Woman spared prison sentence for defrauding USAID-funded charity ordered to repay $160,000 to feds

A Maryland woman has agreed to pay $160,000 as part of a civil settlement with the Department of Justice (DOJ), which alleged she submitted fraudulent claims for payments to the U.S. government.

Carleena Graham, 59, was the former vice president of human resources for World Learning, a non-government organization (NGO) that received funding from USAID, the defunct organization targeted by Elon Musk in the early part of President Donald Trump’s second term. Graham pleaded guilty to defrauding the NGO of about $425,000, about $272,500 of which was directly or partially paid by the U.S. government, the USAID Office of Inspector General (OIG) said in a press release. 

Last month, Graham entered a civil settlement with the DOJ and agreed to pay $160,000 to resolve further allegations that she submitted fraudulent claims for payment to the U.S. government. The civil settlement ends the OIG’s investigation into Graham.

Falsified invoices, misuse of credit cards

Graham was charged with one count of wire fraud in May 2023 and sentenced in federal court in March 2024 to four years of probation after she pleaded guilty. She also agreed to pay $425,000 in restitution and was debarred from receiving U.S. government funds for three years.

Beginning in 2016, Graham used her position to defraud World Learning out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, the OIG reported. She would arrange for goods and services to be delivered to third-party organizations, and then have World Learning pay for it all through electronic transfers. Graham then falsified invoices from vendors to make it appear as though World Learning received the goods and services. Graham also used World Learning’s credit cards to pay for the expenses of those third-party organizations.

White House and DOGE warned about USAID's fraud potential for years

USAID came under scrutiny in early 2025, after Trump took office for a second time, while Elon Musk acted as a special government employee leading the charge of reducing wasteful spending. The White House released a report in February 2025, showing a few examples of the wasted USAID funds discovered by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), including $6 million to fund tourism in Egypt and $2 million for sex changes and “LGBT activism” in Guatemala.

Before the Trump administration purged more than 90% of USAID global aid contracts and rescinded roughly 15,000 aid grants costing $60 billion, it was already known that the agency had created “vulnerabilities” while dispersing foreign aid, Just the News reported in February 2025. USAID’s OIG sent a memo warning that the agency was sending billions of dollars overseas to countries and groups without fully vetting where the money actually went and whether it was ending up in the hands of terrorists or fraudsters.

Recipients of USAID funds failed to report instances of fraud

Inspector General Paul Martin identified three main areas of vulnerability in USAID in his report: “Resistance from United Nations (UN) agencies and foreign-based nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to sharing information with OIG about potential misconduct;” “Limitations on vetting of aid organizations for ties to designated terrorist organizations and known corrupt actors;” and “Limitations in obtaining data about USAID-funded sub-awardees.” 

The report found that even though organizations receiving USAID funds were contractually obligated to report potential fraud, most failed to report those instances to the OIG. For example, the World Food Program reported 519 instances of potential misconduct to USAID, but USAID only reported 29 of those instances to the OIG. Further, the agency lacked any ability to ensure that individuals accused of corruption or mismanagement were not “recirculated” to other United Nations agencies.

Some of USAID still exists, but has been rolled into the State Department.