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@ -3,8 +3,8 @@ tags:
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- Organization
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- Belgium
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- 1990s
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- Dutroux_Affair
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- Michel_Nihoul
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- DutrouxAffair
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- MichelNihoul
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category: "Private Organization"
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summary: "ASCO redirects to Achats Services Commerces."
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---
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@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ ASCO redirects to [[Achats Services Commerces]].
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For the aerospace company, see [[ASCO Industries NV]].
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Both entities featured in the [[X-Dossier]] investigation into the [[Marc Dutroux]] network. Achats Services Commerces was the secondhand car business owned by [[Jean-Michel Nihoul]] that provided white Mercedes vehicles used in child abductions. ASCO Industries NV was the aerospace factory owned by [[Roger Boas]] where X1 described snuff film production.[^1]
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Both entities featured in the [[X-Dossier]] investigation into the [[Marc Dutroux]] network. Achats Services Commerces was the secondhand car business of [[Jean-Michel Nihoul]]; the writer S. Dovey wrote that it provided white Mercedes vehicles used in child abductions. ASCO Industries NV was an aerospace factory owned by [[Roger Boas]], where, Dovey wrote, the witness X1 described the production of snuff films.[^1]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). *Eye of the Chickenhawk*. United States: Thehotstar.
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[^1]: Dovey, S. *Eye of the Chickenhawk.* Thehotstar, 2023. Sole source for the passages so cited.
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53
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Alameda Research.md
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53
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Alameda Research.md
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@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
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---
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category: "AI & Effective Altruism"
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aliases:
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- "Alameda Research LLC"
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- "Alameda"
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tags:
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- Organization
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- Cryptocurrency
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- Fraud
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- SamBankmanFried
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- EffectiveAltruism
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summary: "Sam Bankman-Fried's trading firm, which drew FTX customer deposits through an undisclosed line of credit and put about 500 million dollars into Anthropic, a stake later sold chiefly to a UAE-aligned group."
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start: 2017
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end: 2022-11
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relations:
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- type: founded
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with: "[[Sam Bankman-Fried]]"
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reverse: true
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start: 2017
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fn: 1
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- type: head_of
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with: "[[Caroline Ellison]]"
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reverse: true
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role: "chief executive"
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end: 2022
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fn: 2
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- type: funded
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with: "[[Anthropic]]"
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start: 2022
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role: "about 500 million dollars"
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fn: 6
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created: 2026-09-22
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updated: 2026-09-22
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---
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Alameda Research LLC was a digital-asset trading firm founded by [[Sam Bankman-Fried]] in 2017, two years before he founded the exchange [[FTX]]. According to the [[Commodity Futures Trading Commission]], Bankman-Fried controlled both from at least May 2019 until November 11, 2022, and Alameda "operated as a primary market maker on FTX."[^1]
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### The Line of Credit
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The CFTC's complaint of December 13, 2022, alleged that FTX customer assets "were routinely accepted and held by Alameda and commingled with Alameda's funds," and that Alameda, Bankman-Fried and others used them for "luxury real estate purchases, political contributions, and high-risk, illiquid digital asset industry investments." At Bankman-Fried's direction, FTX employees built into the exchange's code an "allow negative flag" and an "effectively limitless line of credit" that let Alameda withdraw billions of dollars in customer assets, features not disclosed to the public; the commission put customer losses at more than 8 billion dollars.[^1] On December 21, 2022, the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] charged Alameda's chief executive, [[Caroline Ellison]], and FTX's co-founder and chief technology officer, [[Gary Wang]], alleging that from 2019 to 2022, at Bankman-Fried's direction, Ellison had bought up FTX's exchange token, FTT, to prop up its price because FTT served as collateral for undisclosed loans of customer assets from FTX to Alameda, and that Wang had written the software that allowed the diversion. Both agreed to settle, and both pleaded guilty and testified against Bankman-Fried, who was convicted on seven counts on November 2, 2023, and sentenced on March 28, 2024, to twenty-five years.[^2][^3]
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### Effective Altruism and Anthropic
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Bankman-Fried had founded Alameda after [[William MacAskill]] recruited him to the "earning to give" wing of [[Effective Altruism|effective altruism]]; in 2018 colleagues including Tara Mac Aulay raised concerns with MacAskill about his honesty and management.[^4] In 2022 Bankman-Fried put about 500 million dollars, through Alameda, into the AI company [[Anthropic]].[^5] In March 2024 the FTX bankruptcy estate agreed to sell most of that stake for 884 million dollars. The largest buyer was a group aligned with [[Mubadala]], the sovereign wealth fund of the [[United Arab Emirates]]; Saudi Arabia, CNBC's sources said, had been ruled out on national-security grounds. The second largest was [[Jane Street Capital|Jane Street]], where both Bankman-Fried and Ellison had worked, buying almost 100 million dollars of shares, with its head of quantitative research, Craig Falls, proposing to buy about 20 million dollars personally; HOF Capital, the [[Ford Foundation]] and funds managed by Fidelity also bought.[^6]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Commodity Futures Trading Commission. "CFTC Charges Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX Trading and Alameda with Fraud and Material Misrepresentations." Release 8638-22, December 13, 2022. https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8638-22
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[^2]: Securities and Exchange Commission. "SEC Charges Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang with Defrauding Investors in Crypto Asset Trading Platform FTX." Press release 2022-234, December 21, 2022. https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2022-234
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[^3]: "Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in federal prison." *CNN,* March 28, 2024. https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/28/business/ftx-sam-bankman-fried-sentencing
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[^4]: "Exclusive: Effective Altruist Leaders Were Warned About Sam Bankman-Fried Years Before FTX Collapsed." *TIME,* March 2023. https://time.com/6262810/sam-bankman-fried-effective-altruism-alameda-ftx/
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[^5]: "Effective Altruism After Sam Bankman-Fried." Seven Pillars Institute, 2023. https://www.sevenpillarsinstitute.org/effective-altruism-after-sam-bankman-fried/
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[^6]: Sigalos, MacKenzie. "FTX estate selling majority stake in AI startup Anthropic for $884 million, with bulk going to UAE." *CNBC,* March 25, 2024, updated March 28, 2024. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/25/ftx-estate-sells-majority-stake-in-startup-anthropic-for-884-million.html
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61
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Andreessen Horowitz.md
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61
20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Andreessen Horowitz.md
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@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
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---
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category: "Private Organization"
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aliases:
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- "a16z"
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- "AH Capital Management"
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tags:
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- Organization
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- VentureCapital
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- SiliconValley
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- EffectiveAccelerationism
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- Defense
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summary: "Venture firm founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, a registered investment adviser from 2019, whose American Dynamism fund invests in defense and whose partner Scott Kupor was named to head OPM."
