Forbes ’30 Under 30′ honoree’s charity accused of mistreating refugees, sued for fraud

Late final 12 months, a former Afghan refugee who has been extensively celebrated for his humanitarian paintings evacuating Afghans and Americans from Afghanistan after the United States’ withdrawal, landed a coveted spot at the Forbes “30 Under 30” record — branding him as one of the rustic’s so-called “brightest young leaders.”

Safi Rauf, 28, and his nonprofit group, Human First Coalition, emerged as one of essentially the most notable humanitarian teams from the chaotic length that adopted the United States’ pullout from Afghanistan and the takeover through the Taliban in August, 2021. Months into his paintings, Rauf himself used to be captured through the Taliban whilst at the flooring within the nation and held captive for a harrowing 105 days, and his efforts in the end propelled him into the nationwide highlight, touchdown him tv interviews, a TED Talk, and backing for his group from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s basis.

“I am so incredibly humbled and grateful to be named one of the Forbes 30 under 30 Social Impact,” Rauf wrote on social media in November according to the news. “I share this recognition with my team in the U.S, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. This is to honor all that they have achieved.”

But now, an ABC News investigation has realized of a large number of allegations in opposition to Rauf and his group — none of that have up to now been reported. A U.S. government-backed establishment has sued Rauf and Human First Coalition, alleging the group did not evacuate its staff after it used to be paid over a part one million bucks for that rescue, and one former volunteer has mentioned she raised questions on how investment to the group used to be being spent. The crew may be going through accusations that it mistreated some of the refugees it promised to assist.

“Safi left us behind,” mentioned one refugee, who requested ABC News to not use her title. “He left us in darkness.”

The refugee, who mentioned that Human First Coalition had confident her of evacuation to a rustic clear of the area once they evacuated her and others from Afghanistan, instructed ABC News she used to be as an alternative left stranded for months in a Pakistani secure space the place ingesting water used to be bring to a halt and there have been no clinical products and services. One lawyer who previously labored with the group additionally instructed ABC News that during a separate example, refugees had been unexpectedly compelled out of a Human First Coalition secure space in Kabul within the center of the night time with their assets in trash luggage.

“There’s a lot of damage that’s been done, and nobody knows the truth,” the previous volunteer, Sarah Teske, instructed ABC News.

In an interview with ABC News, Rauf stated that there have been circumstances the place the group “may have fallen short,” however he widely defended his crew’s humanitarian paintings, pronouncing he “continue[s] to put everything else aside to care for these people.”

“The intent was always to help people, and help we did,” Rauf mentioned. “In some instances we may have fallen short, but considering the circumstances, we did unprecedented work that no other organization in this line of evacuation work has done.”

“Because this work is so messy and complicated, there are a lot of problems that come with it,” Rauf instructed ABC News. He mentioned that the group has now shifted its focal point to ladies’s schooling in Afghanistan, and “will continue to move forward with that mission.”

Recently, a rising quantity of former “30 Under 30” honorees have come underneath scrutiny after touchdown a place at the coveted record. Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos, Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX, Adam Neumann of WePaintings, and “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli all earned “30 Under 30” nods ahead of their respective falls from grace. Earlier this month, federal prosecutors filed fraud fees in opposition to Frank CEO Charlie Javice, a 2019 “30 Under 30” recipient — fees that Javice denies. Forbes didn’t reply to ABC News’ request for remark.

After first turning into mindful of the allegations in opposition to Human First Coalition in February, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s basis, Archewell, halted grants to the group and contacted authorities companies for steering, an Archewell Foundation spokesperson instructed ABC News.

The spokesperson instructed ABC News that the basis had made a one-time grant to the Human First Coalition in December, 2021, and continues to watch the placement.

In reaction, Rauf mentioned he used to be “exceptionally grateful to Archewell for their support” and “understand their need to do their due diligence when questions arise, of course.”

Rise to popularity

Rauf used to be born and raised through Afghan folks in a Pakistani refugee camp, and immigrated to the United States as a teen. He attended highschool in Omaha, Nebraska, in keeping with a couple of on-line profiles, ahead of enlisting within the army, the place he served as an interpreter in Afghanistan. Publicly, Rauf has mentioned he used to be making plans to wait clinical faculty in 2021 when the U.S. introduced plans to withdraw from Afghanistan and the Taliban appeared poised to go back to energy, uprooting his plans.

