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Hilariously hiding his identity with a cheap wig and eyeglasses, O’Keefe filmed a meeting he had with the director of contracts for ATI Government Solutions where the scam was openly discussed during a meal. O’Keefe explained the Biden administration’s 8(a) SBA Program is being exploited by shell companies that receive lucrative no-bid government contracts for being Native American-owned, collect around 65% of the money and pass along the work to subcontractors, which are paid using the remaining 35%.

This is true and it was going on before Biden, all the way back to Bush at least. I've spoken to native people in Hawaii who run such companies as figureheads, while a large firm does all the work.

“”” I’ve spoken to native people in Hawaii who run such companies as figureheads, while a large firm does all the work. “””

Yeah, nothing new or shocking about this. I was in construction all my life. This sort of thing has been going on forever.

“I’ve spoken to native people in Hawaii who run such companies as figureheads, while a large firm does all the work.”

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Yep, you’re correct about this as well as noting that it has been going on a long time. This shell company scheme (with large companies) benefits the 8(a) by having a qualified “sub” do most of the work so as to get good post-contract reviews, and therefore qualify for more no-compete contracts. Congress knows this goes on but never does anything about it.

This has been going on for decades at least.
During the Great Recession the lumber business went in the tank. Housing starts dropped to 480K in January of 2009.
They are currently 1.2MM. My income as a lumber broker fell by 50%.

I started poking around to sell the Federal Government lumber. They were buying it to go to Iraq and Afghanistan via Kuwait and Germany.
All the lumber was coming from European mills that had all made arrangements to get Grade Stamps from grading agency out of the USA.

What I found out was almost all the lumber was being sold to the them by two companies. One was operated under the ownership of an Asian woman who’s husband used to work for a sister company of mine. The other company was owned by a Native American woman out of SD. These were just a way to get a foot up on other trading companies. Having a Minority Woman owned company gave you a higher ranking on the scale with a US federal government Purchasing Agent.

Another consideration in awarding bids was whether they had purchased from you prior. So, once you were in with the Feds you were golden. Unfortunately, I am not a woman or a minority. My company is not under that ownership either. So, after discovering these criteria I gave up on selling the US government.