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start: 2009
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relations:
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- type: founded
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with: "[[Marc Andreessen]]"
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reverse: true
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start: 2009
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fn: 1
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- type: founded
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with: "[[Ben Horowitz]]"
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reverse: true
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start: 2009
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fn: 1
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- type: funded
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with: "[[Thinking Machines Lab]]"
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start: 2025-07
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role: "led the seed round"
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fn: 4
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- type: funded
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with: "[[Safe Superintelligence]]"
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start: 2024-09
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fn: 5
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- type: funded
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with: "[[Worldcoin]]"
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start: 2023-05
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role: "co-investor, Series C; co-lead, 2025 token sale"
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fn: 6
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created: 2026-09-22
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updated: 2026-09-22
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---
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Andreessen Horowitz, known as a16z, is a venture capital firm founded in 2009 by [[Marc Andreessen]], co-founder of [[Netscape]], and [[Ben Horowitz]]. It invests in consumer software, cryptocurrency, biotechnology and, through its "American Dynamism" practice, defense and national-security technology, the category that also anchors [[Founders Fund]] and [[Palantir Technologies]]. In March 2019 the firm gave up its venture-capital registration and registered with the [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] as an investment adviser, freeing it from the rule that limits venture funds to about twenty percent of holdings in liquid securities and allowing it to buy crypto tokens, public stocks and secondary shares. In April 2024 it raised 7.2 billion dollars across five funds, including a 3.75 billion dollar growth fund and a 600 million dollar American Dynamism fund, and by January 2026 it had raised more than 15 billion dollars in a single round, taking its assets under management above 90 billion dollars.[^1][^2]
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### Government
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Andreessen and Horowitz endorsed [[Donald Trump]] in July 2024 on their podcast, presenting a "Little Tech" agenda. After the election Andreessen advised on personnel for the [[Department of Government Efficiency]], and the a16z partner Scott Kupor was named to lead the Office of Personnel Management.[^3]
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### Artificial Intelligence
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The firm led the seed round of about 2 billion dollars, at a 12 billion dollar valuation, of [[Mira Murati]]'s [[Thinking Machines Lab]] in July 2025, alongside Nvidia, Accel, ServiceNow, Cisco, AMD and [[Jane Street Capital|Jane Street]].[^4] It invested in [[Ilya Sutskever]]'s [[Safe Superintelligence]] in its round of September 2024 at a 5 billion dollar valuation and in April 2025 at 32 billion.[^5] Its crypto fund joined the 115 million dollar Series C of [[Sam Altman]]'s [[Worldcoin]] in May 2023 and co-led its 135 million dollar token sale in May 2025.[^6] Andreessen's "Techno-Optimist Manifesto," published by the firm on October 16, 2023, listed "existential risk," "trust and safety" and "tech ethics" among its enemies and named the neoreactionary [[Nick Land]] among its "patron saints."[^7]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Andreessen Horowitz, firm history. https://a16z.com/
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[^2]: "Andreessen Horowitz says it will no longer be a venture capital firm." *CNBC,* April 2, 2019, https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/02/andreessen-horowitz-goes-against-the-grain-and-becomes-financial-advisor.html ; "Andreessen Horowitz raises $7.2 billion across five funds." *CNBC,* April 16, 2024.
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[^3]: "Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz endorse Trump." *Axios* and *TechCrunch,* July 16-17, 2024; "Marc Andreessen advising the Trump transition and DOGE." *Fortune,* January 16, 2025.
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[^4]: "Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab is worth $12B in seed round." *TechCrunch,* July 15, 2025.
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[^5]: "AI's Big Day: Startup Safe Superintelligence Raises $1B At Reported $5B Valuation." *Crunchbase News,* September 4, 2024, https://news.crunchbase.com/ai/startup-safe-superintelligence-unicorn-raise/ ; "OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence reportedly valued at $32B." *TechCrunch,* April 12, 2025.
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[^6]: "Sam Altman's crypto project Worldcoin raises $115M led by Blockchain Capital." *CoinDesk,* May 25, 2023; "World raises $135M." World blog, May 21, 2025.
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[^7]: Andreessen, Marc. "The Techno-Optimist Manifesto." Andreessen Horowitz, October 16, 2023. https://a16z.com/the-techno-optimist-manifesto/
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@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
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---
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created: 2026-06-13
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updated: 2026-06-13
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updated: 2026-09-22
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title: Anti-Defamation League
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aliases:
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- ADL
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@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is an organization founded in 1913, originally
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### The 1993 Spying Investigation
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In 1993 the [[San Francisco]] Police Department and the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] searched ADL offices and exposed a private intelligence operation in which the organization, through the operative Roy Bullock, had compiled files on roughly ten thousand individuals and more than nine hundred organizations, ranging from white-supremacist groups to anti-apartheid and Arab-American organizations. Some of the information had been obtained from a serving police officer, Tom Gerard, a former [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] employee, and was alleged to have been passed to the governments of [[Israel]] and [[South Africa]]. The matter was settled through civil agreements without criminal charges against the organization.[^1][^2]
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In 1993 the [[San Francisco]] Police Department and the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] searched ADL offices and exposed a private intelligence operation in which the organization, through the operative Roy Bullock, had compiled files on roughly ten thousand individuals and more than nine hundred organizations, ranging from white-supremacist groups to anti-apartheid and Arab-American organizations. Some of the information had been obtained from a serving police officer, Tom Gerard, a former [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] employee, and, according to Robert I. Friedman of *The Village Voice,* was passed to the governments of [[Israel]] and [[South Africa]]. The matter was settled through civil agreements without criminal charges against the organization.[^1][^2]
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### Footnotes
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@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ location: "Amsterdam, Netherlands"
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---
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The Blue Boy was a nightclub in the Spuistraat district of [[Amsterdam]] that operated as a boy brothel. In August 1993 a distressed British boy showed up at the UK Embassy in [[Amsterdam]] after escaping through the bathroom window of the Blue Boy and told embassy officials he had been sold into prostitution by [[Warwick Spinks]]. The boy's escape and report to embassy authorities directly implicated Spinks in the trafficking of children through the club.[^1]
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The Blue Boy was also linked to allegations of snuff film production. An MP was said to have been present when a boy died during an orgy being filmed at the Blue Boy. [[Warwick Spinks|Spinks]] knew the MP and arranged a tour to [[Amsterdam]]; while there the MP went to the Blue Boy bar, where [[Warwick Spinks|Spinks]] was running a brothel. The information was not confirmed and the MP's identity never surfaced. Clear evidence that boys were tortured was discovered during investigations. Right across the street from the Blue Boy was another boy brothel investigated in [[Operation Framework]] for trafficking in snuff films, called [[Boys Club 21]]. Its manager was a close associate of [[Warwick Spinks]] named [[Alan Williams]]. The proximity of the two establishments in the Spuistraat district concentrated the boy brothel trade in a single area of [[Amsterdam]].[^1]
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The Blue Boy was also linked to allegations of snuff film production. The writer S. Dovey wrote that an MP was present when a boy died during an orgy being filmed at the Blue Boy. [[Warwick Spinks|Spinks]] knew the MP and arranged a tour to [[Amsterdam]]; while there the MP went to the Blue Boy bar, where [[Warwick Spinks|Spinks]] was running a brothel. The information was not confirmed and the MP's identity never surfaced. Clear evidence that boys were tortured was discovered during investigations. Right across the street from the Blue Boy was another boy brothel investigated in [[Operation Framework]] for trafficking in snuff films, called [[Boys Club 21]]. Its manager was a close associate of [[Warwick Spinks]] named [[Alan Williams]]. The proximity of the two establishments in the Spuistraat district concentrated the boy brothel trade in a single area of [[Amsterdam]].[^1]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). *Eye of the Chickenhawk*. United States: Thehotstar.
