For additional articles covering OUR, please go to ACJ Investigates- Derailed: Operation Underground Railroad

Exclusive Press Release from the victim’s attorneys Alan Mortensen and Suzette Rasmussen

The seven women who have come forward as survivors of Tim Ballard’s sexual assaults and trafficking within Operation Underground Railroad (OUR) are speaking out in response to OUR’s recent announcement to move its operations to Minneapolis, along with its new branding as “OUR Rescue.”

This rebranding and relocation come at a time when, after nearly a decade in Utah, the organization faces deep scrutiny and is likely reacting to the upcoming installation of a new Utah Attorney General. Survivors believe this decision to “get out of Utah” is a clear attempt by OUR to evade accountability for its systemic corruption and abuse.

Over the years, OUR has raised hundreds of millions of dollars from Utah citizens who believed they were contributing to legitimate anti-trafficking work. Instead, that money has largely gone to cover up deeply troubling operations in countries like Haiti, where allegations of forced rape and abortions of 13-year-old girls, funded by OUR, have surfaced.

Additionally, OUR’s operations have included staging events where adolescent students are paid to attend a party and then presented as “rescued” sex slaves, misleading donors while endangering these youth.

In Utah, women have been assaulted and trafficked under the guise of OUR’s fabricated “COUPLES RUSE,” creating widespread harm to women and children.

Adding to this pattern of abuse, survivors allege that OUR has laundered money through the MS Williams account, a Wyoming LLC, funneling donations into cash to fund encounters with high-end commercial sex workers in foreign countries and the United States. Using “practice ruses,” Ballard would purchase professional sex workers for his own pleasure. By using this account, OUR leadership has hidden their actions, which not only exploit these funds but also go directly against the mission of protecting and supporting the vulnerable. Instead, OUR’s leadership has engaged in the very behavior they claim to combat, creating a facade of virtue while indulging in harmful, exploitative practices.

“We are glad to see OUR leave Utah. OUR’s brand of deception and harm has no place here—or anywhere,” the survivors’ attorneys stated. “Their move and rebranding are simply ways to hide from the truth that will soon catch up with them. The people of Utah deserve better than an organization that covers up rapes, abortions, kidnappings, and child endangerment, all while raking in millions in donations and claiming blessings from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. With a new Utah Attorney General taking office, the threat of OUR being investigated or taken over by the state of Utah is very real, and this move to Minneapolis seems like an obvious escape tactic.”

Minnesota now faces a dubious addition to its legacy of inherited “Utah’s rejects”—from Seth Jeffs of the
Fundamentalist version of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, —and now, OUR Rescue, which was likewise started by funding from the Church. It is a move the survivors hope will be met with a heightened level of skepticism and accountability from Minnesota’s citizens and leaders.

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