US government made duplicate payments for projects at labs in Wuhan, China, through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

“All I’ve found so far is evidence that points to double billing, potential theft of government funds. It’s alarming, especially since it involves dangerous pathogens and risky research,” said Diane Cutler, a former federal investigator for more than two decades. Experience fighting white-collar crime and healthcare fraud.

Cutler found evidence of possible double payments when he investigated US government grants that supported high-risk research in China. Covid-19 is global. He was hired by Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, who took his records to USAID and USAID’s internal watchdog agency, which launched a new investigation, the details of which have not been previously disclosed.

Cutler said he has seen more than 50,000 documents and that the US government may have made duplicate payments for medical supplies, equipment, travel and salaries.

Sources told CBS News that tens of millions of dollars could be involved.

Sources familiar with the donation records did not dispute CBS News’ reporting.

A USAID spokeswoman declined to comment. A USAID inspector general spokesman declined to comment “on the existence of a specific open investigation.” The NIH press office did not respond to questions from CBS News.

Sources told CBS News that the investigation into possible double-billing could take at least six months to complete.

Marshall is now calling for a 9/11-style commission.

“I think there are 1.1 million reasons that American taxpayers should care about,” he said. “You have a plane crash. We want to find out why planes crash. We go to any lengths to do that. And hopefully we don’t have another plane crash for the same reason.”

While intelligence agencies cannot agree on the source of the outbreak, the FBI and the Energy Department have deemed an accidental lab leak plausible. The Wuhan Institute of Virology conducted viral research in the city where the SARS-CoV-2 virus first emerged.

in recent times Congressional hearings Regarding the origin of Covid-19, the House voted unanimously on a bill that would have ordered the declassification of intelligence about the source. Former CDC Director Robert Redfield testified that money from the NIH, State Department, USAID and Department of Defense funded high-risk virus research in Wuhan.

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Kathryn Herridge

Kathryn Herridge

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