By Dylan Housman
Federal agencies may have made millions of dollars in double payments for research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), according to an investigator hired by Republican Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall.
Former federal investigator Diane Cutler found evidence of potential duplicate payments for medical equipment, travel and salaries, she told CBS News, which corroborated the existence of the evidence. Cutler said there are more than 50,000 documents pointing to the potential waste, and sources told CBS News the transactions could add up to tens of millions of dollars.
Records reviewed by CBS News indicate the U.S. government may have paid twice for projects at China’s Wuhan labs through the National Institutes of Health and USAID. A probe into the funding is raising questions about the use of the money. pic.twitter.com/yvyomEFV0K
— Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) March 13, 2023
“What I’ve found so far is evidence that points to double billing, potential theft of government funds,” said Cutler, a former federal investigator with decades of experience dealing with fraud and other financial crimes. “It is concerning, especially since it involves dangerous pathogens and risky research.”
Marshall turned over Cutler’s findings to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the agency’s internal watchdog. USAID and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are the agencies alleged to have made the duplicate payments.
The senator told CBS News he’d like to see the establishment of a commission to investigate the situation.
Various agencies, particularly the NIH, funded projects at the WIV via EcoHealth alliance, a non-profit intermediary non-profit group based in the U.S.. Proponents of the lab leak theory argue that research at the WIV, potentially funded by the U.S. government and EcoHealth, resulted in the release of COVID-19 from the Wuhan lab. (RELATED: ‘Wild West’: New Emails Reveal Fauci, NIH Officials Considered Warning FBI About Potential Lab Leak)
Last week, Congress voted to declassify all information about a potential lab leak from various U.S. intelligence agencies after the Department of Energy determined that it was the most likely explanation for the origins of the pandemic.
