WASHINGTON — A US government agency is “expanding” its probe into more than 100 officials at a UN relief agency who had links to Hamas or were participants in the terror group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack that killed dozens of Americans, The Post has learned.
The Office of the Inspector General for the now-defunct US Agency for International Development continues to uncover ties to terrorism at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, according to a US official.
“USAID is investigating over 100 UNRWA officials for both ties to Hamas and participation in the October 7th terrorist attacks,” said a US diplomat familiar with USAID IG’s active and ongoing investigation. “The list is expanding.”
So far, that investigation has unmasked 14 UNRWA employees affiliated with Hamas and referred two additional workers for debarment, meaning they can no longer receive US funding for the next 10 years. One former employee of the embattled Palestinian relief agency is already blacklisted from federal funds.
President Trump issued an executive order in February 2025 also halting all US funding to UNRWA — which still received more than $839 million in funding through the United Nations.
“UNRWA’s terrorist ties are undeniable and President Trump was right to defund it–but the UN failed to act,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch said in a March 3 statement.
“I am glad to see President Trump’s USAID Office of the Inspector General conduct its own investigations to ensure bad actors like UNRWA don’t get taxpayer dollars.”
USAID Deputy Inspector General Adam Kaplan is prepared to share the office’s findings as well as others from 149 active investigations with members of the House Foreign Affairs Oversight and Intelligence Subcommittee on Tuesday.
That will include information on his office’s foreign aid audits, uncovering of bribery and other illicit schemes totaling hundreds of millions of dollars — after the Elon Musk-led closure of USAID itself one year ago due to fraud concerns.
“I am proud to say that even in a year of vast change, USAID OIG has continued to achieve unprecedented results,” Kaplan said in a written statement submitted to the subcommittee last week.
“As the only OIG with foreign service personnel, our offices in Ukraine, Israel, El Salvador, South Africa, and Thailand allow for timely and aggressive oversight close to American-funded projects on the ground.”
Kaplan is making the case to Congress that the watchdog government agency is still needed even after USAID is shut down — and is bringing receipts of the alleged fraud, waste and abuse his office has uncovered.
Three months after USAID’s closure, three business owners and a USAID contracting officer pleaded guilty to bilking taxpayers out of $550 million over a 10-year period following an IG investigation.
Another IG inquiry led to the indictment of two foreign nationals for allegedly conspiring to divert $650 million in taxpayer-funded HIV/AIDS care and treatment from a Kenyan government-run corporation.
That helped preserve $32 million in funding for non-fraudulent aid, Kaplan says in testimony.
Additionally, the IG office helped bust 19 people in December participating in a visa fraud ring spanning Central and South America that defrauded victims out of more than $2.5 million.
USAID OIG auditors also discovered in a report issue earlier this month that more than $26 billion sent to shore up the Ukraine government’s budget amid its war with Russia was in fact being received by individuals “living abroad,” in addition to issues with “duplicate payments.”
The office was not included on a new organization chart put out by the State Department after it closed USAID, yet has continued to pursue investigations — even as lawmakers field proposals to similarly shut it down.
The testimony comes as federal agencies have been meeting with lawmakers to discuss annual appropriations. Last year, USAID OIG received more than $62.5 million that had initially been slated solely for the State Department Office of Inspector General.
A May 2025 legislative proposal — which was distributed to members of Congress again in February — still has suggested the abolition of USAID OIG and the assumption of all its tasks by the State Department’s inspector general.
The proposal was followed by a meeting between members of the State IG’s office and lawmakers, during which the legislative approach was rejected, said one source familiar with the sit down.
Reps for the State Department Office of Inspector General did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