“So when Kabul fell and then all of these refugees are scrambling and some are, you know, falling from planes and trying to stick on to those planes, trying to get out, I see myself all over again,” Rauf defined previous this 12 months in an interview with former Daily Show host John Stewart on his podcast, “The Problem with Jon Stewart.”

“I was like, I am not going to watch this while I know I can help them,” Rauf instructed Stewart. “I know I can do something there. So I got right on it and started evacuating people,”

“I mean honestly,” Stewart instructed him previous, “you’re James Bond.”

Rauf and Human First Coalition had early luck. At occasions, they labored with the U.S. State Department for evacuations, Rauf instructed ABC News. After the United States’ widely-criticized withdrawal from the rustic, for instance, the group evacuated 117 U.S. voters on a flight out of Kabul into Abu Dhabi, Rauf instructed Stewart at the podcast. In October, 2021, the group made headlines after it mentioned it effectively evacuated President Joe Biden’s former interpreter and over 200 different “at-risk” folks from the rustic.

“Safi is my life hero,” mentioned Waheedullah Siddiqi, an Afghan who instructed ABC News that he and his circle of relatives had been evacuated through Human First Coalition as phase of the flight to Abu Dhabi.

“They were so cooperative and so supportive,” mentioned Saddiqi, who mentioned he now is living in Connecticut after spending just about a 12 months ready in Abu Dhabi. “I’m so happy. I don’t know how to thank Safi and the entire team for giving us a safe place to live in America.”

Then, in December 2021, Rauf used to be captured through the Taliban, and held for over 100 days till the Biden management negotiated his liberate in April 2022.

“So at this point, President Biden knows me by my first name. So I am on the president’s daily brief every day'” Rauf instructed Stewart of the harrowing ordeal.

After the Biden management secured Rauf’s liberate, CNN’s Jake Tapper landed the primary unique interview with him.

“I am so glad to see you, this has been such an ordeal,” Tapper instructed him. “I’ve been following it, keeping in touch with everybody. How does it feel to be back home?”

“It’s an incredible feeling,” Rauf responded on CNN. “It hasn’t settled in yet.”

From there, Rauf shot to mini-stardom inside the humanitarian global and past. “I became that advocate and that voice for others,” Rauf mentioned in his TED Talk, which has just about two million perspectives on-line.

Critics allege ‘terrible’ remedy for refugees

Though his profile skyrocketed upon his go back from captivity, Rauf and Human First Coalition started to stand scrutiny over allegations referring to some of the group’s paintings at the flooring, some of which happened whilst Rauf used to be nonetheless in captivity. ABC News spoke with a large number of individuals who alleged that worrying remedy happened in secure homes operated through Human First Coalition in Pakistan and Kabul — together with all over the gang’s high-profile evacuation of the over 200 “at-risk” folks in October 2021.

Though the evacuation used to be extensively praised on the time, a lady who mentioned she used to be one of the ones 200 refugees instructed ABC News that her revel in used to be no triumph — and that she in the end remained in Pakistan for months, although she claims the gang mentioned they’d assist her make her approach out of the area.

The girl, who requested to not be known as a result of she remains to be in Pakistan, mentioned she spent months dwelling in terrible prerequisites at a Human First Coalition secure space ahead of it used to be in the end shuttered with only one week’s realize.

“They would say, ‘Please wait, you all will be evacuated to the United States very soon, you must be patient,'” the lady instructed ABC News. “But then they said, ‘You must go, we cannot do anything for you, it’s not our business.'”

At the time, a letter to Human First Coalition penned through 260 refugees alleged that ingesting water within the secure space have been bring to a halt, meals had led to illnesses, and no clinical products and services have been supplied out of doors of “guidance to hospitals,” in keeping with a duplicate of the May 2022 letter that the lady supplied to ABC News. The refugees profusely thanked the group for their efforts to this point, however begged them to “put an end to our miserable situation” that discovered them necessarily stranded in Pakistan.

“Going back to Afghanistan is like suicide for us,” mentioned the letter. “On the other hand, if you were not sure about our evacuation to another country, you should not have brought us here at the beginning.”

