In a post to X, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) revealed how a Biden team member defrauded taxpayers of $520 million. The Department of Health and Human Services terminated a contract with Family Endeavors, an NGO that operated government facilities. Investigators determined that the NGO raked in hundreds of millions in funding for “horticulture therapy” and other questionable services.
“A former ICE employee and Biden transition team member joined Family Endeavors in early 2021 and helped secure a sole-source HHS contract for overflow housing from licensed care facilities,” DOGE reported. ” As a result, Family Endeavors’ cash and portfolio of investments grew from $8.3M in 2020 to $520.4M in 2023.”
“Since March 2024, HHS has paid ~$18M/month to keep the Pecos facility open despite sitting empty. With national licensed facility occupancy now below 20%, HHS was able to terminate this contract, saving taxpayers over $215M annually,” the agency concluded. Ed Martin, the US Attorney, replied, “Duly noted. We are on it.”
Maddie Rowley, an investigative reporter, added her own research. “Wrote about Family Endeavors in an @TheFP article about border NGOs. Family Endeavors paid a music therapist $533,000, offered “horticulture therapy” at its shelter, and 99.6% of its revenue came from the government @EagleEdMartin,” she said and tagged the US Attorney.
“In 2021 alone, Endeavors paid Christy Merrell, a music therapist, $533,000,” Rowley discovered in her article. “An internal Endeavors PowerPoint obtained by America First Legal, an outfit founded by former Trump aide Stephen Miller, showed that the nonprofit conducted 1,656 “people-plant interactions” and 287 pet therapy sessions between April 2021 and March 2023. ”
“Endeavors’ 2022 federal disclosure form also shows that it paid $5 million to a company to provide fill-in doctors and nurses, $4.6 million for “consulting services,” $1.4 million to attend conferences, and $700,000 on lobbyists,” she reported. ” Endeavors, which gets 99.6 percent of its revenue from the government according to federal disclosure forms, declined to comment to The Free Press.”
“In 2022, Fulghum was paid almost $600,000, while the compensation for Endeavors’ then-CEO, Jon Allman, was $700,000. Endeavors’ payroll went from $20 million in 2018 to a whopping $150 million in 2022, with seven other executives earning more than $300,000,” she explained. “Perhaps the most shocking figure was the size of Endeavors’s 2022 contract with the government: a staggering $1.3 billion by far the largest sum ever granted to an NGO working at the border. ”
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Online commenters were enraged by the wasteful spending. “HHS funneled $18M monthly into empty Pecos facility via shady contract. Family Endeavors’ cash reserves exploded from $8M to $520M in 3 yrs. Terminating this grift saves taxpayers $215M/yr. Real oversight works. The swamp self-enriches until accountability hits,” said one user.
“This is how the government really works: well-connected insiders securing massive taxpayer-funded contracts for services that aren’t even needed. Pure corruption,” noticed another. “From $8.3M to $520.4M in just 3 years? Looks like the real ‘overflow’ was in their bank accounts. Taxpayers should’ve been the ones getting that kind of return on investment,” another account replied.
“There’s more than meets the eye going on there that wasn’t an accidental oversight or an accounting error. They were running a skimming operation or some other nefarious operation and then doing what with the profit?” another user said in the comment section. “That money trail needs to be run down, but I’m sure you know that.”