A USAID employee in charge of managing contracts for the agency created a fake company to fraudulently secure coronavirus benefits for himself, federal prosecutors said Friday.

“Yusuf Akoll worked as a Senior Procurement Contract Specialist at the U.S. Agency for International Development,” according to a previously unreported court document. “From at least in or around March 2021, and continuing through at least in or around August 2021, Akoll [made] materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements…that resulted in Akoll receiving two [Paycheck Protection Program] loans totaling approximately $16,666 that he was not entitled to receive.”

Prosecutors said that in November 2020, Akoll registered a company in Virginia called Naagode Consulting LLC, then applied for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan under the coronavirus bailout package, claiming he worked at Naagode and the money was necessary to prevent job losses.

Only companies in operation in February 2020 were eligible, so he falsely said it was established in January 2020. To establish a loss of income, he said the company had $40,000 in income in 2019 when it actually had no income, prosecutors said.

Akoll was accused of making false statements in Washington, D.C., federal court via an “information,” which typically signals a plea deal.

The fact that the money was paid out highlights how carelessly the government disbursed massive sums during coronavirus. The claim that the company had $40,000 in revenue in 2019 contradicts his own claim that it didn’t exist until January 2020.

The fact that Small Business Administration officials didn’t check state corporation records and catch the fact that it was actually established in November 2020 — or federal tax returns to verify the $40,000 — indicate that the government wasn’t doing basic database cross-referencing, the kind of thing the Department of Government Efficiency has made its bread and butter.

USAID was shuttered, with its remnants folded into the State Department, amidst concern by Republicans and the Department of Government Efficiency that the money was mismanaged. Akoll was in charge of hundreds of thousands of dollars flowing to foreign countries, where the money could be difficult to monitor, records show.

Coronavirus payments were disbursed with little vetting under a “pay and chase” model, where fraudulent claims would ostensibly be recovered later. But the Biden administration quickly gave up on chasing.

The Biden administration said in 2023 that it would not seek to collect on loans of less than $100,000 that were required to be paid back, citing “equity.” Most of the loans were designed to be forgiven, but those who did not meet the requirements were supposed to repay them.

That’s despite the Small Business Administration’s inspector general saying the move “is not in compliance with applicable criteria,” and that not even attempting to stop people from cheating the government encouraged future fraud.  

Congress nearly let the Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery, which was set up to police fraud in the pandemic bailout, expire in March 2025, which would have quickly closed the book on the government’s largest and most chaotic payment frenzy ever.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) said the Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery had only recovered three dollars for every dollar spent on its staff, which should have been higher. CourtWatch, which advocated for its continuance, said the Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery had meager resources of only a few dozen employees, and that shutting it down could lead to even less recovery. CourtWatch said the Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery had open investigations into $577 million in suspected fraud.

 Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), the head of the Senate DOGE Caucus, fought to keep the inspector general, saying, “I will not allow fraudsters to get away with stealing hundreds of billions of dollars from taxpayers.”

The head of Lexis Nexis Risk Solutions testified to Congress that criminals stole $1 trillion in COVID money, most of which went overseas.

The Trump administration is “actively” considering suspending habeas corpus as it seeks to continue its mass deportation efforts that are being hindered by federal judges.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said on Friday that the Constitution makes it “clear” that the writ of habeas corpus, which allows a person to petition a court to review the legality of their detention, can be “suspended in a time of invasion.”

“So, it’s an option we’re actively looking at,” Miller said, adding that “it depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not.”

Multiple federal judges have stopped Trump from carrying out his deportation agenda by blocking the administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act. The Trump administration was using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to quickly deport Venezuelan illegal immigrants that it said were violent criminals and gang members. The president blasted “activist judges” on Wednesday, calling on them to allow the deportation of “murderers, and other criminals who have come into our Country illegally, WITHOUT DELAY!!!

“Our Court System is not letting me do the job I was Elected to do,” Trump added.

Miller also argued on Friday that the Immigration and Nationality Act, which was passed by Congress in 1965, strips the judicial branch’s jurisdiction “from overruling a presidential determination or a secretarial determination on TPS [temporary protected status].”

“So when Secretary [Kristi] Noem terminated TPS for the illegals that Biden flew into the country, when the courts stepped in, they were violating explicit language that Congress had enacted. … So the courts aren’t just at war with the executive branch, the courts are at war — these radical, rogue judges — with the legislative branch as well. So all of that will inform the choices the president ultimately makes,” Miller said.

Stephen Miller says the White House is looking into suspending habeas corpus, which protects people from unlawful detentions: "A lot of it depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not." pic.twitter.com/AZLhFy79oZ

— CSPAN (@cspan) May 9, 2025

If the White House attempts to suspend habeas corpus by arguing that the United States is being invaded, the move would likely be challenged, creating another battle between the courts and the president. Habeas corpus has been suspended four times throughout U.S. history. The first time was during the Civil War, and then again during Reconstruction while the federal government was going after the Ku Klux Klan. It was also suspended in the Philippines in 1905 during an insurrection and in Hawaii after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Trump rebuffed an order from Judge James Boasberg on March 15 after the judge said the administration must return deportation flights carrying Venezuelans to El Salvador. The deportation fight eventually made its way up to the Supreme Court, which blocked Trump from deporting suspected Tren de Aragua gang members under the Alien Enemies Act “until further order of this Court.”