Con Ink. (Part Seven)

I'm Jacob Goldstein. I used to host Planet Money. Now I'm starting a new show. It's called What's Your Problem? every week on What's Your Problem. Entrepreneurs and engineers describe the future they're going to build.

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I remember doing that training, I just said, let's just not do this training.

Place Ballard claimed that within a matter of just a few seconds, Fuego was offering up young girls for sex.

We get them to talk as dirty and as pornographic as we can. It's a punch to the stomach, but we got to get them to do it because that's what puts them away for a long time.

Five were arrested in Cartagena, including the former beauty pageant contestant Kelly Johanna Suarez.

They flash big money and say, bring kids.

Tim Ballard was the one pressing for little girls.

And so when people say, maybe they create trafficking, I'm not saying that didn't happen.

None of the people that were arrested for pimping in the sting have been convicted of that crime. They're all free.

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And this is Red Pilled America, a storytelling show.

This is not another talk show covering the day's news, we're all about telling stories.

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In the years that followed the Colombian sting. Tim Ballard would build a mythological origin story, weaving in both the island raid and the Dog Tag moment, and this myth brought an opportunity to Ballard.

We were approached several years ago by a production company that wanted to do a feature film that tells the story of our child rescue mission.

That production company was called The New York Times. it was led by Eduardo Verastegui.

So when I met Tim Ballard eight years ago in Los Angeles, California, meeting a real hero in real life inspired you, I was very inspired.

Eduardo Verastegui is a Mexican actor, film producer, and conservative activist. A devout Catholic, Verastegui quickly saw the power behind the story of a man rescuing children from sex slavery.

It broke my heart when he explained to me with details what these children are going through, the pain of these children. I couldn't look the other way around.

Verastegui says he asked Ballard what could be done to end child sex slavery.

We did a movement and that's when I realized, you know what, we have a weapon of mass instruction. Movies, movies move people.

So around 2015, Verastegui set out to make a scripted film based on Tim Ballard's origin story.

They said, Who do you want to play you if you could pick any actor in the world?

And he said, Jesus Christ, hermano, this is too expensive. No, no, no. The guy who plays Jesus Christ, Jim Caviezel in The Passion of Christ. OK, I say, we can afford you.

They got him to commit to playing me in this film.

The team then went around looking for financers and were able to corral some pretty heavy hitters. First, there was one of the most influential players in Democrat circles.

Who's paying for this movie to come about? A great group of people have come together to invest in this production. The Carlos Slim family is involved.

Carlos Slim is a Mexican business magnate and one of the richest men in the world. He was also once the biggest shareholder in the New York Times. But the company that gave the film a green light was actually a major Hollywood studio.

Before we started filming the movie, we made a beautiful deal with Fox Latin America. Beautiful. It was amazing, the contract, the deal was unbelievable. They were going to be in charge of the distribution of Sound of Freedom.

In the summer of 2018, two years after the alleged Cartagena child sex traffickers were released from jail, Eduardo Verastegui, Tim Ballard and their film crew took a trip to Colombia.

We're heading down to Bogota, Colombia, to begin filming what's currently called The Sound of Freedom, the story of Operation Underground Railroad.

They anticipated a quick release.

From what I understand, they'll be done by the end of the summer and sometime next year is when they plan to release it. They don't have an exact date.

Around the end of the 2018 summer, they were done filming, but then something unexpected happened.

That breaking news the blockbuster Disney deal, the parent company of ABC, buying many of the assets of 21st century Fox, creating an entertainment giant.

The impact of the purchase was felt after Verastegui finished editing the film.

And that property, the entire contract, now is in the hands of Disney. And my friends at Fox Latin America. They left, so I didn't know anybody at Disney. And now I'm here with people that I don't know. And now they own the movie.

And they made it very clear we're not going to do anything with this.

I got an email from them and a phone call saying that this movie is not for them.

