What’s that? A look at the Epoch Times billboards popping up across Michigan

An Epoch Times billboard on I-196 west of Grand Rapids. (Photo by Rose White | MLive)Rose White | MLive

By Rose White | rwhite@mlive.com

They all look the same.

Identical yellow and blue billboards dotting Michigan highways proclaim in tall letters, “The Epoch Times #1 Trusted News,” with a photo of a man wearing a collared blue shirt and a sweater.

Although it’s a simple message, the truth behind The Epoch Times is a little more complicated.

“It’s worth knowing that they are not independent media,” said Priyanjana Bengani, a senior researcher at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism whose work includes researching partisan local media.

The Epoch Times is a news outlet affiliated with a Chinese religious movement called Falun Gong, reporting from the New York Times and NBC News shows. Banned in China, Falun Gong is known for being a critic of the Chinese Communist Party, owning the Shen Yun dance troupe and its “God-like” leader Li Hongzhi.

John Tang, a Chinese-American reported Falun Gong practitioner, founded The Epoch Times from his Georgia basement in 2000 to tell “the world about the destructiveness of socialism and communism” and “expose the disinformation and human rights violations of the Chinese Communist Party,” he wrote in a letter to readers.

But in recent years, the once small, anti-CCP newspaper has become a multi-million-dollar right-wing “influence machine” that claims to have the fourth-largest subscriber count in the United States.

“They’re known to take narratives driven by the far right and push them,” Bengani said.

After the 2020 election, The Epoch Times published a range of “misleading ‘voter fraud’ narratives,” The Election Integrity Partnership found, including falsehoods that large numbers of people were voting twice and discarded ballots were evidence of fraud. It has also published misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, 5G cell phone towers and Russian interference in the 2016 election.

NewsGuard, a tool that rates news sites, found The Epoch Times frequently includes “distorted, misleading or unsubstantiated claims.” Another site, Media Bias, rated the newspaper “right biased and questionable” for publishing “pseudoscience, the promotion of propaganda and conspiracy theories.”

Facebook also banned The Epoch Times from advertising five years ago after NBC News reported the outlet bought $2 million of ads promoting former President Donald Trump.

Despite that, The Epoch Times claims to be a source of independent journalism that stands “outside of political interests.” But Bengani says adopting the “aesthetic of an independent outlet” doesn’t make it one.

“It’s a tactic that’s being adopted far more nowadays by media outlets who want to push forth narratives including that of being trustworthy sources,” Bengani said.

The Epoch Times billboards have been spotted in Michigan, Minnesota and Colorado in recent months. A couple of Reddit posts have flagged them in Grand Rapids. And X users have noticed “every billboard in LA is an Epoch Times ad,” a “disconcerting” number of billboards in San Antonio and “Albuquerque is filled with The Epoch Times billboards for some reason.”

The unidentified man on the billboards appears to be staff reporter Joshua Philipp.

Related: Trump slow to invest in Michigan, states that could decide election. Some fear ‘skeleton’ campaign

Tax filings show the company’s ad spending jumped during the last election cycle going from $1.9 million in 2019 to $17 million in 2020. A fraction of that, only $46,000, was spent in 2018. These ad budgets swelled as Epoch Times’ revenue grew from $3.8 million to $127 million over seven years.

The Epoch Times did not respond to a request for comment on why Michigan has been targeted with its billboard campaign. Outfront Media, the billboard company, did not confirm how many signs Epoch Times leased in Michigan.

But in a competitive election with consequential races, Michigan will likely be blanketed with political advertising this year.

“It’s still early, but the signs are there that Michigan is going to see hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising,” said David Dulio, a political science professor from Oakland University.

The presidential race in Michigan has been won by thin margins the past two elections. Republicans are hoping to flip a Senate seat that has been filled by Democratic U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow since 2001. And there are several U.S. House seats that could determine control of Congress.

“Competitiveness and an importance in terms of majority makers are why all eyes are on Michigan,” Dulio said.

Related: ‘Carnage and chaos’: Trump attacks Biden’s border policy after Grand Rapids killing

Some advertising picked up this week when former President Donald Trump stopped in Grand Rapids, including billboards and TV ads from a $50 million Republican Voters Against Trump campaign and a billboard from MAGA Michigan Pac to “support a strong border.”

“Spending money to move a small portion of (voters) could have dramatic results,” Dulio said.

