Investigative reports question whether Operation Underground Railroad and its founder and former CEO Tim Ballard misled donors about purported
SALT LAKE CITY — The anti-trafficking organization Operation Underground Railroad and its founder and former CEO Tim Ballard may have misled donors for years about purported "rescue" missions, according to investigative documents obtained from a local and federal investigation by KSL.com on Friday.
Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings began investigating Ballard and Operation Underground Railroad more than 2½ years ago in partnership with the FBI, but RawlingsKSL.com obtained 75 pages of documents from the Davis County investigation through a public records request to the Utah Attorney General's Office.
David Lopez, a former Navy SEAL who was part of the Colombia rescue, contracted with Operation Underground Railroad to run operations in Haiti several years later. He told investigators the organization had changed and was no longer focused on rescue operations, although that was still the image it projected, according to another follow-up report by Purdy.
An email included in the investigative documents from Operation Underground Railroad domestic coordinator Carlos Rodriguez sent to Ballard and other organization leaders on Oct. 8, 2020, addresses several alleged discrepancies with a videotaped interview Ballard gave. Lines mentions several edits of videos of Navy SEALs training with firearms, saying, "That cannot be part of our messaging. We do not carry or shoot weapons. We can't even train our partners in firearms," according to the investigative documents."Sean Reyes sure gets a lot screen time for only showing up to play a bodyguard for a day," Lines writes. "I'd suggest shortening some his diatribes throughout.
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