According to Verastegui, Disney claimed his team owed Disney money, Verastegui explained the back and forth with the Mickey Mouse empire.

Well, yes, but you have to understand that in the contract, you guys promised that, not you but Fox, but now you own that contract. A TV series, a documentary, and then you have to pay me something after the film is finished, and you haven't paid me that. So let's negotiate. So finally, after one year of negotiating with them, I took the rights back and then I started knocking doors. Netflix, Amazon and many others. So we need to raise awareness, millions of people they need to see this film.

This is not for us.

And they passed.

Amazon passed as well. Eduardo claimed that it was a subject matter that scared away the studios.

Nobody would go and see a movie like this. Eduardo I mean, who wants to see a movie like this? And you know, this is a lot of people, they think this is not real, so this is not for us, this is not for us.

The film was completed in 2018, but they couldn't get a Hollywood studio to distribute the movie.

Hi everyone, it's me Katie Couric. If you follow me on social media, you know I love to cook. Or at least try, especially alongside some of my favorite chefs and foodies like Benny Blanco, Jake Cohen, Lighty Hoyt, Alison Roman and, of course, Ina Garten and Martha Stewart. So I started a free newsletter called Good Taste that comes out every Thursday, and it's serving up recipes that will make your mouth water. Think a candied bacon, bloody Mary tacos with cabbage slaw, curry, cauliflower with almonds and mint, and cherry slab pie with vanilla ice cream to top it all off.

I'm Jacob Goldstein. I used to host a show called Planet Money. Now I'm starting a new show. It's called What's your Problem? every week on What's Your Problem? Entrepreneurs and engineers describe the future they're going to build.

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What could go wrong?

How do you sell millions of dollars worth of dog ramps for wiener dogs in the middle of a pandemic?

We're working.

With 400 influencers.

And the majority of them are actually not a person, but it's actually a dog.

I can tell you right now, the dog ramp guy has some very interesting problems. Listen to What's Your Problem? on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Michael Wolff and I'm the host of Fire and Fury the Podcast. Not too long ago, I saw Donald Trump and he shouted, Hey Michael, I made you rich. And the truth is, my three books about Trump, they have sold a lot of copies.

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Welcome back to Red Pilled America. So, in 2018, Eduardo Loverastegui finished the film Sound of Freedom. It appeared that Tim Ballard's mythological origin story was going to hit the big screen. But then, just as everything appeared to be falling into place, Red Pilled America. Disney bought the studio that held the rights to the movie.

By 2020, Operation Underground Railroad had become a fundraising juggernaut.

Do we have a $25,000 virtual donation here tonight?

Do we have it? Oh my goodness, do we have it? We have an anonymous.

We have an anonymous let's clap.

We have a $10,000.

Anonymous.

Yes.

Our's fundraising grew by leaps and bounds. In 2018, they'd brought in a reported $17.5 million, the following year $22.4 million.

I was the first to report there was a criminal investigation.

That's investigative journalist Lynn Packer. We heard from him earlier in the series. In an August 2020 video op-ed, Lynn broke the news that Tim Ballard's nonprofit was under criminal investigation.

There is breaking news associated with this video op-ed. I've been made aware. The complaints have been forwarded to the Davis County Attorney's Office in Farmington for a criminal investigation.

Lynn explained to us what he'd uncovered in August 2020.

Initially, the investigation was begun by the Davis County Attorney's Office. That's like a DA's office, and that's, I think maybe the third largest county in Utah. It's a county that's not really well equipped financially or in terms of manpower to conduct an investigation of this size. But the Davis County attorney, Troy Rawlings?

He knew Sean Reyes, Utah's attorney general and close friend of Tim Ballard.

He knew of Operation Underground Railroad. He suspected that it was basically a scam, a way to solicit donor money. In Utah, there's a statute called the Communications Fraud Statute. It's one where if you're soliciting anything of value, you have to provide the facts. You have to be accurate and truthful in what you tell the potential investors or donors.