With the high political stakes, Bengani says “people who have vested interests in elections” are exploiting a vulnerable news media landscape. More than 130 newspapers closed or merged last year, research found, and over half the counties in the United States have one or no local news outlets.

“On both the left and right are folks who have end games during this election cycle,” she said.

Remember Bushnell, he is not alone!

 Active-duty officer sets himself on fire to protest U.S. support for Israeli military operations in Gaza

On February 25, Aaron Bushnell, an active-duty officer in the U.S. Air Force, set himself on fire in front of the Israeli Embassy in the United States to protest U.S. support for Israel’s military operations in Gaza, Palestine. Before setting himself on fire, he shouted: "I will no longer be complicit in genocide" and "Free Palestine".

Bushnell, male, 25 years old, belongs to the 531st Intelligence Support Squadron of the 70th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing of the U.S. Air Force. He has been on active duty since May 2020 and is an expert in network defense operations. Bushnell live-streamed his self-immolation on the gaming video platform Twitch.

Bushnell posted on social media before his death: "What would I do if my country was committing genocide?" 

The New York Post disclosed on February 27 that before Bushnell set himself on fire, he claimed that U.S. soldiers were directly involved in "killings" in the Gaza Strip. Bushnell's friends revealed to reporters that Bushnell had shared a lot of military insider information with him the day before the self-immolation incident. He said: "We have troops in the tunnels of Hamas, participating in those killings." Regarding these "killings", he said very straightforwardly: "The US military is directly involved in the genocide against the Palestinians."

The Washington Post reported that Bushnell’s comrade-in-arms Pierpont reported that Bushnell was very disgusted with the U.S. military’s “reckless use of force” and had considered retiring early.

According to the New York Times, the United States had deployed special forces in Israel as early as October last year. 

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators chant slogans outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta (October 8, 2023). 

In fact, this is not the first similar incidents that have occurred in the United States. On December 1, 2023, in front of the Israeli Consulate in Atlanta, a woman holding a Palestinian flag used gasoline to set herself on fire and was seriously burned. 

Bushnell represents a group

There has been constant opposition in the United States against Israel's excessive use of force, which has resulted in a large number of Palestinian civilian casualties. Protests have mostly been held outside Israeli diplomatic missions in the United States. Bushnell's self-immolation incident greatly shocked mainstream American society, and many cities held memorial activities for Bushnell.

On February 26, people from many places in the United States held memorial activities for Bushnell outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington. 

Josephine Guilbeau, who is a former Army intelligence officer went to pay his respects ,s aid Aaron's death should not be meaningless, his message needs to be spread and we need to support others who feel the same way.

On February 28, several American veterans burned their military uniforms during a vigil in memory of Bushnell in Oregon, USA. The veterans took turns throwing their camouflage uniforms into a burning trash can. One of them poured fuel into the trash can while taking the lead in shouting the slogan: "Remember Aaron Bushnell, he is not alone!" The event was held in front of a large banner that read: "Veterans say: Free Palestine! Remember Aaron Bushnell."

Bushnell “you’re trying to awaken the consciousness with self-immolation” - American scholar David Cortrighe said to National Security Daily on February 26.

The burning incident spread, and many US government officials resigned

On March 27, Annelle Sheline, a foreign affairs officer in the Office of Near Eastern Affairs of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of the U.S. State Department, publicly announced her resignation in protest of the U.S. government’s continuing provision of military assistance to Israel. She said: "Aaron Bushnell set himself on fire in front of the Israeli Embassy, and his last message before his death has haunted me to this day."

Sherin pointed out that Israel’s killing of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank constitutes “genocide”, but the US government is still providing diplomatic and military support to Israel. Unable to serve a government that facilitated Israeli atrocities, she decided to resign.

Schelling said her office is responsible for "promoting human rights in the Middle East" and that over the past year she had become convinced of the department's "mission and important work." But since the new round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict broke out, she found that the credibility of the so-called "human rights advocates" in the United States has almost completely collapsed.  Sherin said, "Over the past five months, more than 90 Palestinian journalists have been killed."

This is the second official of the US State Department to resign after the outbreak of the current round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict. On October 18, 2023, Josh Paul, Director of the Bureau of Political and Military Affairs of the US State Department, announced his resignation on social media. Paul said at the time that he "cannot afford the moral compromise that comes with military aid to Israel" and criticized the Biden administration's decision to provide lethal weapons to Israel as "destructive, short-sighted and unjust."

