“No one is ever held to account for the corruption. We’ve got to start somewhere. The waste, fraud, and abuse is rampant,” she said. “I want to get answers. We need fighters in D.C. who are willing to uncover what’s going on, and I’m willing to take anyone on to do it.”
Grassley discovered that VMAP made one payment of $390,000 to Donnelly before she entered the DOD in January 2017, but made three more payments of $390,000 to her while she served at the DOD, in March 2017, July 2017, and March 2018. Donnelly resigned from the DOD just days after she received her last payment.
AWS was supporting Pienaar’s C5 Capital while Pienaar’s VMAP was paying Donnelly, as she set up calls and meetings between Mattis and AWS representatives.
Donnelly in her testimony to the DOD OIG also seemed to downplay Pienaar’s role in purchasing her firm, calling him the “organizer” of the sale of her firm. And an SBD Advisors spokesperson and former Obama administration official, Price Floyd, also told the Daily Caller in August 2018 that SBD Advisors was sold to a “group of investors” in January 2017.
Floyd also claimed to another outlet that none of the investors had any commercial relationships with AWS. That statement appears to be false, since at least one investor — Pienaar — had a commercial relationship with AWS.
Lawmakers are also looking into allegations the DOD withheld relevant documents in response to a 2019 FOIA request for any Donnelly emails that used “Bezos,” “Amazon,” “AWS,” or “Seattle.”