Tag: billionaires

House GOP Launches Probe of China-Based Billionaire Over Potential Link to LA Riots

House Republicans on Friday launched an investigation into a China-based billionaire allegedly funding protest groups in the United States, including one reportedly linked to riots against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Los Angeles.

The probe targets Neville Roy Singham, a Chicago-born businessman and self-described socialist. He lives in Shanghai with his wife, Jodie Evans, a prominent social justice activist and co-founder of advocacy group Code Pink.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) said the House Oversight committee will be calling Singham to testify regarding the funding of what she described as “a communist group” tied to both the Los Angeles riots and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

“If he refuses to appear, he will be subpoenaed, and if he ignores that, he will be referred to the DOJ for prosecution,” Luna wrote in a post on social media platform X.

In a letter to Singham, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Luna cited his alleged financial backing of far-left groups linked to recent unrest, including violence in anti-Israel demonstrations and the anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles.

Representatives of Singham could not immediately be reached for comment.

Among the groups named is the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), a Marxist political organization that has fielded presidential candidates since 2008. PSL has been associated with an individual charged in the May 21 killing of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, D.C., and is reportedly a leading organizer of the anti-ICE protests.

PSL is also affiliated with the People’s Forum, a New York City–based nonprofit known for promoting radical leftist activism and hosting Marxist thinkers. In 2021, the People’s Forum described Singham as a “Marxist comrade” who sold his company to fund activist movements, indicating that the forum itself ran on donations from him.

The committee is also looking at Singham’s potential ties to the ANSWER Coalition, a far-left protest group that has organized major demonstrations against U.S. foreign policy and Israel’s military actions in Gaza following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks.

Pointing to the CCP’s known doctrine of strategic subversion, the lawmakers raised concerns that these organizations may be operating to advance Beijing’s interests.

“Under General Secretary Xi [Jinping], the CCP is known for its ‘Strategy of Sowing Discord,’ which refers to efforts to make internal disputes amongst the enemy so deep that they become distracted from conflict,” Comer and Luna wrote in the letter, which was co-signed by 19 other Republican members of the committee.

“If you are, in fact, carrying out this strategy on behalf of the CCP, you may have a FARA registration obligation,” the letter continues, referencing the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires individuals acting on behalf of foreign principals to register with the U.S. Department of Justice and disclose their activities and financial ties.

“In addition, your funding and relationship with the PSL, which has been implicated in the violence and riots in Los Angeles, may violate other federal laws,” they said, before requesting that Singham hand over information that would explain his relationships with PSL, the ANSWER Coalition, and the People’s Forum.

In a separate letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi on the same matter, the committee asked the Justice Department to investigate an allegedly Singham-funded network of 19 activist groups, including Code Pink, for potential violations of FARA.

The investigation builds on concerns raised in December 2024 by then-Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who urged then-Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate whether the purportedly Singham-backed groups were sowing unrest and division on U.S. soil to advance CCP propaganda.

“The U.S. citizen, Neville Roy Singham, has reportedly funded many far-left and pro-Hamas organizations,” according to a press release from the Senate Committee on the Judiciary at the time. “These organizations appear to have a track record of parroting CCP talking points and opposing U.S. interests and, in some instances, receiving funding from CCP entities or working with CCP officials.”

That request, made in the closing days of the Biden administration, was not pursued further.

The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

Keep reading

Peter Thiel’s Palantir Aims Military Grade, Central Intelligence Surveillance Weapons at Americans

In March, President Trump signed an executive order calling for the federal government to share data across various agencies, a move that has not been publicly discussed since but is being implemented with Palantir’s assistance.

This executive order lays the groundwork for Palantir’s involvement, as reported by Raw Story. Palantir’s Gotham software, already used by defense and intelligence agencies, will now profile domestic behavior, detect fraud, and identify risky individuals or patterns.

