This week’s High Country Advocate coverage opens at home before spanning two national fraud investigations that document accountability failures at the highest levels of the federal government.
In Salida, the NRCDC series advances with Parts 3 and 4, examining the 14-year financial saga of the Vandaveer Ranch property. The City drew down $2.4 million from water and general reserve funds in 2009, yet no comprehensive public accounting of total taxpayer costs has ever been produced. Part 4 documents a pointed irony: the same voices that attacked Mayor LiVecchi and City Attorney Kahn’s 2016 divestiture plan celebrated two years later when the NRCDC board executed it almost exactly as proposed. With the City now back as landowner and lead developer at South Ark, the governance and TABOR risks Kahn documented remain directly relevant.
Nationally, a federal grand jury indicted Dr. David Morens, senior adviser to Anthony Fauci at NIAID, for destroying federal records tied to COVID origins. Morens used personal Gmail to evade FOIA and documented the method himself in writing. Co-conspirator Peter Daszak allegedly sent wine as payment for securing EcoHealth’s grant restoration. Fauci was preemptively pardoned by Biden in January 2025.
A third investigation documents USAID fraud running unchecked for a decade. When DOGE arrived at the U.S. African Development Foundation in February 2025, the financial director blocked the door. He has since pled guilty. A separate USAID contracting officer and three corporate executives admitted to a bribery scheme covering more than $550 million in contracts. Over 300 fraud investigations remain open. The Medicare and Medicaid crackdown added 15 defendants in $90 million in Minnesota schemes, including the largest autism fraud case DOJ has ever charged nationally.
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