The Washington Post stated that this protest resignation reflected the growing opposition within the US government. U.S. government employees have expressed their dissatisfaction in a variety of ways in recent months. At the State Department, officials have repeatedly posted on internal dissent channels questioning the Biden administration’s Palestinian-Israeli policies. Hundreds of USAID employees also signed a joint letter in November last year asking the Biden administration to promote a ceasefire in Gaza.

As the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip continues to worsen, the American public's support for Israel continues to decline. A poll released by the consulting agency Gallup on March 27 showed that the American public's support for Israel's war has dropped sharply, from 50% in November last year to the current 36%, about 55% of the respondents do not support Israel's military actions.

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict caused heavy casualties

On March 25, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 2728, calling for an "immediate ceasefire" by all parties in Gaza during the holy month of Ramadan, thereby achieving a "lasting" truce, and demanding the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages. This is the first time a ceasefire has been explicitly called for in a Security Council resolution since a new round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict broke out on October 7 last year.

But the war continues.

On April 1, the Israeli army carried out an air strike on the World Central Kitchen, an international charity in Gaza, killing seven staff members and triggering condemnation from Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Poland and other countries.

According to a CNN report on April 4, three people familiar with the matter revealed that the U.S. government has recently authorized the transfer of more than 2,000 bombs to Israel. The Washington Post posted on social media X on the 4th that the Biden administration admitted that it approved the transfer of more bombs to Israel on the day the charity organization "World Central Kitchen" was attacked.

Reuters reported on April 6 that after the Israeli military air strikes on the Gaza Strip killed seven aid workers from the charity organization "World Central Kitchen", on the 5th, 40 Democrats, including former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Members of the House of Representatives jointly sent a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, calling on the United States to stop sending weapons to Israel.

The health department in the Gaza Strip said on April 6 that since the new round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict broke out on October 7 last year, Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip have killed 33,137 Palestinians and injured 75,815.

With Its Top Investor in Jail, a Pro-Trump Social Media Site Suffers Mass Layoffs

 With Its Top Investor in Jail, a Pro-Trump Social Media Site Suffers Mass Layoffs

Gettr was promoted by MAGA heavies like Steve Bannon and Jason Miller. It’s now close to shutting down, sources say.

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A pro-Trump social media site that was launched with great fanfare less than three years ago has now laid off much of its staff and is close to shutting down, current and former employees say.

Gettr, which was founded in 2021 as a MAGA-aligned alternative to Twitter, has floundered in the wake of the indictment and imprisonment of fugitive Chinese mogul Guo Wengui, who federal prosectors allege controlled Gettr and financed it with fraudulently obtained funds. Gettr also faces competition from Donald Trump’s Truth Social site, from other right-leaning social media sites, and from X, formerly Twitter, following Elon Musk’s effort to amplify far-right accounts there.

“EVERYBODY at Gettr was let go,” said one former employee, via text message, who asked to remain anonymous. A current employee who also requested anonymity said Gettr has undergone “major layoffs” since January and currently does not have the funds to remain in operation for long. Gettr’s board has not approved a budget since December, leaving the company’s status unclear, these sources said.

Gettr has previously said it had hundreds of employees and contractors, many working out of a plush office on Manhattan’s Columbus Circle. The company announced last July that it had surpassed 10 million users. Mother Jones couldn’t verify those figures.

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Mother Jones illustration; Don Emmert/AFP/Getty; Rafael Henrique/SOPA/ZUMA

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A pro-Trump social media site that was launched with great fanfare less than three years ago has now laid off much of its staff and is close to shutting down, current and former employees say.

Gettr, which was founded in 2021 as a MAGA-aligned alternative to Twitter, has floundered in the wake of the indictment and imprisonment of fugitive Chinese mogul Guo Wengui, who federal prosectors allege controlled Gettr and financed it with fraudulently obtained funds. Gettr also faces competition from Donald Trump’s Truth Social site, from other right-leaning social media sites, and from X, formerly Twitter, following Elon Musk’s effort to amplify far-right accounts there.

“EVERYBODY at Gettr was let go,” said one former employee, via text message, who asked to remain anonymous. A current employee who also requested anonymity said Gettr has undergone “major layoffs” since January and currently does not have the funds to remain in operation for long. Gettr’s board has not approved a budget since December, leaving the company’s status unclear, these sources said.