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- Cali Drug Cartel
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- Cali Cartel
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created: 2026-05-17
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updated: 2026-05-17
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updated: 2026-09-22
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category: "Organized Crime"
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tags:
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- Organization
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@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ summary: "Powerful Colombian drug trafficking organization based in Cali, descri
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location: "Cali, Colombia"
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---
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The Cali Drug Cartel was a powerful Colombian drug trafficking organization based in [[Cali, Colombia|Cali]], described in a 1994 *Time* magazine article as controlling 80% of the world's cocaine trade. Its key leaders included [[Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela|Gilberto Rodriguez]] and [[Jose Santacruz Londono|Jose Londono]].[[Norwin Meneses]] is believed to have been the cartel's representative in [[Nicaragua]].[^1][^3][^5]
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The Cali Drug Cartel was a powerful Colombian drug trafficking organization based in [[Cali, Colombia|Cali]], described in a 1994 *Time* magazine article as controlling 80% of the world's cocaine trade. Its key leaders included [[Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela|Gilberto Rodriguez]] and [[Jose Santacruz Londono|Jose Londono]]. The journalist Gary Webb described [[Norwin Meneses]] as the cartel's representative in [[Nicaragua]].[^1][^3][^5]
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### Drug Trafficking and Political Influence
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### Connection to the Dark Alliance Network
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[[Danilo Blandon|Danilo Blandón]]'s supplier [[Aparicio Moreno]] was a Colombian with reported ties to both the [[FDN]] and the CIA.[^3] [[Rafael Cornejo]] was alleged to be involved in a major cocaine pipeline running from Cali to several West Coast cities. The Meneses organization's supply chain originated with the Colombian cartels.[^4]
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[[Danilo Blandon|Danilo Blandón]]'s supplier [[Aparicio Moreno]] was a Colombian with reported ties to both the [[FDN]] and the CIA.[^3] Webb wrote that [[Rafael Cornejo]] was involved in a major cocaine pipeline running from Cali to several West Coast cities. The Meneses organization's supply chain originated with the Colombian cartels.[^4]
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### Intelligence Connections
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@ -12,6 +12,10 @@ summary: "London daily founded by Alfred Harmsworth in 1903 and owned by Robert
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location: "London, United Kingdom"
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start: 1903-11-02
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relations:
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- type: owned
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with: "[[Reach plc]]"
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reverse: true
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fn: 7
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- type: owned
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with: "[[Robert Maxwell]]"
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reverse: true
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@ -37,9 +41,11 @@ In July 1984 [[Robert Maxwell]] bought Mirror Group Newspapers, publisher of the
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[[Seymour Hersh]]'s *The Samson Option* went on sale in Britain on October 20, 1991, alleging that Maxwell and Davies had links to Israeli intelligence and that Davies had taken part in Israeli arms sales. Under parliamentary privilege, [[George Galloway]] put down a motion stating that Davies was "a longstanding and highly-paid Israeli Intelligence asset" who had betrayed Vanunu's whereabouts to [[Mossad]], and calling on Maxwell to establish "the extent of foreign intelligence penetration of Mirror Group newspapers"; [[Rupert Allason]] put down one stating that the *Daily Mirror* and its proprietor "have maintained a close relationship with the Israeli Intelligence Service" and that Davies had formed [[Ora Limited]] with [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] in 1983.[^5] The paper's front page said the two members had "as much honor as a pair of jackals scavenging in a rubbish heap."[^6] The *Mirror* dismissed Davies on October 28, 1991, for denying that he had been at the Ohio home of an arms dealer in 1985 after a rival paper printed a photograph of him there.[^3] Maxwell was found dead in the sea off his yacht near the Canary Islands on November 5, 1991.[^2]
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The paper's publisher is now a subsidiary of [[Reach plc]], a company incorporated in 1904 as the Liverpool Daily Post, the Liverpool Mercury and the Liverpool Echo Limited, renamed Trinity Mirror plc on September 6, 1999, and Reach plc on May 3, 2018, with its registered office at One Canada Square, Canary Wharf.[^7]
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### The Pension Funds
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The pension schemes of the Maxwell companies, with more than 32,000 members, were pooled in a Common Investment Fund managed by Bishopsgate Investment Management, a Maxwell-controlled subsidiary, whose assets Maxwell pledged as collateral for loans to his private companies. Administrators and the [[Serious Fraud Office]] concluded that roughly 450 to 460 million pounds had been taken; [[Goldman Sachs]], on Maxwell's instructions, had sold blocks of Mirror Group shares marked as pension-fund property.[^7] His sons [[Kevin Maxwell]] and [[Ian Maxwell]] were acquitted at the [[Old Bailey]] in January 1996.[^8] In August 1994 Mirror Group Newspapers apologized "unreservedly" in a London court for its articles of October 1991 about Hersh and agreed to pay him and his publisher, [[Faber and Faber]], "substantial damages."[^9]
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The pension schemes of the Maxwell companies, with more than 32,000 members, were pooled in a Common Investment Fund managed by Bishopsgate Investment Management, a Maxwell-controlled subsidiary, whose assets Maxwell pledged as collateral for loans to his private companies. Administrators and the [[Serious Fraud Office]] concluded that roughly 450 to 460 million pounds had been taken; [[Goldman Sachs]], on Maxwell's instructions, had sold blocks of Mirror Group shares marked as pension-fund property.[^8] His sons [[Kevin Maxwell]] and [[Ian Maxwell]] were acquitted at the [[Old Bailey]] in January 1996.[^9] In August 1994 Mirror Group Newspapers apologized "unreservedly" in a London court for its articles of October 1991 about Hersh and agreed to pay him and his publisher, [[Faber and Faber]], "substantial damages."[^10]
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### Footnotes
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[^4]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy.* Faber and Faber, 1991.