About two months later, the local Utah Fox affiliate also picked up the story.

Now Fox 13 News.

Has learned.

The Davis County Attorney's Office has opened a criminal investigation into operation.

Underground railroad.

According to Davis County attorney.

Troy Rawlings quote We've received.

Complaints and are in the process of reviewing.

Those complaints.

Because of the ongoing investigation, our request for records was denied, County Attorney Troy Rawlings posted a series of messages on.

His personal Instagram account last month quote Please beware of any individual.

Entity or organization?

Who solicits your money and may be claiming credit?

For work to.

Protect children. That is actually done by our task force. They have had absolutely zero involvement in any of these.

Arrests and successful prosecutions you see on.

Display on the Wall of Shame in the Davis County.

Attorney's Office.

Like Lynn Packer before them, Fox 13 realized a troubling conflict of interest.

Attorney General Shawn Reyes serves on Operation Underground Railroad's advisory board. And even went undercover with that sting.

In Columbia.

As the investigation progressed, Lynn Packer says he learned that the FBI began using a federal grand jury.

This was secret, and it was only recently that I was the first and only one to reveal that. There was a grand jury engaged on the federal side. So then you ask, what is the conclusion? what happened? The investigation proceeded for two years on the federal front. I could not determine in any detail what kind of progress they were making.

February 2022,.

Our's criminal defense attorneys, they had been paid more than $2 million out of our funds, out of donor funds to defend Ballard. They had a meeting with the assistant U.S. attorney in Utah assigned to the case, and during the meeting he pulled the plug. On the grand jury investigation, which is really unusual. I've covered many FBI and grand jury investigations over the years because I sort of specialize in white collar fraud and I'd never seen anything like that.

Now, this posed a problem for the Davis County attorney that started the investigation. He didn't have the manpower to deal with the case.

And maybe Troy Rawlings, the county attorney, was trying to figure out, well, how can I proceed on my own when I don't have the budget and I don't have a forensic accountant? And so he continued with the investigation. It was still open from Davis County's perspective, and that went on for months. And apparently, the longer it went, the more infuriated our became and our's attorneys. There are several attorneys because it was still out there on the record that there was an ongoing criminal investigation.

While all of this was going on behind the scenes, Tim Ballard apparently had a fortunate encounter. Sometime in 2022. Ballard says that a friend of his invited him to the set of The Chosen, a TV series distributed by a small Provo Utah media company, Angel Studios.

And I get there and there's the Harmon brothers, are there, the executive producers?

The Harmon brothers are also the founders of Angel Studios.

It was the only day they were there actually on the whole season when they shot at the set in Goshen, the home of the LDS Church. And they let the chosen.

Use it.

And they happened to be there and we recognized each other and I told them about the film. So the deal was actually commenced on the set, on the fake Jerusalem set of the Chosen.

Ballard says he got the founders of Angel Studios together with Eduardo Verastegui.

And then I was praying for an angel to come and rescue this movie. And Angel Studios in the middle of nowhere in Utah, in a little town called Provo, Angel Studios, appeared. And they told me, I think we are your only option, Eduardo. And I was thinking like, No, I want a big studio. you know, this movie, it needs to be seen by millions. God, please send me a big studio.

The Harmon Brothers.

These three brothers who are on fire, on fire, and I was convinced just by meeting them, I hugged them. Five days later, they signed the contract and they were like angels, three angels that God sent to rescue this movie.

According to Verasteguy, this fast and furious negotiation happened sometime in March 2023, which if you pull back and look at everything, is interesting timing you see in early 2023. The Davis County Attorney's Office was still investigating Operation Underground Railroad, and, according to Lynn Packer, something else got caught up in that investigation.

The sound of Freedom did become part of the investigation, it was in the investigation's crosshairs. And the reason is it comes back to the Communications fraud statute. Is that they were using it for fundraisers, they were showing it privately at fundraising events here in the United States and in Mexico.