The Economic Times reported that Palantir is building “the most expansive civilian surveillance infrastructure in U.S. history,” integrating real-time data and AI. As stated in the article:

“Palantir isn’t just improving old databases—it’s building what some experts are calling the most expansive civilian surveillance infrastructure in U.S. history. Instead of scattered files and spreadsheets, the platform will use real-time data integration and artificial intelligence to profile behavior, detect fraud, and identify individuals or patterns deemed risky by the system.” – The Economic Times

This development underscores the scale and potential impact of Palantir’s involvement in domestic surveillance. Raw Story further highlighted the deployment of Palantir’s Foundry platform, noting:

“The push has put a key Palantir product called Foundry into at least four federal agencies, including [the Department of Homeland Security] and the Health and Human Services Department. Widely adopting Foundry, which organizes and analyzes data, paves the way for Mr. Trump to easily merge information from different agencies, the government officials said. Creating detailed portraits of Americans based on government data is not just a pipe dream.” – Raw Story

This expansion into multiple agencies amplifies concerns about privacy and data security. Additionally, the Trump administration seeks access to hundreds of data points, including bank accounts, student debt, medical claims, and disability status.

Keep reading

The PayPal Mafia

Some may have heard of the tech geniuses who compose “The PayPal Mafia.” The mainstream media glamorizes them as “tech visionaries,” a band of rebellious geniuses who disrupted finance and went on to build empires. Yet, beneath the surface of the so-called PayPal Mafia is not innovation for the public good, but the construction of a new form of oligarchy—one more dangerous than the robber barons of the 19th century. Why? Because this new class of elites doesn’t merely build companies. These men influence monetary systems, shape global narratives, and fund policy engineering through unelected channels.

PayPal emerged in the late 1990s during the dot-com bubble, which I had warned would crash by 2000. PayPal became a clever workaround to bypass the traditional banking system, cloaked under the premise of convenience. This so-called “mafia” includes Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman, Max Levchin, David Sacks, Scott Banister, Roelof Botha, Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, Jawed Karim, Premal Shah, Yu Pan, and Yishan Wong, among others who had roots in PayPal. Each went on to build their own tech empire spanning across biotech, social media, space, venture capitalism, and surveillance.

Fortune Magazine ran an article about these men in 2007, and even asked them to dress up as traditional mafia gangsters. These men are the new tech elite who wield immense power and influence. Elon Musk’s deep ties to Donald Trump shone a new light on how deeply the so-called PayPal Mafia has become embedded in politics and geopolitical affairs.

I reported how Peter Thiel provided J.D. Vance a platform to enter politics. Thiel introduced Vance to Silicon Valley and welcomed him into the scene of the tech elite. Theil’s Palantir was recently awarded a massive contract to create the first US federal centralized government database that will house every piece of data on every American citizen. Again, this is happening under the premise of convenience.

Keep reading

Trump says Elon Musk could face ‘serious consequences’ if he backs Democratic candidates

President Donald Trump is not backing off his battle with Elon Musk, saying Saturday that he has no desire to repair their relationship and warning that his former ally and campaign benefactor could face “serious consequences” if he tries to help Democrats in upcoming elections.

Trump told NBC’s Kristen Welker in a phone interview that he has no plans to make up with Musk. Asked specifically if he thought his relationship with the mega-billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX is over, Trump responded, “I would assume so, yeah.”

“I’m too busy doing other things,” Trump continued. “You know, I won an election in a landslide. I gave him a lot of breaks, long before this happened, I gave him breaks in my first administration, and saved his life in my first administration, I have no intention of speaking to him.”

The president also issued a warning amid chatter that Musk could back Democratic lawmakers and candidates in the 2026 midterm elections.

“If he does, he’ll have to pay the consequences for that,” Trump told NBC, though he declined to share what those consequences would be. Musk’s businesses have many lucrative federal contracts.

The president’s latest comments suggest Musk is moving from close ally to a potential new target for Trump, who has aggressively wielded the powers of his office to crack down on critics and punish perceived enemies. As a major government contractor, Musk’s businesses could be particularly vulnerable to retribution. Trump has already threatened to cut Musk’s contracts, calling it an easy way to save money.