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[^5]: House of Commons, Early Day Motion 2134, "Mirror Group Newspapers and Israeli Intelligence," and Early Day Motion 2136, "Arms Sales," October 1991. https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/2134/mirror-group-newspapers-and-israeli-intelligence
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[^6]: United Press International, "Maxwell to seek injunction against book," London, October 23, 1991.
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[^7]: "Unravelling the Web," *Pensions Archive Trust,* November 3, 2021. https://pensionsarchive.org.uk/2021/11/03/unravelling-the-web/
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[^8]: "Media Magnate Maxwell's Sons Acquitted of Charges They Raided Pension Fund," *The Washington Post,* January 20, 1996. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/01/20/media-magnate-maxwells-sons-acquitted-of-charges-they-raided-pension-fund/1841c6cf-8340-4e9e-876c-9f862b4685b5/
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[^9]: "Hersh Wins Apology From British Papers," *The Washington Post,* August 19, 1994; "Writer wins damages, apology in libel suit," *Deseret News,* August 20, 1994.
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[^7]: Companies House, Reach plc, company number 00082548, profile and previous names, accessed September 22, 2026, https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00082548 ; mirror.co.uk site footer, "a Reach plc subsidiary," accessed September 22, 2026.
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[^8]: "Unravelling the Web," *Pensions Archive Trust,* November 3, 2021. https://pensionsarchive.org.uk/2021/11/03/unravelling-the-web/
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[^9]: "Media Magnate Maxwell's Sons Acquitted of Charges They Raided Pension Fund," *The Washington Post,* January 20, 1996. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/01/20/media-magnate-maxwells-sons-acquitted-of-charges-they-raided-pension-fund/1841c6cf-8340-4e9e-876c-9f862b4685b5/
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[^10]: "Hersh Wins Apology From British Papers," *The Washington Post,* August 19, 1994; "Writer wins damages, apology in libel suit," *Deseret News,* August 20, 1994.
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@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ tags:
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- PROMIS
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category: "Private Organization"
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created: 2024-04-25
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updated: 2026-05-01
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updated: 2026-09-22
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alias:
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- Degem Computers
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- Degem Systems
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@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ Maxwell acquired Degem after its previous owner, [[Yaacov Meridor]], faced a sca
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|
||||
Through Degem, Maxwell sold PROMIS-derived software to agencies in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, South Korea, Poland, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Nicaragua. In 1985, an abridged version was sold to [[Credit Suisse]], providing intelligence access to Israeli accounts held there. In the late 1980s, Degem technicians installed the trapdoor-equipped software on IBM computers delivered to the Soviet Union, an arrangement facilitated by the lifting of IBM export restrictions.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
In Guatemala, Degem worked through [[Manfred Herrmann]]'s Sedra company to deploy PROMIS terminals at offices, railway stations, airports, and remote roadblocks, contributing to a surveillance system tracking suspected dissidents. In Transkei, Degem's implementation of PROMIS was alleged to have been used as a tool against black revolutionary groups including the [[African National Congress]], providing information that led to the detention, disappearance, or death of activists.[^1]
|
||||
In Guatemala, Degem worked through [[Manfred Herrmann]]'s Sedra company to deploy PROMIS terminals at offices, railway stations, airports, and remote roadblocks, contributing to a surveillance system tracking suspected dissidents. [[Ari Ben-Menashe]] alleged that in Transkei Degem's implementation of PROMIS was used as a tool against black revolutionary groups including the [[African National Congress]], providing information that led to the detention, disappearance, or death of activists.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Official Findings
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ location: "London, United Kingdom"
|
|||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Elm Guest House was a suburban brothel operating near central London in the early 1980s that served as a front for an international child trafficking network connected to powerful political and business figures. The establishment, run by German couple [[Haroon Kasir]] and [[Carole Kasir]], displayed a sign reading "Spartacus, Club - Welcome" and was part of the broader [[Spartacus International]] network operated by [[John Stamford]].[^1]
|
||||
The Elm Guest House was a guest house at Rocks Lane, Barnes, in south-west London, run in the early 1980s by [[Haroon Kasir]] and [[Carole Kasir]]. The writer S. Dovey wrote that it displayed a sign reading "Spartacus, Club - Welcome" and belonged to the [[Spartacus International]] network of [[John Stamford]], and described it as a front for an international child-trafficking network serving political and business figures.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### The Raid and the Inquiry Findings
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -26,32 +26,20 @@ Carole Kasir was found dead in June 1990; the inquest ruled her death a suicide.
|
|||
|
||||
### Allegations
|
||||
|
||||
In June 1982, Metropolitan Police raided the Elm Guest House following an investigation into illegal brothel operations. The raid revealed that visitors were provided with a price-listed menu of sex to indulge in with boys as young as ten. Twenty-three men were said to have been detained on the premises, which contained bedroom suites festooned with whips, chains, and ropes, along with communal areas including a lounge bar, spa and sauna facility, and a screening room for pornography. According to police sources, three of the guests were parliamentary ministers, while a fourth was a member of the Queen's royal staff. Metropolitan Police had been expected to reopen files on the murder of one boy and the disappearance of another in their investigation into a VIP homosexual vice network in London.[^1]
|
||||
The writer S. Dovey wrote that the raid of June 1982 revealed a price list of sex with boys as young as ten; that twenty-three men were detained in a house with bedroom suites hung with whips, chains and ropes, a lounge bar, a sauna and a screening room for pornography; that police sources said three of the guests were ministers and a fourth a member of the Queen's household; and that the police had been expected to reopen files on the murder of one boy and the disappearance of another. Dovey wrote that Scotland Yard called it a routine brothel investigation while sources close to the inquiry said senior officers had ordered it played down, that *[[The Sunday Times]]* reported Scotland Yard's denial of any security risk or Special Branch role, that the men were released without charge, and suggested that the Attorney General, [[Michael Havers]], had intervened. According to Dovey, the Kasirs were also charged with possessing child pornography, a charge dropped in 1983 after seven hours of seized video were ruled inadmissible.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
All reporting on the matter was subsequently denied in official statements. While a Scotland Yard official initially described it as just a routine investigation into a brothel, sources close to the investigation claimed the top brass had ordered everything to be played down and that every attempt was being made to ensure the names of VIPs using the place did not leak out. The [[The Sunday Times|Sunday Times]] reported that Scotland Yard denied claims of a security risk, stating that Special Branch was not taking part in inquiries. The men detained were released without charge, and reporting on the matter soon ceased, possibly upon intervention by Attorney General [[Michael Havers]].[^1]