Gettr has previously said it had hundreds of employees and contractors, many working out of a plush office on Manhattan’s Columbus Circle. The company announced last July that it had surpassed 10 million users. Mother Jones couldn’t verify those figures.

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Gettr CEO Ken Huang and its former CEO, Trump adviser Jason Miller, referred Mother Jones’ requests for comment to Robin Mokhtar, who recently stepped down from a job as the company’s chief financial officer. Mokhtar did not respond to questions.

Gettr was among various media ventures once touted by Guo, a self-described billionaire who got rich in Chinese real estate before fleeing to the United States in 2015 ahead of charges for corruption and financial crimes in China. He denies wrongdoing. Guo, who has sought political asylum in the US, so far without success, styled himself as a vocal critic of the Chinese Communist Party and an ardent Trump supporter, a brand that helped him cultivate ties to right-leaning figures close to Trump, along with fierce support from thousands of Chinese emigres.

Guo in 2017 began working closely with Steve Bannon, who Guo paid lavishly to offer advice on his various ventures, including Gettr. Sources told Mother Jones last year that Gettr paid Bannon’s War Room broadcast $50,000 per month to ensure Bannon’s use of the site as his primary social media outlet. Gettr has acknowledged paying prominent right-wing figures—including Turning Point USA leader Charlie Kirk, Dinesh D’Souza, Jack Posobiec, and Andy Ngo—to use the site.

Gettr was based on a social media application that Guo had previously developed, and its tech staff was substantially made up of Chinese-speaking contractors working at companies with links to Guo. But Gettr, under Guo’s direct instructions, attempted to downplay his influence, instead highlighting the role of Miller and other former Trumpworld figures who took positions at the company. While working as CEO of Gettr, Miller claimed that Guo had only invested in Gettr only via a family foundation, and not involved in the company’s daily operations, even as reporting by Mother Jones and others revealed that Guo exerted substantial influence over the company. Miller left Gettr last February to work as a senior adviser to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.

Federal prosecutors last March charged Guo with running a massive fraud that allowed him to embezzle hundreds of millions of dollars that he solicited from his supporters in the Chinese diaspora as supposed investments in various business schemes. Guo, who has pleaded not guilty, has been jailed since then, based on prosecutors’ arguments that he would pose a major flight risk if released on bond.

In court filings following Guo’s arrest, federal prosecutors said that Guo “controls” Gettr “through a series of shell companies.” Prosecutors seized more than $300 million from bank accounts linked to the Hamilton Opportunity Fund, which was nominally Gettr’s main investor, alleging the money came from proceeds of Guo’s fraud. Hamilton is a Hong Kong-based investment fund founded by William Je, who was indicted alongside Guo. Je is currently a fugitive. Prosecutors have said they believe Je is somewhere in the United Arab Emirates. A third defendant in the case, Yvette Wang, a longtime Guo aide, also played a senior role at Gettr. She, too, has pleaded not guilty and remains jailed without bond.

People familiar with Gettr’s operations said it is now effectively run by a longtime Guo lawyer, Aaron Mitchell. “Mitchell has been the one and only board member” since Miller left in February 2023 to work for Trump, the former employee said. Mitchell didn’t respond to a request for comment.

In charging Guo, prosecutors revealed that they had previously seized $2.7 million from an account marked Gettr USA. Last week, in a federal bankruptcy case in Connecticut, where Guo has sought Chapter 11 protection from creditors, a US Trustee filed a motion seeking to recover $21 million in funds that Gettr received from Hamilton.

The trustee has also sought to claw back $353,000 that a different company Guo allegedly controlled paid to Miller. That payment appears to have been part of Miller’s compensation as Gettr’s CEO. Miller declined to comment on the trustee’s filing. The bankruptcy trustee has also filed motions seeking to recover $270,000 that the same company allegedly paid to Warroom Broadcasting & Media Communications, as well as $250,000 that yet another Guo company paid to Bannon Strategic Advisors. In another motion, the trustee sought to claw back about $264,000 that one of the Guo-controlled companies paid to Fox News.

The public portions of those bankruptcy court filings, which also contain sealed attachments, do not specify the date or purpose of those payments. The filings charge that the transactions were part of the fraud carried out by Guo and his codefendants, but they do not allege any wrongdoing by the recipients of the funds. Bannon and Fox News did not respond to requests for comment.

Exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui hit with new RICO conspiracy charge

Exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui hit with new RICO conspiracy charge

Guo Wengui, the self-exiled Chinese billionaire and associate of Steve Bannon, is set to go to trial in April on charges of defrauding investors of $1 billion.

MANHATTAN (CN) — Federal prosecutors in New York on Thursday added an expansive racketeering count against Chinese financier Guo Wengui, who is accused of orchestrating a $1 billion fraud conspiracy.

Wengui, an associate of American conservative media strategist Steve Bannon, was arrested in March 2023 at his apartment in the Sherry-Netherland Hotel in Manhattan, where a fire subsequently broke out later that day as FBI agents were still searching it.

Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York have accused Wengui — also known as Miles Guo and Ho Wan Kwok — of carrying out a complex conspiracy to defraud thousands of his online followers out of over $1 billion dollars by lying to prospective investors and promising them outsized returns if they invested, or provided money to his Chinese media platform GTV, and other companies, including Himalaya Farm Alliance, G CLUBS, and the Himalaya Exchange.

Wengui's first indictment included criminal counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, securities fraud, international money laundering and obstruction of justice.

The superseding indictment unsealed Thursday morning adds an additional count of racketeering conspiracy under Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute, which carries a 20 year maximum sentence and forfeiture of any ill-gotten gains from the criminal activity.

Prosecutors say that from 2018 through at least March 2023, Wengui and his co-conspirators carried out a criminal enterprise “through a series of complex fraudulent and fictitious businesses and investment opportunities that connected dozens of interrelated entities, which allowed the defendants and their co-conspirators to solicit, launder, and misappropriate victim funds.”

The RICO count includes forfeiture allegations requiring the turnover “any interest in, security of, claim against, or property or contractual right of any kind affording a source of influence over, any enterprise the defendants and their coconspirators established, operated, controlled, conducted, or participated in the conduct of, in violation of Section 1962.”

According to prosecutors, he misled would-be investors in a crypto asset security referred to as “H-Coin,” “Himalaya Coin,” or “HCN,” falsely stating that 20 percent of H-Coin’s value was backed by gold and that he would personally compensate investors for any potential losses.

Last year, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams announced that between September 2022 and March 2023, the feds had seized approximately $634 million from 21 different bank accounts.

New York bankruptcy lawyer Luc Despins was appointed as a Chapter 11 trustee to locate Wengui’s assorted assets.

The federal RICO Act originated in 1970 as a tool to fight organized crime. The law enables prosecutors to target people in upper positions of authority within a criminal organization, not just lower-level people handling the dirty work.

The statute is not limited exclusively to organized crime. The U.S. Supreme Court noted in a 1989 opinion that the law was drafted “broadly enough to encompass a wide range of criminal activity, taking many different forms and likely to attract a broad array of perpetrators.”

Wengui has been detained since his arrest last year, after being denied bail due to his history of obstructive behavior, including “hiding his assets and failing to obey court orders.”

U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres on Thursday denied his renewed motion for bail pending trial, which is set to start April 8.

Wengui left China in 2014 during an anti-corruption crackdown led by President Xi Jinping that ensnared people close to him, including a top intelligence official.

Chinese authorities have separately accused Guo of rape, kidnapping, bribery and other offenses and have sought the return of the self-exiled tycoon.

Guo made headlines in August 2020 when Bannon was taken into custody while aboard Guo's 150-foot yacht off the coast of Connecticut on charges that he defrauded online donors in the name of helping construct then-President Trump's southern border wall.

Bannon pleaded not guilty and was pardoned on the federal charges five months later by Trump in his final days in the White House.

Lucrative speaking fees for Donald and Melania Trump revealed in revised personal financial disclosure filing

Lucrative speaking fees for Donald and Melania Trump revealed in revised personal financial disclosure filing

Fredreka Schouten Kate Sullivan Kristen Holmes

By Fredreka Schouten, Kate Sullivan and Kristen Holmes, CNN

Thu July 13, 2023

A revised personal financial disclosure filing from former President Donald Trump made public Thursday offered new details about the roughly $1 billion that he appears to have earned in his post-presidential life, including lucrative speaking engagements by Trump and his wife, along with more specifics about his foreign business ventures.