The dramatic rupture between the president and the world’s richest man began this week with Musk’s public criticism of Trump’s “big beautiful bill” pending on Capitol Hill. Musk has warned that the bill will increase the federal deficit and called it a “disgusting abomination.”

Keep reading

US billionaire dubbed ‘the most powerful man on Wall Street’ denies neighbours’ claims he’s plundering Wiltshire’s underground water to fill his nine-million-gallon lake

A US billionaire’s dream of creating a grand English country estate in the tradition of 18th Century landscape designer Capability Brown is facing a backlash from neighbours convinced he is tapping into their water supply.

American financier Stephen Schwarzman bought the magnificent Conholt Park in Wiltshire – described as one of the finest shooting estates in southern England – for £82million three years ago. 

He has funnelled millions of pounds into transforming the 2,100-acre estate’s parkland by building a huge lake that will hold more than nine million gallons of water.

But The Mail on Sunday can reveal that Mr Schwarzman, dubbed the most powerful man on Wall Street, is under fire from neighbours who believe he is using a borehole to extract groundwater to fill the lake. 

This, they allege, could lead to water shortages at their own properties because they rely on a shared aquifer.

There is also anger at plans to ‘enhance’ the estate’s pheasant shoots, with local sources claiming Mr Schwarzman is preparing for up to 500 birds to be shot a day.

‘I don’t like what he is doing,’ one local shooting enthusiast told the MoS. ‘That’s not sport.’

Last night a spokesman for Mr Schwarzman, 78, the boss of Blackstone, one of the world’s largest private-equity funds, denied the lake is being filled by a borehole and said the estate was instead using a ‘highly sophisticated water collection system’ that carries rainfall into the lake.

Keep reading

Gory details of Elon Musk’s ‘rugby tackle’ of Scott Bessent spill out as White House leaks escalate

New details surrounding a White House brawl between Elon Musk and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have spilled out into the open – with one insider saying the Tesla CEO rammed his shoulder into Bessent’s ribcage ‘like a rugby player.’

The Daily Mail was the first to report on the heated confrontation between Bessent and Musk, who’s since been iced out of Donald Trump‘s inner circle after their public blow-up this week.

Former Chief Strategist Steve Bannon revealed that there was more to the mid-April tussle, insisting that both men ended up landing blows.

They lost their patience with one another following a tense meeting in the Oval Office in which Trump snubbed Musk and instead took Bessent’s advice on whom to name as acting IRS Commissioner, Bannon said.

When Bessent and Musk exited the Oval Office, they began hurling insults at one another in the hallway. But it was Bessent who struck Musk where it hurts.

According to Bannon, Bessent dared to say that the billionaire’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was a failure, since Musk didn’t root out the $1 trillion in wasteful and fraudulent federal spending he promised he would.

‘Scott said, “You’re a fraud. You’re a total fraud,”‘ Bannon said. 

That’s when Musk body-checked Bessent, who hit the world’s richest man right back, according to Bannon.

Keep reading

Andrew Yang reaches out to Musk to collaborate on new political party

Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang said he’s reached out to Elon Musk in hopes of collaborating on the creation of a new political party, according to a Saturday interview with Politico Magazine.

Yang, along with mutual friends, believes the Tesla CEO has what it takes to form a new faction that propels America’s strongest leaders.

When asked if Musk has responded to his inquiry, Yang told the outlet “Not yet, but I assume he’s been very busy.”

“We have been of the opinion that America needed a new political party for a number of years, and so waiting another 24 hours is nothing,” he added. 

Musk’s push for a new political caucus emerged from his public feud with President Trump over the “big, beautiful bill.” The tech giant strongly opposed the national debt increase after months of working with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut federal spending. 

Yang, the founder of “The Forward Party,” said it’s political outsiders like Musk who consider non-traditional approaches to the country’s problems. 

