CHARLESTON, South Carolina (CMC) – United States authorities have concluded a long-term investigation with the unsealing of an indictment in the District of South Carolina charging two foreign nationals, including a Guyanese man, with conspiring to illegally divert US-funded global health commodities.
The authorities said that Eric Ndungu Mwangi, 40, a Kenyan national, and Davendra Rampersaud, 42, a Guyanese national, and their associated businesses were charged in a 2021 superseding indictment brought by a federal grand jury in the District of South Carolina. They say the superseding indictment was originally filed under seal to protect the ongoing investigation.
The investigation, led by the Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), focused on the approximately US$650 million USAID-funded KEMSA Medical Commodities Programme (MCP).
The purpose of KEMSA MCP was to establish and operate a safe, secure, reliable, and sustainable supply chain management system for HIV/AIDS commodities needed to provide care and treatment of individuals with HIV/AIDS in Kenya, and to support the warehousing and distribution of select family planning, nutrition, and malaria commodities.
Beginning in 2014, Mwangi and his company, Linear Diagnostics (LD), systematically stole HIV test kits and other commodities intended for KEMSA. The stolen goods found a buyer in Rampersaud and his Guyanese company, Caribbean Medical Supplies, Inc. (CMS).
In 2015, Rampersaud fraudulently secured a “Letter of Authority” to operate as an authorised distributor, allowing him to secure a lucrative, sole-source contract with the Guyana Ministry of Health for the products he was acquiring illegally.
Between 2015 and 2019, Rampersaud allegedly paid Mwangi over US$177,000 for the diverted medical supplies, including the stolen, USAID-funded HIV test kits meant for Kenya. Rampersaud then profited again by reportedly selling these stolen health commodities to the Guyanese government. He and his company also acquired and sold test kits stolen from another separate USAID programme.
“This was an incredibly complicated investigation, spanning years and an ocean,” said US Attorney Bryan Stirling for the District of South Carolina, adding, “these defendants jeopardised a vital public health mission and caused a significant loss to the American taxpayers”.
In February 2021, Kenyan authorities arrested Mwangi on charges relating to theft and fraud. He is currently awaiting trial in Kenya. On the American charges, Mwangi faces up to 20 years on various counts, fines, and a term of supervised release.
In January 2023, Rampersaud was arrested on charges arising out of the superseding indictment when he flew into Miami in the United States during a flight layover, while attempting to travel back to Guyana.
He was transported to Charleston, South Carolina, and pleaded guilty to conspiracy and to stealing or converting health commodities that USAID paid for as part of a health care benefit. He was sentenced by United States District Judge Richard M Gergel and received credit for time served and was additionally sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay a US$84,000 fine.