Wuhan lab may have fraudulently double-billed US Government for coronavirus research
US taxpayers may have paid twice for grants used to fund research on the coronavirus in Wuhan feared they had caused the pandemic.
Diane Cutler, chief health policy researcher at the United States Senate, found evidence pointing to “potential theft of public funds.”
Documents seen by CBS news suggest that the US government may have paid twice for experiments conducted at the laboratory in Wuhan, through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
Congressional hearings on the origins of Covid-19 have brought the lab leak theory back to the forefront.
The FBI and the Department of Energy recently stated that an accidental lab leak from the lab is plausible.
The US government may have paid twice for things like medical supplies, equipment, travel and salaries at the Wuhan lab
Documents suggest the Wuhan Institute of Virology double billed the US government for its experiments
Dr. Peter Daszak (left), president of EcoHealth Alliance, pictured with Dr. Anthony Fauci (right)
Ms Cutler examined US government grants to support coronavirus-related research in China in the run-up to the pandemic.
Republican Senator Roger Marshall hired Ms. Cutler and presented her data to USAID and its internal watchdog, who launched an investigation of their own.
Documents, seen by CBS News, suggest that the US government may have paid twice for experiments conducted at the laboratory in Wuhan, through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
Ms. Cutler looked at more than 50,000 documents and showed possible duplicate payments for things like medical supplies, equipment, travel and salaries.
She told CBS News, “What I’ve found so far is evidence pointing to double billing, possible theft of government funds.”
‘It is worrying, especially because it involves dangerous pathogens and risky research.’
Ms Cutler added that the full investigation could take up to six months.
Sources told CBS News that the overpayments could be worth tens of millions of dollars.
DailyMail.com has contacted the USAID for comment.
The revelation has raised questions about how closely the government was monitoring research at the laboratory of the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
Last week, the nonprofit at the center of the Covid lab’s leak questions today doubled down on its claim that it’s just a “coincidence” that the virus showed up in the city that funded the risky research.
New York City-based EcoHealth Alliance defended its ties to the Wuhan facility after Congress heard damning testimony from top scientists pointing to mounting evidence that the virus was manmade.
EcoHealth — which is led by controversial scientist and friend of Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Peter Daszak — sent millions of US tax dollars to the lab to fund dangerous research on the coronavirus before the pandemic hit.
In a reactive statement released while the explosive hearing was still taking place, the nonprofit said: “[The] Even ‘strongest pieces of evidence’ for a laboratory origin don’t stand up either.’
EcoHealth donated $3.3 million from the NIH to WIV to conduct risky research on bat coronaviruses before the pandemic hit.
During this time, Dr. Fauci served as president of the NIAID, a division of the NIH.
In late 2019, the virus that would eventually cause a global pandemic emerged in Wuhan, with early cases linked to a seafood market just eight miles away from WIV.
Top scientific advisers told Congress last week that there is mounting evidence that Covid was leaking from the lab in Wuhan and Dr. Anthony Fauci of covering up the claims because they didn’t fit his narrative.
Experts, including a former Biden staffer and Donald Trump’s CDC director, testified before the House subcommittee investigating Covid that taxpayer-funded profit-of-function likely caused the virus to originate from the Chinese facility.
Dr. Jamie Metzl, a self-described Democrat who worked for President Biden when he was in the Senate, said he favored the lab leak theory because “the Chinese government has done everything it can” to block investigations.
Republican Representative Jim Jordan also attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci for “trying to cover his backside” about the lab leak allegations, and Trump’s CDC director Robert Redfield claimed the Biden Covid adviser ignored his concerns because “they wanted a single story and I have a different point of view.’