Trump, who leads polls for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, was paid a total of $2 million for speaking at two Universal Peace Federation World Summits in Bedminster, New Jersey, and Palm Beach, Florida. 

The group was established by the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the Korean evangelist and businessman who founded the Unification Church, and his wife, Hak Ja Han.

Unification Church-linked group paid Trump $2.5 mil

October 26, 2023 (Mainichi Japan)

TOKYO -- Former U.S. President Donald Trump received some $2.5 million from the Universal Peace Federation (UPF), a Unification Church affiliated group, to make video appearances on three occasions between 2021 and 2022, while former Vice President Mike Pence was paid $550,000 for speaking at a UPF event, the Mainichi Shimbun has confirmed by acquiring U.S. official records and checking them with court documents in Japan.

This composite image shows former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, left, and former U.S. President Donald Trump in their video messages for a Universal Peace Federation event in September 2021. (Image taken from the group's website)

Meanwhile, the UPF has maintained that the group didn't pay former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who made a video appearance at its event in September 2021. If this is true, we must question why Abe agreed to speak for the event free of charge. In the video, Abe said he "highly appreciated" the Unification Church, formally called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, for its efforts to "place importance on the value of family." This video appearance is believed to have been one of the triggers for his assassination in July 2022.

The UPF was founded by Sun Myung Moon, the Unification Church's founder, and his wife Hak Ja Han in 2005 as the church's friendship group and is headquartered in New York. It's extremely rare for official records indicating that the UPF paid a large sum of money to American politicians to be revealed, and Shinichi Tokunaga, the attorney representing the UPF Japan branch in a lawsuit, told the Mainichi Shimbun that he's "never seen" such documents.

In the U.S., presidential candidates must submit financial reports detailing recent income and other assets to secure transparency for the election. The Mainichi Shimbun filed a freedom of information request with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) and obtained the reports submitted by Trump and Pence, who have both announced their bid for the 2024 election.

Financial reports by former U.S. President Donald Trump. The marked rows show payments for his speaking engagements at Universal Peace Federation events.

Trump's financial report lists the three occasions as follows:

1) Description: Universal Peace - Bedminster, NJ - 08/26/21

Income type: Speaking Engagements

Income amount: $500,000

2) Description: Universal Peace Federation World Summit - Palm Beach, FL - 02/10/22 to 02/14/22

Income type: Speaking Engagements

Income amount: $1,000,000

3) Description: Universal Peace Federation World Summit - Bedminster, NJ - 07/25/22

Income type: Speaking Engagements

Income amount: $1,000,000

The first one is believed to indicate Trump's video appearance for the UPF's online event on Sept. 12, 2021 in South Korea, which was shot on Aug. 26 in Bedminster where the former president had a golf resort. The second one was likely for the UPF World Summit 2022 in Seoul, in which Trump also made a video appearance, while the third payment was made for his video appearance in a UPF event in Seoul between Aug. 11 and 15, 2022.

Financial reports by former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence. The marked row shows a payment for his speaking engagement at a Universal Peace Federation event.

Meanwhile, Pence's report indicates payment for his speech at the UPF World Summit 2022 as follows:

Description: Speaking Engagement - Universal Peace Federation, Seoul, South Korea, 02/13/22 (payment by Worldwide Speakers Group)

Income type: honorarium

Income amount: $550,000

While the first event on Trump's report doesn't include "Federation" in the UPF's official name, it matches the description given in a legal complaint filed by the group's Japan branch this October and other documents, with the group's lawyer Tokunaga admitting that "It's true they paid Mr. Trump a large sum." Other events on Trump's and Pence's reports also match the information on the UPF's website and videos of the events.

The Mainichi Shimbun emailed campaign organizers of both Trump and Pence asking questions regarding the payments for their speaking engagements, but did not receive a response by the requested deadline. The Unification Church Japan, meanwhile, told the Mainichi to "ask the UPF" about any questions, but we didn't receive any replies from either the UPF headquarters or Japan branch.

Trump's video message in the September 2021 event was about nine minutes long, in which he touched on affairs surrounding North Korea and other topics, where he said, "I want to thank the Universal Peace Federation, and in particular, Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, a tremendous person, for her incredible work on behalf of peace all over the world."

At the February 2022 World Summit in Seoul, Trump gave a roughly nine-minute video speech, during which he praised Han for "her outstanding commitment to the cause of peace." He also touched on the conservative newspaper founded by Han and Moon, saying that it "has made a priceless contribution to the defense of truth, faith and freedom, both here in America and all over the globe." Pence was physically present at this event, giving a speech for about 11 minutes.