At the time of the evacuation, Human First Coalition had publicly thanked Secretary of State Antony Blinken for serving to coordinate a “path” out of Pakistan for the gang, in keeping with a record on the time. But simply days after the letter from the refugees, Human First Coalition gave refugees a seven-day caution that it might shutter the secure space as it “simply [did] not have the funding” to proceed operations, in keeping with a duplicate of the Human First Coalition letter that used to be supplied to ABC News through the refugee.

Human First Coalition additionally mentioned that whilst they’d proceed to recommend with the U.S. State Department for their evacuation, they’d “less positive news”: They had been “not able to provide any sort of timeline” for evacuation, and even “complete confidence” that the hassle would be triumphant in any respect, in keeping with the letter.

In his interview with ABC News, Rauf stated that he won court cases in regards to the secure space as soon as he used to be launched from captivity, however mentioned he “followed through completely” on all of them.

“I know there were missteps taken by the ground team, but once those were brought to my attention they were corrected,” Rauf instructed ABC News.

Rauf additionally denied that there used to be an absence of hospital treatment on the Pakistan secure space, and pointed to a receipt and {photograph} that looked as if it would display a medical institution keep from the time. He claimed everybody who arrived on the secure space won a clinical checkup, and that care used to be supplied right through their keep.

Rauf mentioned that whilst “people can get upset when they find out that they are not eligible for resettlement,” he insisted he persisted to paintings on evacuation for the refugees and shifted blame to U.S. authorities for the problem.

“We were operating safe houses, and our No. 1 priority was people safety. We are a private organization, and although we work closely with the government, it’s the government that makes the decision about who is eligible for resettlement and who is not,” Rauf mentioned. “That’s not in our control.”

John Moses, who mentioned he’s an unbiased case supervisor who has since taken over efforts to offer refuge, meals, and a trail out of Pakistan for the feminine refugee ABC News spoke with, mentioned he felt outraged through the best way Human First Coalition treated the extremely delicate state of affairs.

“This guy is famous, he’s going on TV, and he’s living the life,” Moses instructed ABC News referring to Rauf. “All the while, my friend is in Pakistan with no electricity.”

“This work is supposed to be selfless,” Moses mentioned. “[Human First Coalition] had a moral obligation to take care of those people … but they got there and took care of them for as long as they thought was necessary — and then just bailed.”

ABC News heard of a an identical revel in from Jordan Jones, an American lawyer who is helping refugees navigate the felony sides of resettlement however is determined by teams like Human First Coalition to bodily relocate her shoppers. In an interview with ABC News, Jones — who mentioned she previously had a freelance with the group however not works with them — mentioned Human First Coalition in a single example left refugees stranded in Kabul.

“I had two high-risk females, and [Human First Coalition] put them in a safe house in Kabul, which turned out [to be] horrible,” Jones instructed ABC News in an interview. “[Human First Coalition] closed the safe house and threw everybody out on the street in the middle of the night with their stuff in trash bags.”

Responding to these allegations, Rauf instructed ABC News that the secure space used to be shuttered because of safety considerations.

“We closed all the safe houses because I was in Taliban captivity and my team was worried they would have taken that information regarding the safe houses from me,” Rauf mentioned. “At the time our No. 1 priority was people’s safety, and we offered people to go to hotels. Some people took that offer and some people didn’t.”

A $600,000 dispute

Meanwhile, Rauf and Human First Coalition are entangled in litigation over one of the group’s evacuation efforts that came about proper at first of its founding — efforts that some say by no means happened.

A couple of months ahead of Rauf’s liberate from Taliban detention, the United States Institute of Peace, a nonpartisan U.S. government-backed basis running to forestall battle around the globe, accused Rauf and the group in a court docket submitting of failing to evacuate USIP’s staff from Afghanistan into the Kabul airport, probably as the federal government’s airlift used to be ongoing, in trade for over part one million bucks.

In court docket data filed within the U.S. District Court for Nebraska in early 2022, USIP claimed that it stressed $600,000 to Rauf’s then-attorney within the early days of the Afghanistan disaster after Rauf “promised” to move their team of workers to the airport. But Rauf “failed” to take action, in keeping with USIP’s declare — and didn’t go back the cash.

“[Rauf] offered to return the $600,000 after he failed to transport USIP personnel to the airport or secure their admission to the airport,” USIP claims in its filings, noting they’d introduced to compensate Rauf $30,000 for effectively evacuating contributors of the USIP-supported Generation Change Fellows Program. “To date, [Rauf] has not returned any of the contract payment.”