And the problem was that the film was claiming to be based on a true story, but we know now that that wasn't the case.

They could not really announce a premiere and open the film in theaters until this cloud was taken away. That it was no longer over their heads because anybody googling could see, okay, there's an ongoing criminal investigation.

But then something happened.

I think it was February of this year.

2023.

Troy Rawlings understands that he can no longer, in good faith, continue with the investigation.

He'd lost the FBI and didn't have the staff to continue with the case.

And besides that, OUR had presented him with their own forensic audit that claimed that there is nothing wrong here. The attorneys basically were certified that financially, there was no wrongdoing going on with Operation Underground Railroad. And so, in the face of that, and he could not counter it with his own forensic audit, he sent our a declination letter.

A declination letter is a formal letter issued by a prosecuting authority stating that they have decided not to file criminal charges against an individual or entity. This type of letter typically provides reasons for the decision not to prosecute. In March 2023. The Davis County Attorney's Office did, in fact, give a reason for ending its criminal investigation. Kind of, they stated in the declination letter to our quote.

Ballard has been.

Under investigation.

By the Davis County Attorney for alleged.

Communications fraud.

And witness tampering that investigation is reported.

To be over.

And some suggested Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes's close connection to Tim Ballard may have played a role in the final decision. Within 48 hours from the date of the declination letter, news hit Hollywood's Bible Variety magazine.

Angel Studios acquires rights to Jim Caviezel drama Sound of Freedom.

Read the headline, the article continued.

Sound of Freedom is set to make its theatrical debut during the second half of 2023.

The close proximity between Troy Rawlings Declination letter and Angel Studios announcement points to something obvious.

I have since obtained confidentially some records that show that, in fact, that was what was holding up Angel Studios decision.

As the release of the film became inevitable, Ballard no doubt knew that there'd eventually be attacks on his credibility.

So I started a free newsletter called Good Taste that comes out every Thursday, and it's serving up recipes that will make your mouth water. Think a candied bacon, bloody mary tacos with cabbage slaw, curry, cauliflower with almonds and mint, and cherry slab pie with vanilla ice cream to top it all off. I mean, yum, I'm getting hungry. But if you're not sold yet? We also have kitchen tips, like a foolproof way to grill the perfect burger, and must-have products like the best cast-iron skillet.

I'm Jacob Goldstein. I used to host a show called Planet Money. Now I'm starting a new show. It's called What's your Problem? every week on What's Your Problem? Entrepreneurs and engineers describe the future they're going to build.

Our customers.

They want us to do this unbelievably, reliably, in the storms, no matter what, hundreds of times a day. How do you turn a wild dream about a new kind of biology into a $10 billion company?

We didn't have a particular technology, we didn't have a way of making money.

It was a great way.

To start a company.

I highly recommend it. What could go wrong?

How do you sell millions of dollars worth of dog ramps for wiener dogs in the middle of a pandemic?

We're working.

With 400 influencers, and the majority of them are actually not a person but.

It's actually a dog.

I can tell you right now, the dog ramp guy has some very interesting problems. Listen to What's Your Problem? on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Michael Wolff and I'm the host of Fire Fury the Podcast. Not too long ago, I saw Donald Trump and he shouted, Hey Michael, I made you rich. And the truth is, my three books about Trump, they have sold a lot of copies.

Do you want to hear Red Pilled America stories ad-free? Then become a backstage subscriber? Just log on to Redpilledamerica..com and click Join in the top menu. Join today and help us save America, one story at a time.

Maybe September 15, because it's Independence Day in Mexico, so we celebrate freedom. well, let's celebrate freedom with sound of freedom.

Great idea.

But then the next day, the guy couldn't sleep all night. Thinking about the Freedom Independence day, he calls me the next day. Eduardo. I heard July 4th, July 4th is tomorrow. No, no, no, no.

Remember, this was at the end of March 2023?