“I want to work with people that recognize that America’s political system has gone from dysfunctional to polarizing to even worse. And at this point, the fastest growing political movement in the United States is independents,” Yang said.

“They feel like neither party represents them, and the two-party system is not delivering what they want to see,” he continued.

Many people have recently left the Democratic party, including former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who announced she became an independent after seeing political polarization throughout the campaign trail. 

Keep reading

Musk Deletes X Post Accusing Trump of Epstein Ties, Deletes Another Calling for Impeachment

The internet lit up this week after Elon Musk ignited a firestorm by going after President Donald Trump—and then quickly backed down.

What started as a disagreement over Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” (OBBB)—a sweeping tax and trade reform plan aimed at supercharging American manufacturing, reducing the deficit, and cutting off the globalist money faucet—turned into something far darker.

The feud escalated when Musk, in a now-deleted post on X (formerly Twitter), accused Trump of being involved in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

Musk wrote on X, “Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”

He continued, “Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.”

Musk even shared a decades-old video of President Trump speaking briefly with Epstein at a Mar-a-Lago party in 1992—footage that has circulated for years and proves absolutely nothing.

Musk calmed down Thursday night after going off on Trump in several nasty posts on X. Responding to a poster with (at the time) 184 followers who pleaded with Musk to “cool off” in response to Musk posting as part of his fight with Trump he would decommission the Dragon space capsule relied on by NASA to shuttle astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station, Musk said, “Good advice. Ok, we won’t decommission Dragon.”

A few minutes later Musk responded positively to a plea for peace by Bill Ackman who posted, “I support @realDonaldTrump and @elonmusk and they should make peace for the benefit of our great country. We are much stronger together than apart.”

Just as suddenly as the posts appeared, they vanished. By early Saturday morning, Musk’s tweet had been deleted.

Keep reading

Reports: Secretary Bessent and Musk came to blows behind closed doors

Former Trump strategist and War Room host Steve Bannon claimed this week that tech billionaire Elon Musk and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent literally came to blows inside the White House over a heated disagreement regarding the future leadership of the IRS.

According to Bannon, the clash erupted just moments after both men exited the Oval Office in April following a tense meeting with President Trump about who should lead the IRS.

The dispute centered on Acting IRS Commissioner Gary Shapley—a key whistleblower in the Hunter Biden tax fraud cover-up—who had reportedly been installed at Musk’s request, bypassing Bessent’s approval entirely.

Gary Shapley, the whistleblower who came forward and exposed the political interference in the Hunter Biden tax fraud investigation, was named interim IRS Commissioner after Melanie Krause resigned.

Krause stepped down amid controversy over a data-sharing agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The New York Times reported that Bessent approached Trump and told him Shapley was put in his position at the IRS without his knowledge.

Keep reading

Trump Said Musk “Has Lost His Mind” — “Not Particularly” Interested in Speaking with Him After Musk Calls for Impeachment, Steals Credit for Election, Accuses Trump of Being a Pedophile

President Trump described Elon Musk as a “man who has lost his mind” amid a feud between the two, where the world’s richest man began an unhinged warpath against the world’s most powerful man. 

Musk went off the rails during a spat with the President over the One Big Beautiful Bill, which Musk says does not cut enough of the deficit, and Trump says is necessary to fulfill his campaign promises, such as tax cuts, border security, end Biden-era regulations and the war on energy, and bring back American-made products.

The White House also argues that the cuts to mandatory spending in the budget reconciliation “delivers the largest deficit reduction in nearly 30 years.”

As The Gateway Pundit reported, President Trump responded in the Oval Office on Thursday to Elon’s recent criticism that “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.” The President said he was “disappointed” in Elon and that he doesn’t know if they will continue to have a “great relationship” anymore.

This led to an insane reaction from Musk, who began relentlessly attacking Trump, claiming he could not have won the 2024 election without Musk’s support, and even calling for his impeachment!

Keep reading