Sponsored

Ben Stiller Denies That He Was Paid Millions By USAID

By No Comments
Ben Stiller
Photo Credit: "In Conversation with Ben Stiller" by Montclair Film is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/?ref=openverse.

Actor Ben Stiller has dismissed viral rumors circulating on social networks, claiming he pocketed money from the under-fire U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

He placed responsibility for the misinformation squarely on Russian media outlets in a scathing post.

The accusation surfaced on an account under the name “Patriot Lady,” with the video in question gaining further traction after tech mogul Elon Musk reposted it from the “I Meme Therefore I Am” account.

Since Musk reposted the video on Thursday morning, it has racked up a staggering 4.1 million views.

USAID has been caught in the spotlight after Musk accused the agency of funneling taxpayer dollars into anti-American endeavors. Following these allegations, Musk suspended the organization to scrutinize its finances.

Musk’s involvement in rooting out government inefficiencies traces back to a task set by President Donald Trump.

Stiller responded directly to allegations that celebrities, including himself, were paid by USAID to endorse Ukraine in its ongoing conflict with Russia.

On his official social media page, Stiller asserted, “These are lies coming from Russian media. I completely self-funded my humanitarian trip to Ukraine. There was no funding from USAID and certainly no payment of any kind.” He added, “100% false.”

The controversial video suggested outlandish sums allegedly paid to high-profile figures, including $20 million for Angelina Jolie, $8 million for Orlando Bloom, $5 million for Sean Penn, $4 million for Stiller, and $1.5 million for Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Jolie, a globally recognized philanthropist, visited Ukraine in 2022, acting in her capacity as a UN Refugee Agency special envoy. Reports quoting a UN spokesperson, however, confirm her trip was undertaken as a private effort.

Likewise, Penn captured events in Ukraine for a 2022 documentary centered on the war and Ukrainian President Zelensky.

Stiller met Zelensky later that year as part of his duty as a goodwill ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency. Bloom also met Zelensky, albeit in 2023 while serving as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador.

Meanwhile, Jean-Claude Van Damme marked his own visit in 2022 with “a message of hope and peace,” shared via his YouTube platform.

The disputed video claimed to be a clip from E! News, further raising eyebrows. Regular viewers familiar with the outlet’s style were quick to question its authenticity.

Community Notes on the X platform clarified the issue, stating, “E! News told Lead Stories the video is “not authentic” and did not originate with them. Stiller denied he received any USAID money, posting on X that his trip to Ukraine was self-funded.”

The debunking went further when AFP FactCheck journalist Bill McCarthy independently verified the clip’s falsehood.

McCarthy contacted E! News, and a spokesperson explicitly discredited the video, confirming, “It is not authentic and did not originate from E! News.”

Adding more weight to the rebuttal, the UN Refugee Agency issued a February 6 statement saying Stiller “is not compensated for his work with UNHCR and self-funds his travel.”

Despite these clarifications, one version of the fabricated video still managed to attract millions views, with related screenshots of its contents only amplifying the widespread misinformation.

Parallel to these allegations, Mark Moyar, a former senior figure at USAID, leveled his own criticisms against the agency during an interview with Fox News host Jesse Watters.

Moyar shared stories about systemic corruption within USAID, recounting his own whistleblower experience and subsequent dismissal, which he described as steeped in a “culture of corruption.”

Moyar began his tenure at USAID in February 2018. Reflecting on his tumultuous time at the agency, he noted an unwillingness among employees to report wrongdoing.

“They didn’t tell me why,” he remarked. “I later figured out it’s because you get in a lot of trouble.”
Moyar claimed he faced accusations tied to sharing classified material, which he deemed “bogus.”

Instead, these accusations were utilized as grounds for his termination. “The people who were engaged in corruption managed to hold on to their jobs,” he stated.

The former director denounced USAID’s tendency to shield itself from accountability, asserting that the agency regularly withholds information from Congress and the courts.

“There’s a culture of corruption that says, ‘If you are going to criticize anything corrupt, we are going to come after you,'” Moyar explained.

Moyar credited the DOGE with making strides to uncover improper spending, but he believes only forensic accountants will unearth the full scope of misconduct.

“It’s probably going to take a long time because these bureaucrats have devised very crafty ways to hide money,” Moyar explained.

He added that the Trump administration made more progress addressing USAID misconduct in its second term than in its first, implementing stricter measures to root out improper practices.

According to Moyar, “Trump is now using a more heavy-handed approach” with USAID because bad actors managed to evade scrutiny for much of his first term.

Leave A Reply