|
||||
In 1983 the Conservative MP [[Geoffrey Dickens]] gave the Home Secretary, [[Leon Brittan]], a dossier on members of Parliament and of the royal household whom he alleged belonged to a pedophile ring with ties to the [[Pedophile Information Exchange]], and said he would name them in Parliament. Dovey wrote that Dickens then received death threats, that his home was burgled, and that his name was found in a notebook of the fugitive [[Arthur Hutchinson]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
The owners, Haroon and Carole Kasir, were charged for keeping a disorderly house and possession of child pornography. However, the child pornography charge was dropped in 1983 after seven hours of video footage seized from the premises was ruled inadmissible. By agreement with defense lawyers, the prosecution slashed eight hours of videos to just 45 minutes, and the judge made an order forbidding the press to identify the child in the case.[^1]
|
||||
At the 1990 inquest into Carole Kasir's death, according to Dovey, the social worker [[Mary Moss]] said Kasir had come to her in 1989 with evidence that boys under fourteen from [[Grafton Close Children's Home]], run by Richmond Council, were supplied to guests of the house, and Moss and [[Christopher Fay]] said Kasir had been killed over evidence of its clientele. Fay said Kasir had shown him a photograph of a former Conservative Cabinet minister in a sauna with naked boys, and that a bishop, a High Court judge, a social services director and a businessman appeared on videos made there; Dovey identified the minister as Leon Brittan and named [[Cyril Smith]], exposed after his death as an abuser of boys, as a frequent visitor. The inquiry found that no politician or VIP was ever identified as involved.[^1][^2]
|
||||
|
||||
### VIP Network and Political Connections
|
||||
### Later Investigations
|
||||
|
||||
In 1983, Tory MP [[Geoffrey Dickens]] handed Home Secretary [[Leon Brittan]] a dossier on members of parliament and the Queen's royal staff alleged to have been part of a VIP pedophile ring with ties to the [[Pedophile Information Exchange]] (PIE). Dickens compiled a list of names and planned to disclose them in Parliament, stating that the Scotland Yard report contained names of top people in public life and show business. Shortly after handing over the dossier, Dickens began receiving death threats and his home was burglarized multiple times. His name and personal details were found in a notebook belonging to fugitive [[Arthur Hutchinson]], wanted for triple homicide, leading to a security detail being placed on Dickens.[^1]
|
||||
[[Peter Righton]], who held a senior post at the [[National Children's Bureau]] and whom Dovey described as the government's leading adviser on child protection, was arrested in 1992 after customs officers intercepted child pornography sent to him from Amsterdam; Dovey wrote that he was a member of the Pedophile Information Exchange named in Dickens's dossier. Dovey also wrote that Moss said in 2013 that Kasir had told her two men, [[Terry Dwyer]] and [[John Rowe]], persuaded her in 1979 to turn her house into a sauna for members of Club Spartacus and put her in touch with Stamford's agent [[Peter Glencross]], and that correspondence from Spartacus International addressed to the house in 1981 survives. In an ITV interview Moss described the house as a money-making child pornography operation that filmed boys procured from Grafton Close.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
The circumstances surrounding the Elm Guest House resurfaced in 1990 during an inquest into the death of former owner Carole Kasir, who died from an insulin overdose. Social worker [[Mary Moss]] testified that Kasir had approached her in 1989 with evidence that boys from [[Grafton Close Children's Home]] were supplied as prostitutes to VIP guests of the Elm Guest House in the early 1980s. According to Moss, the home, run by Richmond Council, supplied boys under age 14 to the gay guest house frequented by top MPs and judges. Kasir had been involved with a group of child pornographers linked to the foster home's management and was in fear for her life before her death.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
During the 1990 inquest, Mary Moss and [[Christopher Fay]] claimed Kasir was murdered over evidence she kept on the Elm Guest House's VIP clientele. Fay testified Kasir had shown him a photograph of a former Tory Cabinet minister in a sauna with naked boys, and that a bishop, high court judge, social services director, and top businessman were among those captured on video at the hotel. The cabinet minister was identified as Leon Brittan, the same Home Secretary who received Geoffrey Dickens' dossier. Another parliamentary minister named was [[Cyril Smith]], who was posthumously exposed as a serial violent sexual abuser of boys in 2013 and was said to have been a frequent visitor to the Elm Guest House.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Government Connections and Later Investigations
|
||||
|
||||
In 1992, social services director [[Peter Righton]], the top UK government adviser on child protection services, was arrested after customs officials intercepted child pornography addressed to him from Amsterdam. Righton was a member of the Pedophile Information Exchange named in the VIP pedophile dossier from 1983. He was questioned in connection with indecent assaults on children in the London area as part of a nationwide inquiry following the closure of New Barns, a school for emotionally disturbed children in Gloucestershire. Righton held a senior post with the [[National Children's Bureau]] and was a respected figure in the child care field.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
According to information leaked by Mary Moss in 2013, Carole Kasir had stated that two men named [[Terry Dwyer]] and [[John Rowe]] persuaded her to renovate her townhouse into a spa and sauna facility for members of Club Spartacus in 1979. She was put in touch with [[Peter Glencross]], a close associate of John Stamford who acted as the commercial agent for Spartacus International. The Elm Guest House displayed a Club Spartacus sign, and letter correspondence from Spartacus International addressed to the Elm Guest House from 1981 exists as evidence of this connection.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
In October 2012, Labour MP [[Tom Watson]] asked Prime Minister [[David Cameron]] to investigate evidence of a powerful pedophile network linked to parliament and No. 10. This was followed in November by accusations against Cyril Smith by MP [[Simon Danczuk]]. These statements, made in the wake of the [[Jimmy Savile]] scandal, led to a Metropolitan police investigation into historical allegations of child abuse by a VIP pedophile ring allegedly made up of high-ranking government officials who frequented the Elm Guest House in the early 1980s.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
In an ITV interview, Mary Moss stated that the Elm Guest House had been used to make child pornography, describing it as a child porn racket and a money-making business. She recounted cases of boys who were abused at Grafton Close children's home and procured for the Elm Guest House where they were filmed to make child porn that was then distributed. This testimony aligned with the extensive video equipment and screening room discovered during the 1982 police raid.[^1]
|
||||
In October 2012 the Labour MP [[Tom Watson]] asked Prime Minister [[David Cameron]] to investigate evidence of a pedophile network linked to Parliament and No. 10, and in November the MP [[Simon Danczuk]] made accusations against Cyril Smith; the Metropolitan Police then opened investigations into historical allegations concerning the house.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
[^1]: Dovey, S. *Eye of the Chickenhawk.* Thehotstar, 2023. Sole source for the passages so cited. It gives twenty-three men detained where the inquiry gives twenty people arrested including the Kasirs, and describes Cyril Smith as confirmed as a visitor, where the inquiry found no politician or VIP identified.