USIP has accused Rauf of breach of contract and fraudulent misrepresentations, and is looking for $600,000 in damages plus felony charges and prices. USIP’s declare used to be filed as a crossclaim in a case introduced through Human First Coalition’s former lawyer, through which he transferred what he mentioned had been the rest budget from the $600,000 fee into the court docket’s custody so a pass judgement on may resolve possession.

“Safiullah Rauf, Human First Coalition, and Human First LLC had an expressed or implied agreement to commit fraud against USIP,” the United States Institute of Peace claimed.

Rauf and Human First Coalition have denied wrongdoing alleged within the USIP lawsuit. Lawyers for Rauf and Human First Coalition wrote in court docket data that the group has “succeeded, after great diligence and effort, in evacuating several USIP personnel from Afghanistan through routes other than the Kabul airport.” Rauf’s attorney additionally claimed the budget had been a donation to the group — which USIP disputed.

“Rauf and Human First admit that Rauf has not paid any money to USIP, but explicitly deny any obligation to do so,” the submitting said.

A pass judgement on denied Rauf and Human First Coalition’s movement to brush aside USIP’s claims. The litigation stays ongoing.

Rauf instructed ABC News he anticipated the case to be “officially resolved” quickly, however mentioned he used to be “not legally permitted to disclose the details.”

A spokesperson for USIP referred ABC News’ request for remark to suggest. George Foote, an lawyer representing USIP within the case, declined ABC News’ request for remark because of the case being in energetic litigation. Jason Grams, USIP’s suggest in Nebraska, additionally declined to remark.

Former Human First Coalition lawyer Jason Hubbard — who filed the unique motion asking the pass judgement on to resolve who the rest cash belongs to — declined to remark when reached through ABC News.

$2 million in donations and investment

In overall, Human First Coalition raised greater than $2 million in donations and investment in 2021, in keeping with the gang’s tax returns that had been got through ABC News. That incorporated the $600,000 fee from USIP and a $150,000 grant from Prince Harry and Meghan’s Archewell basis, in keeping with the returns.

On the returns, the group indexed $1.4 million in bills, together with over $1.3 million spent on “logistic support” products and services and roughly $5,000 spent on “humanitarian aid.”

But internally, there gave the look to be no less than some disputes about the place investment used to be going. Sarah Teske, who served as Human First Coalition’s strategic director in 2021, instructed ABC News she resigned from the gang only some months into her task, partly after she mentioned she started to boost questions on budget.

“Nobody could tell me where the money was going,” Teske mentioned. “And when people were not able to give me a clear line of sight of where funding was going, and how it was being managed, that is when I started getting very concerned.”

Tekse, a retired U.S. Marine, mentioned that whilst the gang to start with did “great work” to start with and stored lives, problems with financing arose even ahead of Rauf used to be captured through the Taliban in December, 2021 — after which, she mentioned, “everything else kind of went south from there.”

Speaking with ABC News, Rauf denied that Teske had raised questions on budget at once to him, and defended his paintings total.

“I continue to put everything else aside to care for these people,” Rauf mentioned. “I can do anything with my life, but I chose to do this because I care for these people.”

But in a searing condemnation of the group’s dealing with of its budget, an out of doors company employed through Human First Coalition to study and analyze its transactions concluded that it had unearthed crimson flags inside the group which may be related to cord fraud or cash laundering, in keeping with a supply aware of the record who widely described its findings to ABC News.

While Human First Coalition used to be shaped with excellent intentions amidst the chaos of its early projects, there used to be deficient accounting for donor budget, some of which could have in the end been misused, in keeping with an outline of the findings given to ABC News — and that some of the transactions between financial institution accounts and folks related to the group had been suspicious.

The research used to be additionally not able to confirm the quantity of folks Rauf and Human First Coalition have publicly claimed to have helped, because of inadequate report holding, in keeping with the outline given to ABC News — together with a declare on Human First Coalition’s site that it had evacuated over 7,000 Afghans.

Rauf instructed ABC News the company have been employed through the group as a result of they “want to know what the issues were and how to fix them,” and that he sat for an interview with the company as phase of the method. He famous the difficulties of engaging in humanitarian paintings in an area this is “not conventional.”

“After the audit, we pulled all the receipts,” Rauf instructed ABC News. “We did the audit because we wanted to know what’s wrong, what we can fix, and what needs to be corrected.”