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What Did Utah AG Sean Reyes Know And When Did He Know It?*
Dominating the local news in Utah since Senator Mitt Romney announced he won’t seek reelection is Tim Ballard, founder of anti-human sex trafficking Operation Underground Railroad (“O.U.R.”). O.U.R. is an organization that raised tens of millions in donations ($42 million in 2021 alone) on its self-credited and -promoted successes and promised use of funds in rescuing children from the horrors of sex trafficking — and the wildly successful movie Sound of Freedom which purports to be based — in some unquantified measure — on Ballard’s true story.
I live in Utah, a red state filled with Mormons and conspiracy theorists. Utah has the well-earned reputation as the highest state per capita for financial predation, including affinity fraud. Affinity fraud is where scam artists who are or pretend to be members of an identifiable group leverage and exploit the inherent trust of other members of the group. Religion is the mutual affiliation most exploited by financial predators in Utah, and certain characteristics of the predominant religion, such as patriarchy, kinship ties, insider status, connections with leadership, and hierarchy, simply heighten people’s trust — or even lead them to believe the pitch advanced by the person who seeks to separate them from their money is ordained of god.