Thread by @gekaminsky

EXCLUSIVE: In its final days, the Biden administration awarded $50 million to an obscure nonprofit whose leader has a history of self-dealing and financial mismanagement, documents show.

Now, the Trump administration has launched an investigation and not yet disbursed the funding, officials shared w/ me.🧵

The $50M grant — from the Department of Energy — was approved on Jan. 13 for the Tribal Energy Consortium. It is a 501(c)(3) charity on Indian tribal land focused on energy and mineral development.

IRS records show the charity’s leader is Roger Fragua, a former Enron Corporation manager and consultant who wears different hats.

Fragua is also the founder and executive director of the Flower Hill Institute, a charity on tribal land that, in fact, shares a mailing address with the $50 million awardee and Fragua’s LLC, Cota Holdings.

Here’s why that’s notable: Fragua’s other charity, also a federal grantee, was found through an independent third-party audit to lack internal controls and violate federal rules. Among other issues, it did not test to see if other contractors could fulfill its needs other than a trio of companies tied to its board members — including Cota Holdings.

Fragua’s Cota Holdings raked in hundreds of thousands from his charity, while it also overbilled the Department of Agriculture for reimbursements, the audit documents say.

The USDA told me it later received a corrective actions plan from Fragua’s group to address its issues, though tax experts still said these are red flags for the Trump administration to critically investigate before potentially handing the $50M to Fragua’s Tribal Energy Consortium.

Read more here @dcexaminer

washingtonexaminer.com/news/investiga…