No, no, no. July 4th is too dangerous for us. The biggest films of the year Indiana Jones, Disney, biggest company in the world, then Mission Impossible and then Spider-man is just finishing no way.

The film launch date was set July 4th, 2023. Which meant not only would the team need to ramp up their marketing pronto, they'd also need to prepare for attacks. You see, those very close to the film, like Tim Ballard, must have known that there were some cracks in the quote-unquote true story. Limpacker had been poking holes in the story Sound of Freedom was based on for years, and through deep-dive investigative pieces. Vice News had also been taking a pound of flesh out of Ballard's credibility, dating back to December 2020. These guys were watching everything Ballard was doing.

The greatest threat to children right now, honestly, more than the world. Traffickers, in a lot of cases, are people that disparage others in the non-profit industry. Yeah, some of our hardest.

Battles.

Certainly been.

The most draining and taxing, I think.

On us over the last.

10 years.

These are true stories, these are real children, and people playing politics with it, people playing popularity contests with it. It's sick.

As the film launch approached, Our and Angel Studios were also making defensive moves again. Lynn Packer.

My guess is is that as they neared premiere time, they were beginning to get nervous. They knew that this story was false. They were thinking about some way of sort of putting the hint out there without ruining their Rambo Liam Neeson-taken sort of story.

Each posted fact-versus-fiction articles on sound of freedom, claiming to point out the parts of the movie that were true and the parts where the filmmakers took creative liberties. Ultimately, both Our and Angel Studios chose to take a gamble. By not only claiming the dog tag story was true, but also that Kelly Johanna Suarez was a child sex trafficker, even though she had not been convicted of that crime. Perhaps they thought no one besides left-leaning outlets would point out the discrepancies, for which they could just claim they were political attacks. Or maybe they figured Kelly Johanna Suarez was a poor foreigner that couldn't sue them.

They knew what was coming, they knew that there was going to be questions about the accuracy.

And perhaps the biggest tell was that the film didn't overtly promote Operation Underground Railroad. In fact, the end of the film didn't push for donations to the nonprofit, instead, they pushed people to buy more movie tickets. It was a signal to some that something was off, at least it was to us.

In about three weeks, we're heading down to Bogota, Colombia, to begin filming what's currently called The Sound of Freedom, The Story of.

Yet there was no clear promotion for people to donate to our. We'd soon learn why.

As we've mentioned, the marketing push behind the movie was phenomenal. The team enlisted churches to spread the word. Ads were taking out at conservative news sites, conservative celebrities were posting videos urging people to see the movie. It seemed like every social media influencer was pushing the film as well.

Coming up on the conclusion of Coninc.

You tell these stories and so much of it.

Sounds unreal.

We don't tell many stories, to be honest. It's an interesting point you make, and you're right, I wish there were.

Stories equivalent to what we're doing.

Red Pilled America is an iHeartRadio original podcast. It's owned and produced by Patrick Karelchi and Me Adriana Cortez of Informed Ventures. Now, you can get ad-free access to our entire archive of episodes by becoming a backstage subscriber. To subscribe, visit redpilledamerica..com and click Join in the top menu. Thanks for listening.

I'm Jacob Goldstein. I used to host Planet Money. Now I'm starting a new show. It's called What's Your Problem? every week on What's Your Problem. Entrepreneurs and engineers describe the future they're going to build.

Hi everyone, it's me Katie Couric. You know, lately, I've been overwhelmed by the whole wellness industry, so much information out there about flaxseed pelvic floor serums and anti-aging. So I launched a newsletter.

From tips for healthy living to the latest medical breakthroughs, WebMD's Health Discovered podcast keeps you up-to-date on today's most important health issues. Through in-depth conversations with experts from across the health care community, WebMD reveals how today's health news will impact your life tomorrow.

It's not that people don't know that exercise is healthy, it's just that people don't know why it's healthy. And we're struggling to try to help people, help themselves and each other.

Listen to WebMD Health Discovered on the iHeartRadio app, or wherever you get your.

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