Excerpt: "High level officials in the Bush and Obama administrations have allegedly been involved in a multi-billion dollar corruption scheme, according to allegations aired on Monday."



WikiLeaks has cast light on secret trade talks. (photo: Guardian UK)

WikiLeaks Alleges Massive US Government Fraud Scandal

By teleSUR

WikiLeaks says its latest release adds weight to allegations billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars have been illegally funneled to defense contractors through a disability scheme.

igh level officials in the Bush and Obama administrations have allegedly been involved in a multi-billion dollar corruption scheme, according to allegations aired on Monday.

“Thirteen presidential appointees (ten Obama, three Bush) are embroiled in a multi-billion dollar corruption scandal being probed by the U.S. Department of Justice and four inspector generals,” WikiLeaks said in a statement.

The whistleblower organization drew attention to the allegations as it published 30 hours of audio tapes online. WikiLeaks alleged the audio tapes add weight to months-old accusations of misconduct surrounding AbilityOne, a government program aimed at providing funds to companies that hire severely disabled employees. The program offers government contracts to companies where more than 75 percent of work is carried out by disabled employees. While the program has been touted by advocates as a way to provide an incentive to employers to hire disabled people, WikiLeaks says it has evidence AbilityOne's funding is largely being misappropriated.

Of the US$3 billion in funding distributed by AbilityOne, US$2.3 billion is funneled to contractors by the non-profit organization SourceAmerica.

However, according to WikiLeaks, “It is alleged that nearly half of the US$2.3 billion a year does not go to the severely disabled, but is rorted by pushing the money to corruptly favored placement organizations that recruit the able bodied or the mildly disabled instead of the mandated 75 percent severely disabled.”

“The result is billions in taxpayer funded labor subsidies and increased profits for the placement organizations,” WikiLeaks alleged.

Many of these “placement organizations” are military contractors such as Lockheed Martin, according to WikiLeaks.

Allegations against AbilityOne and SourceAmerica first emerged in July. At the time, CNN cited anonymous sources as stating as many as half the companies contracted under AbilityOne through SourceAmerica didn't have enough disabled employees to legally qualify for funding.

SourceAmerica denied the allegations. “The allegations being made against SourceAmerica are simply without merit. SourceAmerica is vigorously defending itself against these unfounded allegations, many of which are related to ongoing litigation brought forth by a very small number of individuals, and we anticipate a favorable resolution of these lawsuits,” SourceAmerica said in a statement subsequently published by CNN.

The non-profit has responded to the latest allegations sparked by the WikiLeaks release by stating SourceAmerica is being targeted by a “smear campaign.”

Speaking to the U.K.'s Telegraph, a spokesperson for SourceAmerica said the allegations are “false.”

"All of the allegations from these recordings that we knew of before today are simply untrue, and we have no reason to believe anything on these new tapes will be any different," the spokesperson stated.