How’s that White House job looking?
David Miliband, the hapless ex-politico reportedly angling for a spot in a future Hillary Clinton administration, is subject of a corruption probe by US Government investigators.
The charity he leads, the International Rescue Committee, is being investigating over its links to collusion and bribery in the Middle East.
USAID, which distributes federal cash to projects around the world, pulled the plug on Miliband’s IRC after unearthing “bid-rigging and multiple bribery and kickback schemes” allegedly linked to the non-profit.
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The body stands accusing of letting corrupt operators in Turkey and Syria embezzle US taxpayers’ cash under the guise of helping victims of the region’s devastating civil war.
The IRC receives enormous quantities of federal money – in the 2015 fiscal year it was given in excess of $225 million. Miliband himself brings home a salary in excess of $570,000.
It is the latest in a string of embarrassments to hit the IRC, including a failed Game of Thrones-themed refugee lobbying campaign which angered fans and is falling laughably short of its fundraising aim.
The resulting controversy will do no favors to the political ambitions of Miliband, who is said to be pursuing a diplomatic post with Hillary Clinton should she become president.
Miliband and Clinton are friends from their overlapping tenures as UK Foreign Secretary and US Secretary of State respectively.
But Miliband now faces the uncomfortable situation of being investigating by the same government which he later hopes to represent – and is allegedly prepared to abandon his British citizenship to join.
The IRC was named in a report by USAID’s Inspector General’s office alongside two other charities.
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They are thought to have been implicated in a scam whereby aid workers swapped humanitarian supplies for inferior knock-offs, and kept the difference in price as a kick-back.
USAID has suspended some of the IRC’s government funding while it investigates. It is not clear exactly how much cash is being withheld.
An IRC spokesman said: “We are working openly and collaboratively with USAID to investigate this issue.”
Donors too may begin to tire of giving to the IRC, which caused a fan backlash by co-opting Game of Thrones actors to lobby governments to accept vastly more Middle Eastern migrants than they have voted for.
Indeed, many seem to have done so already, with its campaign hitting a roadblock, and failing to garner any donations at all for an entire week.
