If there's not a d-bag of the year award, there should be:
USAID Contractor Steals Funds from Babies
The former deputy executive director of a South African research institute has been sentenced to seven months in prison for a scheme that defrauded the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) of grant funds meant to be used on a mobile device application to aid safer childbirths.
Eugene Sickle pleaded guilty to stealing grant funds from USAID to personally enrich himself and an associate. Sickle, who administered grant funds, signed a contract with Alzar Consulting Services Ltd. to develop the app. The institute’s chief executive officer, Sickle, and the supposed director of Alzar (“Dr. Carla Das Neves”) signed the contract, and Alzar was paid over $206,000.
However, it was later uncovered that Sickle created Alzar in the British Virgin Islands and was the sole owner of the company. Furthermore, Das Neves did not exist. Sickle created fake email accounts, a fake LinkedIn page, and additional fake employees to conceal the scheme, and signed the app contract as both himself and Das Neves.
Subsequently, no one developed the app or performed any work required under the contract.