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US was double billed tens of millions of dollars in grants to Wuhan labs
March 13, 2023
The US government may have paid twice for grants it doled out to fund research at labs in Wuhan, China, according to a newly launched federal probe that found tens of millions of dollars in potentially fraudulent payments.
The “risky” projects bankrolled by the National Institutes of Health and the US Agency for International Development would have helped pay for medical supplies, equipment, travel expenses and salaries at the Wuhan labs, according to CBS News, which broke the story Monday.
Among them was the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where taxpayers funded controversial gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses that federal officials now admit may have led to the COVID-19 pandemic.
An investigator hired by Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) first discovered the allegedly fraudulent funding from NIH and USAID, CBS News reported, and her findings prompted an internal probe by an inspector general.
“What I’ve found so far is evidence that points to double billing, potential theft of government funds,” Diane Cutler, who said she reviewed 50,000 documents on the matter, told “CBS News Mornings.”
“It is concerning, especially since it involves dangerous pathogens and risky research.”
The outlet cited anonymous sources who did not dispute the report and said “tens of millions of dollars could be involved.”
Neither USAID nor an acting general counsel for its inspector general’s office responded to a request for comment.
“Americans deserve the truth, especially if our government had a hand in funding the creation of the coronavirus. I am demanding transparency and accountability for the misuse of taxpayer funds. This probe is a step in the right direction. We must follow the money,” Marshall told The Post.
A source familiar with the investigation by Marshall’s office told The Post that the cost of the fraudulent payments likely exceeds $40 million, but thatNIH and USAID record redactions have obscured the true number.
“I think there’s 1.1 million reasons that American taxpayers should care” about the funding, the 62-year-old Marshall, who wants a 9/11-style commission on the findings, also told CBS.
“You’ll have a plane crashes. We want to find out why the plane crashes. We go to any lengths to do that. And the hope is we don’t have another plane crash for the same reason.”
The probe comes as two federal agencies — the FBI and Energy Department — have found the coronavirus pandemic most likely originated from a lab leak in Wuhan, where SARS-CoV-2 emerged.
The House on Friday unanimously passed a bill, already approved with unanimous consent in the Senate, to force the White House to declassify intelligence reports on the origins of COVID-19. President Biden has yet to sign it.
“I haven’t made that decision yet,” Biden, who cannot bock the measure with a veto given the unanimous bipartisan support for it, told reporters before leaving for his Delaware home last weekend.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has firmly resisted theories that NIH funding might have contributed to COVID-19.
He insisted on Sunday that the virus was caused by a “natural occurrence” — even if it came from a lab.
Sauce/more: https://nypost.com/2023/03/13/tens-of-millions-of-dollars-in-us-grants-went-to-wuhan-labs/