|
||||
[^2]: Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. *Allegations of Child Sexual Abuse Linked to Westminster: Investigation Report,* February 2020, Part B.3, "The 1980s," paras. 9-12. https://web.archive.org/web/2021/https://www.iicsa.org.uk/reports-recommendations/publications/investigation/westminster/part-b-allegations-child-sexual-abuse-linked-westminster/b3-1980s.html
|
||||
[^3]: Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. *Allegations of Child Sexual Abuse Linked to Westminster,* February 2020, Part D.7, "Allegations connected to Elm Guest House," paras. 70-74. https://web.archive.org/web/2021/https://www.iicsa.org.uk/reports-recommendations/publications/investigation/westminster/part-d-police-responses-allegations-westminster-child-sexual-abuse/d7-allegations-connected-elm-guest-house.html
|
||||
[^3]: Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. *Allegations of Child Sexual Abuse Linked to Westminster,* February 2020, Part D.7, "Allegations connected to Elm Guest House," paras. 70-74. https://web.archive.org/web/2021/https://www.iicsa.org.uk/reports-recommendations/publications/investigation/westminster/part-d-police-responses-allegations-westminster-child-sexual-abuse/d7-allegations-connected-elm-guest-house.html
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ Films found on the Michigan photographer [[Gerald Richards]] at his arrest in Ju
|
|||
|
||||
### The Distribution Network
|
||||
|
||||
Film was said to have been mailed from the farm to Richards for development and distribution through MAIL-O-MATIC in [[North Carolina]] and F&S Distributors in California. The farm was said to have been raided on November 10, 1976, and reported the next day by the *Detroit Free Press* as a national pornography hub, and to have been incorporated under the Church of the New Revelation, through which it was linked to [[Dyer Grossman]] and [[Adam Starchild]], and connected through a letter from Vermilye to Halvorsen with Troop 137 and with the Chicago network of [[John David Norman]], the [[Delta Project]] and the [[Odyssey Network]].[^1]
|
||||
The writer S. Dovey wrote that film was mailed from the farm to Richards for development and distribution through MAIL-O-MATIC in [[North Carolina]] and F&S Distributors in California. Dovey also wrote that the farm was raided on November 10, 1976, and reported the next day by the *Detroit Free Press* as a national pornography hub, and that it was incorporated under the Church of the New Revelation, through which it was linked to [[Dyer Grossman]] and [[Adam Starchild]], and connected through a letter from Vermilye to Halvorsen with Troop 137 and with the Chicago network of [[John David Norman]], the [[Delta Project]] and the [[Odyssey Network]].[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ In Central America, President Ronald Reagan supported [[General Rios Montt]], a
|
|||
|
||||
[[Jimmy Hughes]] joined FGBMFI in 1987 and subsequently founded Jimmy Hughes Ministries – Free the Oppressed in Honduras. He openly admitted his past as a "Mafia hit-man" on the FGBMFI website. John Carrette "god-fathered" Hughes into the Fellowship and helped set him up in Honduras.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
Hughes was a high-standing member of FGBMFI and a keynote speaker at a dinner event in Fresno, [[California]], in February 2008, alongside [[General Daniel Lopez Carballo]] of Honduras. Hughes, General Daniel Lopez Carballo, and [[Romeo Vasquez Velasquez]] were all members of FGBMFI. Hughes was allegedly involved in the planning of the [[Honduras coup]] of June 2009, and Lopez Carballo and Vásquez Velásquez were described as his friends.[^1] On June 28, 2009, the Honduran military detained President [[Manuel Zelaya]] and flew him to [[Costa Rica]]; Zelaya had ordered the removal of Vásquez Velásquez as chairman of the joint chiefs days earlier, and the Supreme Court had ordered him restored. The National Congress then replaced Zelaya with its president, [[Roberto Micheletti]], who called it a "constitutional succession."[^3] On September 26, 2009, Hughes was arrested at Miami International Airport on his way to Honduras and charged in the 1981 murders of the Cabazon tribal leader [[Fred Alvarez]] and two others; the charges were dismissed in July 2010.[^4]
|
||||
Hughes was a high-standing member of FGBMFI and a keynote speaker at a dinner event in Fresno, [[California]], in February 2008, alongside [[General Daniel Lopez Carballo]] of Honduras. Hughes, General Daniel Lopez Carballo, and [[Romeo Vasquez Velasquez]] were all members of FGBMFI. The writer Cheri Seymour wrote that Hughes was involved in planning the [[Honduras coup]] of June 2009 and described Lopez Carballo and Vásquez Velásquez as his friends.[^1] On June 28, 2009, the Honduran military detained President [[Manuel Zelaya]] and flew him to [[Costa Rica]]; Zelaya had ordered the removal of Vásquez Velásquez as chairman of the joint chiefs days earlier, and the Supreme Court had ordered him restored. The National Congress then replaced Zelaya with its president, [[Roberto Micheletti]], who called it a "constitutional succession."[^3] On September 26, 2009, Hughes was arrested at Miami International Airport on his way to Honduras and charged in the 1981 murders of the Cabazon tribal leader [[Fred Alvarez]] and two others; the charges were dismissed in July 2010.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -14,14 +14,14 @@ alias:
|
|||
summary: "Indonesian banking and property conglomerate of the Riady family, partner of the Stephens family of Arkansas from 1978, employer of John Huang and Webster Hubbell, whose California bank pleaded guilty to 86 campaign finance counts in 2001."
