Marketed as a God-guided rescue of trafficked women in Haiti, O.U.R.’s Giving Tuesday documentary became a powerful fundraising tool. This investigation examines the claims, the evidence, and the story presented to donors.
Utah-based Operation Underground Railroad (OUR)—a nonprofit focused on rescuing child sex slaves worldwide—shifted gears almost two and a half years ago, and executed a purported rescue of ten adult, Venezuelan sex slaves from a brothel in Haiti. On November 29 this year (2022) OUR streamed an hour-and-a-half long YouTube documentary on a raid that OUR president Tim Ballard claims was guided by God.
The video was part of a “Giving Tuesday” fundraiser.
This report fact-checks Ballard’s contention that the sex workers had all been drugged, kidnapped, smuggled into Haiti and forced into prostitution. Then raped five to ten times a day. Then, after being freed, were taken to the White House to meet President Donald Trump.
The women, mostly mothers who left their families behind in Venezuela, were supposedly held against their will in a jail cell and locked up each night with a padlock—a shackle that became a big part of OUR’s rescue story. A story that turns out to be pure propaganda.
Editor’s Note: Lynn Packer is an award-winning investigative reporter, legal consultant and author of “Lying for the Lord: The Paul H. Dunn Stories“. Lynn graduated from Utah State University with a degree in broadcast journalism. He served in the United States Army from ’68 through ’70 in Vietnam, as a television news anchor and producer for the Armed Forces Vietnam Network (AFVN) Quang Tri detachment. Lynn was awarded the Bronze Star. For 15 years Mr. Packer reported for KSL Television News in Salt Lake City. For ten years Lynn was an adjunct professor teaching journalism at Brigham Young University and the University of Dortmund.
Resources & Further Reading
Human Trafficking Statistics Explained – American Crime Journal |
O.U.R. & the LDS Church’s Promotional Movies – American Crime Journal |
“Sound of Freedom” and the $175 Million “Pay It Forward” Machine – American Crime Journal |
“Sound of Freedom” (2023) Funded by Medicare Fraud? – American Crime Journal |
Discover more from American Crime Journal |
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