An attempt to make a right-wing superhero movie has ended in disaster, with China losing $1 million and participants facing federal indictments.
Far-right blogger Theodore Beale, known as “Vox Day,” admitted in a video last week to fans and investors, “I don’t think we can get our money back.”
This isn’t how Beale’s followers thought the investment would turn out when Beale began funding movies based on characters from Confederate-themed superhero comics Beale created in 2019. trailer promotion of the proposed film, rebel runfeatured rebel characters fighting a global police force hunting down free-thinking conservatives.
Frequent Tucker Carlson Collaborator Scooter Downey signed to direct. Beal’s backers quickly surpassed his initial $750,000 fundraising goal, eventually raising more than $1 million for him.
The money was to be held in escrow to secure another million dollars in funding.
of rebel run Collapse is a cautionary tale for conservatives who dream of seeing their ideas made into films, and more and more right-wing media are dabbling in cinema.. Commentator Ben Shapiro’s company runs a streaming website that has conservative-tinged movies like a thriller about a school shooting and a western starring “cancelled” actress Gina Carano. offers.Earlier this year, Breitbart News delivered Hunter Biden biopic. However rebel run Breakdown stands as a cautionary tale to conservatives that the jump to cinema is not a risk-free endeavor.
There was reason for Biel and his fans to think that the dream of moving from comics to film could be realized through sheer fanaticism. His devoted followers call him “the Supreme Dark Lord of the Legion of Evil Evil” and call themselves his “minions”. Beal’s supporters frequently complain about the supposed creeping influence of progressive “social justice warriors” in fields such as his video games and his sci-fi, but there are already a few. has funded several comic books, sparked controversy At the Science Fiction Premiere Awards.
Beer’s history of racism may have made it difficult rebel runstars a character sometimes depicted in a Confederate flag bustier and finds traditional funding. claimed Certain races are more likely to commit violence, and he called black writers, one of the enemies of the sci-fi controversy, “semi-savage barbarians.” Biel has joined the Gamergate movement, opposed women’s suffrage, and once described homosexuality as a “birth defect.”
Given that track record, he turned to Utah-based Ohana Capital Financial instead.
Prosecutors said the company offered a “banking deal,” as Ohana’s promotional materials put it. [to] cannot be deposited in a bank. On Nov. 5, 2020, Biel transferred her $1 million to Ohana to deposit for future film financing.
Ohana was created by self-proclaimed cryptocurrency billionaire James Wolfgram, who posted a photo on social media of a sports car he supposedly owns. But in reality, according to a federal indictment filed last month, Wolfgram’s wealth was bogus. For example, the sports car photo was pulled from another website. Wolfgramm’s business also sold purported high-tech cryptocurrency mining equipment, which prosecutors say were also hoaxes, with screens running in loops to create the illusion of a mine. .
Unbeknownst to Beale and his supporters, the indictment alleges that Wolfgram owed one of his business’s other customers large sums of money. In September 2020, 19 months after the pandemic, we paid Ohana over $4 million as part of a payment to a Chinese personal protective equipment manufacturer. Instead of carrying out his deal, Wolfgram spent millions on unrelated business matters of his own, prosecutors allege.
With seven people currently in the hole and no PPE to show for it, Wolfgramm rebel run Money to buy Chinese medical equipment. Soon after, according to a video released to fans by Biel, the blogger and his collaborators became suspicious and contacted the FBI, launching a Wolfgram investigation.
A lawyer for Wolfgramm did not respond to a request for comment. Mr. Beal declined to comment, citing an ongoing investigation.
Wolfgram is currently facing four wire transfer fraud cases. rebel run Money and other aspects of his business. The film’s investors may one day get some of the money back through the legal system, but Biel has given up on funding his superhero movies.
Biel claims, without evidence, that the alleged scam was carried out to confuse his right-wing fanbase.
“I strongly suspect that all of this was a targeted operation aimed at destroying our community,” Biel said in a video released last week.
Beer isn’t done with the movie yet, though.In a video to his fans, he told them he was working on a script starring his friend, an anti-Semitic ex-comedian. Owen BenjaminIn this new film, Biel will cast Benjamin, who believes the moon landing was faked, as the head of NASA.