|
||||
location: "Jakarta, Indonesia"
|
||||
created: 2026-09-21
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-21
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Lippo Group is the banking, insurance, and property conglomerate of [[Mochtar Riady]] of [[Indonesia]] and his son [[James Riady]]. A Senate committee dated its business relationship with [[Stephens Inc.]] of [[Little Rock, Arkansas|Little Rock]] to 1977, and a House committee to a meeting between Mochtar Riady, [[Jackson Stephens]], and [[Witt Stephens]] in 1976.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Arkansas
|
||||
|
||||
The two families formed [[Stephens Finance Ltd.]] in [[Hong Kong]] in 1978 and both bought into [[Worthen Bank]] in 1983. About 1987 the Riadys exchanged their Worthen shares for the Stephens interest in the [[Hong Kong Chinese Bank]] and turned to [[California]], where they had bought the [[Bank of Trade (Los Angeles)|Bank of Trade]] and renamed it [[LippoBank]]. [[John Huang]] was the group's chief representative in the [[United States]]. In April 1993 [[C. Joseph Giroir]], former managing partner of the [[Rose Law Firm]], incorporated the [[Arkansas International Development Corporation]] with Lippo capital to develop joint ventures, and a second company of the same name followed in 1995. The Riadys were reported to pay Giroir between 350,000 and 600,000 dollars a year. [[Mark Middleton]], a former aide to President [[Bill Clinton]], also went to work for the group. Giroir helped draw up the list of those invited to the [[Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation]] meeting in [[Jakarta]] in 1994, among them [[Webster Hubbell]], to whom the Lippo company [[Hong Kong China Limited]] had paid 100,000 dollars that June. The House committee also found that the head of the group paid the college tuition of Hubbell's daughter.[^1]
|
||||
The two families formed [[Stephens Finance Ltd.]] in [[Hong Kong]] in 1978 and both bought into [[Worthen Bank]] in 1983. About 1987 the Riadys exchanged their Worthen shares for the Stephens interest in the [[Hong Kong Chinese Bank]] and turned to [[California]], where they had bought the [[Bank of Trade (Los Angeles)|Bank of Trade]] and renamed it [[LippoBank]]. [[John Huang]] was the group's chief representative in the [[United States]]. In April 1993 [[C. Joseph Giroir]], former managing partner of the [[Rose Law Firm]], incorporated the [[Arkansas International Development Corporation]] with Lippo capital to develop joint ventures, and a second company of the same name followed in 1995. According to the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, the Riadys paid Giroir between 350,000 and 600,000 dollars a year. [[Mark Middleton]], a former aide to President [[Bill Clinton]], also went to work for the group. Giroir helped draw up the list of those invited to the [[Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation]] meeting in [[Jakarta]] in 1994, among them [[Webster Hubbell]], to whom the Lippo company [[Hong Kong China Limited]] had paid 100,000 dollars that June. The House committee also found that the head of the group paid the college tuition of Hubbell's daughter.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### BCCI Hong Kong
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ aliases:
|
|||
- Medellin Cartel
|
||||
- Medellín Cartel
|
||||
created: 2026-05-17
|
||||
updated: 2026-05-17
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
category: "Organized Crime"
|
||||
start: 1976-01-01
|
||||
end: 1993-12-31
|
||||
|
|
@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ As the cartel's massive loads got through, wholesale cocaine prices in the U.S.
|
|||
|
||||
### Connection to the Contra Network
|
||||
|
||||
[[Barry Seal]] was one of the biggest cocaine and marijuana importers in the southern United States, flying loads directly for the Medellín cartel while simultaneously working as a [[Central Intelligence Agency]] and DEA contract agent. Seal moved to [[Mena, Arkansas]] in 1982 and ran drugs and weapons through Intermountain Regional Airport.[^2] [[Danilo Blandon|Danilo Blandón]] told CIA inspectors that he had been to Colombia with [[Ronald Lister]] and observed Lister negotiating drug deals with the Colombians.[^3] [[Norwin Meneses]] was believed to be the [[Cali Drug Cartel]]'s representative in [[Nicaragua]], and his organization operated in parallel to the Medellín cartel's distribution networks.[^4]
|
||||
[[Barry Seal]] was one of the biggest cocaine and marijuana importers in the southern United States, flying loads directly for the Medellín cartel while simultaneously working as a [[Central Intelligence Agency]] and DEA contract agent. Seal moved to [[Mena, Arkansas]] in 1982 and ran drugs and weapons through Intermountain Regional Airport.[^2] [[Danilo Blandon|Danilo Blandón]] told CIA inspectors that he had been to Colombia with [[Ronald Lister]] and observed Lister negotiating drug deals with the Colombians.[^3] The journalist Gary Webb described [[Norwin Meneses]] as the [[Cali Drug Cartel]]'s representative in [[Nicaragua]], and his organization operated in parallel to the Medellín cartel's distribution networks.[^4]
|
||||
|
||||
### Arms-for-Drugs Allegations
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ aliases:
|
|||
- Nugan Hand Bank
|
||||
- Nugan Hand Ltd
|
||||
created: 2026-05-17
|
||||
updated: 2026-05-17
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
category: "Private Organization"
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- Organization
|
||||
|
|
@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ Australian government investigators and Kwitny’s reporting identified several
|
|||
|
||||
The bank operated branches in thirteen countries including Australia, [[Hong Kong]], Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, the United States (Hawaii and Washington), Saudi Arabia, the Cayman Islands, and Bermuda. Its offshore structure was designed to obscure the origins and movement of funds across jurisdictions with limited regulatory cooperation.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
The bank was alleged to have laundered proceeds from [[Golden Triangle]] opium and heroin trafficking through its Southeast Asian branches, particularly in Thailand and Hong Kong. The connection between CIA-linked operations in the Golden Triangle region, Air America’s acknowledged transport activities, and the bank’s financial flows was documented but not legally established in terms of criminal liability.[^1]
|
||||
The journalist Jonathan Kwitny wrote that the bank laundered proceeds from [[Golden Triangle]] opium and heroin trafficking through its Southeast Asian branches, particularly in Thailand and Hong Kong. The connection between CIA-linked operations in the Golden Triangle region, Air America’s acknowledged transport activities, and the bank’s financial flows was documented but not legally established in terms of criminal liability.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
The bank also handled financial transfers for covert operations. Kwitny documented that Nugan Hand managed accounts for clients in multiple countries who appeared to be receiving or disbursing funds for intelligence-related purposes. The specific operations are difficult to fully document because the bank’s records were largely destroyed or disappeared after its collapse.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ At Richards's arrest in July 1976 police found a letter from Grossman proposing
|
|||
|
||||
### The Grossman Letter
|
||||
|
||||
Richards was said to have handed over the letter in August 1976, postmarked July 19, 1976, with the institute's return address, and it was said to have mentioned a twelve-year-old boy Grossman had obtained through a Big Brother program. The institute was described as a sea-steading project. Starchild was said to have been Malcolm Willis McConahy, an offshore tax attorney who faked his death in 1975, and a scoutmaster in Minneapolis expelled in 1965.[^1]
|
||||
The writer S. Dovey wrote that Richards handed over the letter in August 1976, postmarked July 19, 1976, with the institute's return address, and that it mentioned a twelve-year-old boy Grossman had obtained through a Big Brother program. The writer S. Dovey described the institute as a sea-steading project. Dovey also wrote that Starchild was Malcolm Willis McConahy, an offshore tax attorney who faked his death in 1975, and a scoutmaster in Minneapolis expelled in 1965.[^1]
|
||||
|
||||
### Footnotes
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ tags:
|
|||
summary: "OpenAI is an artificial-intelligence company founded as a nonprofit in 2015 with a billion-dollar pledge from backers including Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Reid Hoffman, and Peter Thiel, whose 2023 firing and reinstatement of CEO Sam Altman exposed the conflict between its effective-altruism-aligned safety board and its commercial expansion."
