Tareq and Michaele Salahi are under fire. Again. And it has nothing to do with their infamous trip to the White House.
Jay Fletcher, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development office, confirmed to Yeas & Nays Monday that the Salahis are currently under investigation by the USDA’s Office of Inspector General.
Back in 2006, the couple, known best for their gate-crashing antics and as potential cast members of the “Real Housewives of D.C.,” received a Value Added Producer Grant from the USDA’s Rural Development Office for $100,000.
“The purpose of that grant was for the Salahis to conduct a Virginia wine touring feasibility study and marketing plan to determine if increased visits in Virginia wineries would increase site sales,” Fletcher explained.
Because of the investigation, Fletcher couldn’t elaborate on whether the Salahis used the funds properly, but sources in the Virginia wine industry say they did not. Instead, the sources allege, the Salahis turned in an older study completed by the state of Virginia, and said it was a new study and pocketed the dough.
The Salahis’ publicist Max Markson called the accusations “completely ridiculous.”
“You could say it proves the point that [there] is a witch hunt against the Salahis,” Markson said in an e-mail to Yeas & Nays.
He also talked glowingly about the Salahis involvement in the wine study done for the state of Virginia.
“Everybody as far as I am aware, including the commonwealth of Virginia, is very proud of this study,” he said.
