HOW NOW, RAO?

Trump Admin’s Crisis-Hit $1BN Firm Quietly Hired Disgraced Exec

Salus made ethics-breach official Rajiv Rao its tech chief for the controversial Project Homecoming program without informing DHS.

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The crisis-hit firm running Donald Trump’s struggling $1 billion self-deportation scheme has quietly hired a disgraced executive without telling the Department of Homeland Security about his past misconduct.

Rajiv Rao is working for Salus Worldwide Solutions despite being fined earlier this year after admitting wrongdoing while serving as an official for New York State, the Daily Beast’s sister Substack, PunchUp, can reveal.

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He violated New York’s ethics law, including undisclosed dealings with a lobbyist petitioning the state’s Office of Information Technology Services, where Rao was Chief Technology Officer.

While the rules require disclosure only of federal criminal matters, and Rao’s settlement involved state misconduct, Salus not declaring it “cuts against the underlying purpose of the rules,” according to a leading expert.

Rao resigned from his $161,000-a-year role in March 2023, weeks into a sudden leave of absence, as the state’s inspector general examined his handling of government contracts.

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He signed the settlement with the New York State Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government on May 3 while working for Salus—admitting his conduct violated the state’s Public Officers Law and agreeing to a $5,500 fine, it was reported in June.

Salus hired him last fall without any public fanfare or notice to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). His LinkedIn profile still lists him as employed by New York State. Rao did not respond to requests for comment.

Salus, whose CEO and founder, Will Walters III, is a Trump crony and former State Department surgeon, has overseen the Trump administration’s struggling Project Homecoming self-deportation program.

The contract is currently being recompeted after Salus burned through its funding within a year and needed a $200 million bailout from the department.

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Walters confirmed Rao’s employment at Salus to PunchUp, adding that the company had no duty to report Rao’s ethics settlement to DHS. He said that Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) rules require disclosure only of federal criminal matters, and that “the matter at issue involves an alleged violation of a State civil regulation.”

But Steven Schooner, Nash & Cibinic Professor of Government Procurement Law at George Washington University, one of America’s most eminent voices in federal government procurement, said that, even though this is the letter of the law, failing to disclose “cuts against the underlying purpose of the rules.”

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An online industry event on August 12 was open to companies interested in taking over the contract after the recompete process, at an increased value of $2.3 billion, with a decision due in late September. The deadline for bids is 1pm ET Tuesday. DHS sources have told PunchUp Salus is “unlikely” to win the recompete.

As Salus’ chief information officer (CIO), Rao oversees the technology underpinning a program that holds the personal data of hundreds of thousands of migrants on a contract worth up to $915 million of taxpayers’ money.

Rao was censured after admitting that, while serving as CTO at the New York State Office of Information Technology Services (ITS), he spoke at invitation-only events hosted and paid for by someone who was lobbying ITS at the time. Soon after, the lobbyist was hired to woo ITS on procurements—and Rao then worked with ITS to authorize a procurement for that client.

He also did not disclose a potential conflict of interest to his then-employer when his son took a job at a firm doing business with the state. He also breached agency policy by issuing mobile devices—including his own state phone and one for a high-ranking state official—without registering them on New York’s mobile-device security platform, as required.

Walters told PunchUp that Rao “chose to settle the dispute to bring it to an end,” and that any public trust considerations were “addressed through the appropriate security process.” He did not explain what they were. A search of the federal government’s System for Award Management, which lists people barred from federal contracts, returned no active exclusion for Rao.

Schooner said Rao’s past misconduct could now factor into DHS’s ongoing examination of the Project Homecoming deal. Federal rules require the department to assess each bidder’s “record of integrity and business ethics” before any new award.

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Immigration detention giants GEO Group and CSI Aviation are among the favorites to replace Salus if it loses the contract.

A DHS spokesperson told PunchUp it was “inappropriate to comment further” until the “award process has been completed.”

Tom Latchem exposes the secrets, scandals, and stories that powerful people and institutions want to keep under wraps. Follow all of his reporting at PunchUp on Substack.

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