|
||||
location: "San Francisco, California"
|
||||
created: 2026-06-19
|
||||
updated: 2026-06-19
|
||||
updated: 2026-09-22
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
OpenAI is an artificial-intelligence research company founded in [[San Francisco]] on December 11, 2015 as a nonprofit laboratory whose stated mission was to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits humanity. Its founding was announced with a one-billion-dollar funding pledge from [[Elon Musk]], [[Sam Altman]], [[Greg Brockman]], [[Reid Hoffman]], [[Jessica Livingston]], [[Peter Thiel]], [[Amazon Web Services]], and [[Infosys]], though tax filings later showed that only about 133 million dollars had actually been received by 2021. The organization grew out of the same AI-existential-risk concern that animates the [[Rationalist Community]] and [[Effective Altruism]] movements, and its 2023 governance crisis exposed the fault line between that safety-focused mission and its commercial trajectory.[^1][^2]
|
||||
|
|
@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ The 2019 capped-profit entity, OpenAI LP, limited early investors to a return of
|
|||
|
||||
### The November 2023 Board Crisis
|
||||
|
||||
On November 17, 2023, the nonprofit board removed Altman as chief executive, stating that he had not been "consistently candid." The voting directors were Sutskever, [[Adam D'Angelo]], the entrepreneur [[Tasha McCauley]], and [[Helen Toner]] of the Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology; McCauley and Toner had ties to the effective-altruism movement, and the board's concern centered on the pace of AI commercialization relative to safety. Brockman quit in protest, roughly 700 employees threatened to resign, and within 48 hours directors discussed merging OpenAI with [[Anthropic]], a step Toner was reported to have supported and that would have ended OpenAI as an independent entity. Altman was reinstated within days under a reconstituted board chaired by [[Bret Taylor]] and including [[Larry Summers]], and Sutskever, McCauley, and Toner left.[^4][^5]
|
||||
On November 17, 2023, the nonprofit board removed Altman as chief executive, stating that he had not been "consistently candid." The voting directors were Sutskever, [[Adam D'Angelo]], the entrepreneur [[Tasha McCauley]], and [[Helen Toner]] of the Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology; McCauley and Toner had ties to the effective-altruism movement, and the board's concern centered on the pace of AI commercialization relative to safety. Brockman quit in protest, roughly 700 employees threatened to resign, and within 48 hours directors discussed merging OpenAI with [[Anthropic]], a step *Bloomberg* reported Toner had supported and that would have ended OpenAI as an independent entity. Altman was reinstated within days under a reconstituted board chaired by [[Bret Taylor]] and including [[Larry Summers]], and Sutskever, McCauley, and Toner left.[^4][^5]
|
||||
|
||||
The crisis was widely read as a defeat for the effective-altruism and AI-safety wing of the company by the commercial and accelerationist wing aligned with Altman and Microsoft. Sutskever left OpenAI in 2024, and Musk sued the company and Altman the same year, alleging a betrayal of the original nonprofit mission.[^4][^6]
|
||||
|
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@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ location: "France"
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Saint-Gobain Techniques Nouvelles (SGN) is a large French chemical company. It was granted a contract to build a chemical reprocessing plant on the grounds at Marcoule, [[France]]. This plant was a critical element in the making of a nuclear bomb, as it separated weapons-grade plutonium from irradiated uranium fuel.[^1]
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[[Ernst David Bergmann]]'s men were able to contribute to the development of this technology. Israeli scientists were the only foreigners allowed access throughout the secret French nuclear complex at Marcoule, and were said to be able to roam "at will." One reason for this carte blanche was the brilliance of the Israeli scientists and their expertise in computer technology, on which the French would remain dependent for the next decade.[^1]
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[[Ernst David Bergmann]]'s men were able to contribute to the development of this technology. Israeli scientists were the only foreigners allowed access throughout the secret French nuclear complex at Marcoule, and, according to Seymour Hersh, could roam "at will." One reason for this carte blanche was the brilliance of the Israeli scientists and their expertise in computer technology, on which the French would remain dependent for the next decade.[^1]
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### Footnotes
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@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ The Church of the New Revelation was incorporated in Delaware in 1974, listing i
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### Father Bud's Boys Farm
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[[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] in Tennessee was said to have been incorporated under the church, and the church to have been created on paper by Grossman; [[Francis Shelden]] and Starchild were connected to it through the incorporation of the North Fox Island mission.[^1]
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The writer S. Dovey wrote that [[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] in Tennessee was incorporated under the church and that Grossman created the church on paper; [[Francis Shelden]] and Starchild were connected to it through the incorporation of the North Fox Island mission.[^1]
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### Footnotes
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@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ Among those charged were [[Richard C. Jacobs]], millionaire president of the Jet
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### The Sialle Testimony
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The case was said to have broken when film found in a broken-down commercial processing machine in Dallas was traced to Cramer, and [[Robert Lang]] was said to have been a third founder, arrested with the others, and the only principal to avoid prison, after the state Department of Corrections recommended probation for his "minimal involvement" and "high moral character." Halvorsen and Woodall were said to have used their positions as juvenile probation officers to reactivate case files and leverage families. An associate of Woodall, [[Lewis Sialle]], given immunity to testify, said that District Attorney Connick had been the lover of the boy pornographer [[John Reed Campbell]], a fugitive in the case, and that "there was a cover-up"; victims said they had met the troop leaders at Campbell's home after posing for his "Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer" portraits. Sialle testified that Woodall ran an escort service that turned to the boys of the troop: "They'll get $50, a good meal and all that jazz." Halvorsen, Woodall and Cramer were said to have received long prison terms. An [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] memo of February 1977 was said to have confirmed the link to Norman's [[Delta Project]], then run by [[Phillip Paske]]; Vermilye was said to have written to Halvorsen inviting him to the farm; and [[Don Berlage]], a district attorney in Charlevoix County, Michigan, was connected to the case.[^1]
|
||||
The writer S. Dovey wrote that the case broke when film found in a broken-down commercial processing machine in Dallas was traced to Cramer, and that [[Robert Lang]] was a third founder, arrested with the others, and the only principal to avoid prison, after the state Department of Corrections recommended probation for his "minimal involvement" and "high moral character." Dovey wrote that Halvorsen and Woodall used their positions as juvenile probation officers to reactivate case files and leverage families. An associate of Woodall, [[Lewis Sialle]], given immunity to testify, said that District Attorney Connick had been the lover of the boy pornographer [[John Reed Campbell]], a fugitive in the case, and that "there was a cover-up"; victims said they had met the troop leaders at Campbell's home after posing for his "Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer" portraits. Sialle testified that Woodall ran an escort service that turned to the boys of the troop: "They'll get $50, a good meal and all that jazz." According to Dovey, Halvorsen, Woodall and Cramer received long prison terms. Dovey also wrote that an [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] memo of February 1977 confirmed the link to Norman's [[Delta Project]], then run by [[Phillip Paske]], and that Vermilye wrote to Halvorsen inviting him to the farm; and [[Don Berlage]], a district attorney in Charlevoix County, Michigan, was connected to the case.[^1]
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### Footnotes
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@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
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---
|
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aliases:
|
||||
- "The Washington Post"
|
||||
category: "Private Organization"
|
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tags:
|
||||
- Organization
|
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