00:00Today on Forbes, a top Pentagon DOJ official looks like a successful founder.
00:06His story doesn't always add up.
00:09For weeks, Pentagon officials had been bracing themselves for the arrival of Elon Musk's
00:14Department of Government Efficiency, or DOJ,
00:17wondering who the world's richest man had tapped
00:19to oversee an unprecedented overhaul of the U.S. government's single largest department.
00:25Now, Forbes has learned that one of Musk's chosen employees
00:28to take the chainsaw to the Pentagon's nearly $1 trillion budget
00:32is a serial entrepreneur with a master's in terrorism studies named Justin Fulcher,
00:38according to a Pentagon official and two other people briefed on his work.
00:42A glance at his career suggests he's a successful entrepreneur,
00:46the founder of a global telehealth startup
00:48and a charity focused on boosting access to Internet connectivity and health care in South Carolina.
00:54He was also behind a $500 million plan to invest in an advanced manufacturing plant
00:59that was hailed by the Biden administration.
01:02And like a number of DOJ hires before him, Fulcher,
01:05who started his first software company as a teenager,
01:08has impressive programming chops,
01:10according to former colleagues and collaborators who spoke with Forbes.
01:14Multiple people said he claimed to have done programming work for the FBI as a teenager.
01:18The FBI declined to comment.
01:21But a closer examination of Fulcher's career also suggests his accomplishments don't always add up,
01:27according to internal company documents and interviews with 10 people who have worked with him.
01:32Fulcher's Singapore-based telehealth company, RingMD, for instance,
01:37went bankrupt after he raised more than $10 million from investors.
01:41His attempt to restart it in the U.S. led to litigation with a business partner
01:45who claims Fulcher owes him hundreds of thousands of dollars.
01:49And the half-billion-dollar manufacturing facility promoted by the Biden administration
01:53appears to be one of a few claims that never materialized.
01:58Fulcher's national security credentials are also unclear.
02:01In 2023, he received a master's degree in nonproliferation and terrorism studies
02:06from Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.
02:10One of his professors there, Jason Blazakis,
02:13described him as, quote, a bright guy, hard worker.
02:17On his LinkedIn, Fulcher also claims a doctorate of international relations and affairs
02:21from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
02:25But John Bates, who oversees student records at the university,
02:29told Forbes that, quote, we have no record of this individual as a student.
02:35The South Carolina-based nonprofit Fulcher started in 2023, the Palmetto Initiative,
02:40stated on its website that it was a U.S. 501c3 U.S. public charity.
02:45But the organization's employee identification number does not match internal revenue service records.
02:51In a statement, Shannon Wiley, general counsel for the South Carolina Secretary of State's office,
02:56said the organization was incorporated as a nonprofit, but, quote,
03:00has not registered to solicit charitable funds in the state of South Carolina.
03:05The IRS declined to comment.
03:08Fulcher didn't respond to multiple comment requests.
03:11After Forbes contacted him, the Palmetto Initiative's website removed mention of it being a charity.
03:17On his LinkedIn page, mention of his Johns Hopkins doctorate was updated to state it is, quote, in progress.
03:25The Musk-led Doge effort has brought both hope and despair to the federal government workforce,
03:30promising to cut long-unchecked bureaucracy and costs, and thousands of jobs.
03:36At the Pentagon, where officials are planning to slash up to $50 billion from its budget,
03:40Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has celebrated Doge's arrival.
03:45On Monday, the Pentagon's chief spokesperson, Sean Parnell, said in a video posted to X
03:50that Doge had identified programs to cut that would, quote,
03:54probably save $80 million in wasteful spending.
03:57Parnell cited initiatives linked to, quote, strengthening democracy and DEI.
04:03He said, quote, we are working hand-in-glove with Doge.
04:08Forbes couldn't determine how Fulcher was connected to the Doge team or whether he has a security clearance.
04:14Forbes previously reported that Doge staffers would be employed directly by the Defense Department
04:19to focus solely on the efficiency-focused mandate.
04:23For full coverage, check out David Jeans' piece on Forbes.com.
04:38For more stories, visit nyseagrant.org.
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