Justin Fulcher ran a telehealth startup that went bankrupt, is being accused of unpaid bills and appears to have overstated his credentials. Now he’s among those leading DOGE’s effort at the Pentagon.
Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidjeans/2025/03/04/pentagon-doge-official-justin-fulcher/
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Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidjeans/2025/03/04/pentagon-doge-official-justin-fulcher/
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NewsTranscript
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.