According to Trump's reports submitted to the OGE, he made $2.5 million for his three video appearances spanning a total of roughly 28 minutes, meaning that he was paid some $90,000 per minute.

On these large amounts of compensation, Yasuo Kawai, an attorney from the Lawyers from Across Japan for the Victims of the Unification Church team, said, "The church's main source of income is supposedly donations from Japanese followers, which means that a significant chunk (of these payments to Trump and Pence) could have been covered by the donations."

Asked whether donations by followers were used as resources to pay for these political figures, the Unification Church Japan told the Mainichi Shimbun, "The Japan corporation doesn't keep track on how the world headquarters distributes donations from Japan to the world." The Mainichi also made an inquiry with the Unification Church world headquarters in South Korea but didn't receive a response by the requested deadline.

Other than the U.S., former prime ministers of France and Italy, as well as a former Brazilian president, among other political leaders in the world, have joined UPF events or appeared in video messages. Sociology of religion professor Yoshihide Sakurai at Hokkaido University graduate school points out that having globally famous leaders at their events allows the Unification Church to make followers believe that Han and Moon are great people recognized at a world level. He added, "The church uses them to spread and promote their teachings."

(Japanese original by Hiroyuki Tanaka and Yukako Ono, Digital News Group)

Report Cites Failures of Kenya's Justice System in Religious Cult Scandal

22 October 2023

Agence France-Presse

NAIROBI - An inquiry into a suspected cult leader accused of inciting at least 428 of his followers to starve themselves to death, has pointed to "failures" in Kenya's security and criminal justice systems, according to a report seen by AFP on Saturday.

Self-proclaimed pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie has been in police custody since mid-April after the discovery of human remains in the Shakahola forest near the Indian Ocean coast.

The former taxi driver and founder of the Good News International Church is accused of preaching to his followers to starve to death "to meet Jesus."

While starvation appears to be the main cause of death, some of the victims -- including children -- were strangled, beaten or suffocated, according to autopsies carried out by the government.

FILE - Cult preacher Pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie of the Good News International church, foreground right, and some of his helpers sit at the Shanzu Law Courts under tight security, in Mombasa, Kenya Thursday Aug. 10, 2023 during a bail hearing.

"Kenya has experienced deaths linked to religious extremism in the past, however, the Shakahola tragedy has registered the highest number of fatalities in Kenya's recorded history," the Senate commission of inquiry said in its report.

It added that the self-proclaimed pastor had faced charges back in 2017 for his extreme preaching, but "the criminal justice system failed to deter the heinous activities of Paul Mackenzie in Shakahola."

Mackenzie was acquitted on charges of radicalisation in 2017 for illegally providing school teaching -- he rejected the formal educational system which he claimed was not in line with the Bible.

In 2019, he was also accused of being linked to the death of two children "who had succumbed to starvation and suffocation and buried in a shallow grave in Shakahola Forest".

He had been released on bail, pending trial.

- 'Recurring complaints' -

The commission of inquiry also pointed to failings in the local police force, which had received "recurring complaints by religious leaders and the local community against his activities from as early as 2017."

The complaints related to Mackenzie's opposition to formal education and medical treatment, as well as "radicalising adults to resign from their jobs and join the church" and "holding people hostage."

FILE - Relatives of followers of the Good News International Church, who believed they would go to heaven if they starved themselves to death in Shakahola, stand outside the steel gate of the Malindi sub district hospital mortuary in Malindi, Kilifi county, Kenya April 27, 2023.

The report also blamed "inaction" by the local county's security committee, which had "summoned Paul Mackenzie and warned him against his radical teachings and subjecting followers to inhumane conditions."

A largely Christian nation, Kenya has struggled to regulate unscrupulous churches and cults that dabble in criminality.

There are more than 4,000 churches registered in the East African country of 53 million people, according to government figures.

The commission decried current legislation as "inadequate" and called on the country's parliament to pass a "Religious Organisations Bill" to provide a legislative framework for the regulation of religious institutions.

The investigation and search for bodies in Shakahola forest are still ongoing.

Once completed, Mackenzie and his 29 co-defenants will be formally charged, with prosecutors announcing in May that the self-proclaimed pastor would face terrorism charges.