💸 War as Fraud: How Ukrainian Leaders Used American Tax Dollars as Get Rich Quick Scheme
A new NYT investigation exposes what we already knew — our tax dollars didn’t just buy weapons. They bought mansions, bribes, and corruption at the highest levels
A Note Before We Begin
Family, I need you to help me keep this work free for the entire world — for readers in Gaza reading from tents, for brothers and sisters in Sudan crossing borders for safety, and for thousands of people across America who cannot afford a paywall.
If you believe this kind of unflinching reporting matters, please click here to become a member or click here to join as a monthly, annual, or founding member.
We keep it free for them — and for you — because the truth must remain free.
The Theft They Told Us Was “Aid”
Family, let me tell you something I’ve known in my bones since the moment America announced tens of billions of “emergency aid” to Ukraine:
It was never just about helping Ukraine fight Russia.
It was never just about democracy.
It was never just about defending Europe.
It was a cash grab — a once-in-a-generation opportunity for corrupt insiders to become wealthy beyond imagination using your tax dollars.
A devastating New York Times investigation published this week finally exposes it:
Ukraine — under Zelensky’s leadership — systematically dismantled oversight, neutered watchdog boards, blocked reforms, rewrote rules, and allowed billions to flow into the pockets of government insiders, oligarchs, contractors, and political allies.
This wasn’t negligence.
This wasn’t oversight failure.
This was a strategy.
The Oversight Wasn’t Weak — It Was Intentionally Sabotaged
When Western nations, including the United States, pledged tens of billions to Ukraine, they insisted on safeguards.
They demanded:
independent supervisory boards,
Western experts,
strict oversight of state-owned companies,
anti-corruption protections designed to prevent exactly what we are now seeing.
But according to the Times investigation:
Zelensky’s administration systematically sabotaged that oversight for four years.
They didn’t merely ignore warnings — they dismantled the systems meant to protect the money.
They stacked boards with political loyalists.
They left key oversight seats empty for months — sometimes years.
They rewrote charters to reduce transparency.
They hijacked hiring processes.
They stalled investigations.
This wasn’t accidental.
It was orchestrated.
Ukraine’s Energy Industry Became a Playground for Theft
The heart of the scandal revolves around Ukraine’s state-owned companies — enormous institutions controlling nuclear power, energy distribution, and defense procurement.
The Times details how Zelensky’s closest advisers and political allies siphoned off and laundered over $100 million from Energoatom, the state nuclear company.
And that’s just one case.
Supervisory board members describe contractors paying mandatory 15% kickbacks just to secure work — in the middle of a war.
Think about that:
While Ukrainians were fighting and dying, while the world was wiring billions to help them survive, insiders were skimming millions off the top for themselves.
This is not patriotism.
This is not wartime sacrifice.
This is criminal theft.
Billions Left Ukraine — and Never Reached the Battlefield
The investigation makes something abundantly clear:
Western nations — the United States above all — poured billions into Ukraine with barely functional oversight.
And the Ukrainian government knew donors were too politically invested to pull back.
They knew Europe depended on them to “defend the continent.”
They knew Washington didn’t want the public relations disaster of admitting corruption.
They knew no one wanted to be the first to blink.
So the money flowed.
And flowed.
And flowed.
Meanwhile, ministries were removed from oversight entirely.
Procurement agencies were gutted.
Anti-corruption watchdogs were sidelined.
And Ukraine’s government rewrote the rules to consolidate power and reduce accountability at every turn.
All while Western taxpayers — including you and me — footed the bill.
The Single Most Damning Truth From This Investigation
If I had to summarize this scandal in one sentence, it’s this:
America thought it was funding a war — Ukraine’s elites saw it as a once-in-a-lifetime jackpot.
Billions designated for weapons.
Billions designated for reconstruction.
Billions designated for state companies.
And in case after case, Ukrainian authorities did everything in their power to make sure nobody could see where the money actually went.
This is why Western officials kept saying versions of the same cowardly line:
“We have to accept the corruption risk.”
No, they didn’t.
But it was easier than telling the public the truth:
the money wasn’t being protected. We were bankrolling corruption.
Meanwhile — Gaza Is Starving Under a U.S.-Funded Siege
Let me tell you what the contrast feels like from where I sit.
While Ukraine’s elites were siphoning off millions, while supervisory boards were being gutted, while insiders were getting rich off American tax dollars, the same U.S. government:
refused to demand accountability in Gaza,
vetoed ceasefires,
shipped weapons used to kill children,
and cut aid programs for the Palestinian people.
Ukraine gets billions — unmonitored.
Gaza gets starvation.
Ukraine’s insiders get rich.
Sudan gets famine, displacement, and silence.
This is not foreign policy — it is moral bankruptcy.
What America Lost — and What Was Stolen From Us
This money didn’t come from thin air.
It came from you.
It came from your children’s schools, your family’s healthcare, your community’s infrastructure, your future.
It came from seniors who cannot afford insulin.
From working families drowning under rent.
From Americans sleeping in their cars tonight.
Hundreds of billions left this country — and a portion of it literally went into the pockets of corrupt Ukrainian insiders protected by Zelensky’s administration.
This isn’t charity.
This is neoliberal looting.
What Happens Next?
Here is the truth Western leaders don’t want to say out loud:
Ukraine cannot join the EU or NATO without confronting its corruption crisis — and Zelensky has spent years enabling it.
If Ukraine does not clean house, Western funds will dry up, reconstruction will stall, and its future will dim.
But here’s the part that matters most:
We deserve an honest accounting of where our money went.
Americans deserve transparency.
Ukrainians deserve accountability.
And the families of Gaza and Sudan deserve the compassion and resources that were denied to them.
This investigation is not an attack on Ukraine — it’s a demand for justice.
A Final Word From Me to You
Family, if you believe in this work — the courage to tell the truth, to challenge corruption, to expose injustice — please become a member today.
Your support lets me keep this journalism free to the world, especially to those living under siege and in displacement.
Please click here to join as a monthly, annual, or founding member.
Love and appreciate each of you.
Your friend and brother,
Shaun
One might think that the western officials that were aware of the theft and did nothing to stop it might have a hand in the corruption.
Powerful examination of systematic accountability failures. The detail about 15% mandatry kickbacks during wartime is jaw-dropping.What's most troubling isn't just the corruption itself, but how Western oversight was deliberately hollowed out while donors stayed politically locked in. This raises serious questions about whether aid transparency mechanisms can ever function when geopolitcal stakes override fiscal discipline.