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Plaintiff says these audio recordings prove OUR lied about 'sex slaves' to raise money

Suzanne Whitehead dropped her lawsuit against Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, but she is still suing Tim Ballard and Operation Underground Railroad
Posted at 9:56 PM, Feb 13, 2024
and last updated 2024-02-14 13:35:01-05

KATHMANDU, Nepal — Suzanne Whitehead is one of the nine plaintiffs who have filed lawsuits against Tim Ballard and the nonprofit he founded, Operation Underground Railroad.

She says she has proof — audio recordings — showing OUR lied to the public about saving children.

Her civil suit was the fourth case to be filed against Ballard and OUR. It is the only case not focused on Ballard's alleged sexual misconduct, instead accusing OUR and its representatives of trying to silence her when she voiced concerns about the organization on social media.

Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes was also named as a defendant, but Whitehead agreed to drop the case against him after Reyes met with her to personally apologize and promise to not seek re-election.

Whitehead said Reyes has still not earned her trust. She plans to refile against him if new evidence comes to light.

Whitehead has been working with human trafficking victims, on and off, for 14 years.

She has long been critical of the way OUR conducted expensive "missions" to rescue children, often flashing large sums of money in impoverished countries to buy "sex slaves."

She believes those tactics instead created an additional demand for victims of human trafficking.

"You can show up on your million-dollar jet, and then go ask around at a bar and say, 'Hey, I want a bunch of 12-year-old girls,'" Whitehead said. "But if those guys think that they're going to get a ton of money from you? They're going to find you some 12-year-old girls, whether they've been trafficked or not... There's not one right or wrong way to do anti-trafficking work, but it's never rooted in: 'Look at me, I'm the hero!'"

According to OUR's website: "On average, one operation can cost between $50,000 and $75,000, and your support helps make this important work possible."

"Our partners in India would do rescues for like $500," Whitehead said.

For these reasons, Whitehead said she was always skeptical of Ballard's operations and fundraising tactics, often soliciting millions of dollars from people in Utah.

In 2016, Whitehead was working with a victims shelter in Nepal. One day, she said someone forwarded her an email from OUR trying to raise money with the story of a young girl at the shelter she partnered with.

According to the shelter, the girl was never trafficked and never rescued. She had nothing to do with OUR.

Whitehead also said OUR used the girl's name without permission, further victimizing her.

"I care a lot about making sure that everything I do is honest," Whitehead said. "My name was tied to things that weren't true. I love this girl that they had just lied about... It was her name, and parts of her story, but then it had been 'sexed up' with all this extra stuff. It was just so bizarre."

The fundraising post, labeled "OUR STORIES," stated the girl was "sexually abused" and "sold to various male family members and friends from the age of 9-15, was a captive forced to dance at (a) dance bar."

"It is not the type of dance that often comes to mind for many people," the article reads. "She was then relocated to a local shelter that empowers young women and minors who have been sold as sex slaves on their journey of healing."

Immediately, Whitehead said the fundraising post raised red flags.

Whitehead confronted OUR team members on September 3, 2016 in Nepal and started recording the conversation. The audio is now attached to the lawsuit against Ballard and OUR.

"You know you're lying. Why are you doing this to these people?" Whitehead recounted.

"So they admitted it?" asked FOX 13 News investigative reporter Adam Herbets.

"Yeah," Whitehead responded.

The conversation primarily took place with an OUR team member named "Damian" who apologized for OUR's false portrayal of the story.

Given his undercover line of work, FOX 13 News is only identifying Damian by his first name.

The 2016 conversation lasted nearly two hours. The recording shows he mostly agreed with Whitehead.

"They haven't listened to us," Damian said. "The people that are writing these stories? I don't read them because I get frustrated."

"She wasn't sold to family members," Whitehead said. "She wasn't trafficked at all."

"Yeah, she wasn't," Damian responded. "I know that."

"I'm a sex trafficking organization. I'm fighting sex trafficking, but here's a girl that wasn't trafficked, wasn't even saved by us, but this is the story I have for you?" Whitehead said.

"I'm really sorry with all my heart," Damian said. "I'm really, really sorry... I'm absolutely devastated. I’m heartbroken about that. I really, genuinely, am."

"Tim (Ballard) has to know this is going on. He's your director. He's in charge," Whitehead said. "I know he knows that he's lying, and I know he knows that he's making it seem you guys are rescuing people you're not."

"I just sent Tim (Ballard) an email saying, 'Get this story down right now, and you seriously inhibited us working further in Nepal,'" Damian said. "When they say $50,000 (for a rescue), that annoys the shit out of me. We can work on a monthly budget of $3,000."

"I just think it's weird. If you've helped so many people, why can't you use someone’s story that you've actually helped?" Whitehead asked.

"Half of them aren’t even victims," Damian said. "Half of those girls are just... they're a victim of the economy, and they're trying to make a living."

A spokesperson for OUR stated the 2016 conversation "may have (been) recorded illegally."

OUR stated the fundraising message never claimed the organization rescued the girl, but it "contained errors" and "violated our policies," which is why the nonprofit promptly sent a "letter of apology."

OUR also said it has "evolved." Ballard has "permanently separated" from the nonprofit, and OUR recently launched an "audit" to identify mistakes and prevent them from happening again.

The 2016 recording shows Damian expressed that he was so upset with the nonprofit's fundraising that he repeatedly threatened to quit.

"I can sit here and give you my grievances about OUR all day long," Damian said. "I was quite open about it with OUR when I said I'm embarrassed to go back. We've been to Nepal three times now. We haven't done anything!"

OUR published a new video about Damian in 2023, touting his accomplishments; "It’s been eight years now, and I have no intention of walking away."

The recording shows Whitehead and the OUR team members also discussed a "mission" labeled "Operation Mount Everest."

Approximately four months prior to the recorded conversation, an OUR social media post stated the operation resulted in "8 SURVIVORS RESCUED" and "1 TRAFFICKERS ARRESTED."

"We have no idea where the girls are. We have no idea," Damian said, recounting the mission. "Unfortunately we were required elsewhere. I'll be honest. I was quite embarrassed about it. We did the raid, and then we left the next day."

The conversation prompted Whitehead to criticize OUR on social media. For example, she responded to an OUR social media post disputing a claim by Ballard that he knew the location of every victim rescued by OUR.

According to her court filings, OUR began intimidating Whitehead in 2020 — first with threats of a lawsuit, then with phone calls from a high-level OUR supporter.

The supporter has not been named as a defendant in the lawsuit and has not responded to FOX 13 News' requests for comment

"OUR would be forced to highlight (Whitehead) and her organization in their new documentary as villains against the cause and explain to the world that (Whitehead) had evil motives and hated children," the complaint alleges.

Whitehead said Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes started placing calls shortly thereafter, often using similar language as the OUR supporter.

According to the lawsuit, Reyes' intimidation was not as explicit, stating Whitehead should "work together" with OUR.

Reyes also referenced his connections to the Trump White House. Whitehead thought Reyes' influence could affect her husband's pending immigration case from Syria.

"Who do you report it to if the attorney general is in the middle of it?!" Whitehead said. "That's it. There's no one else. I don't even have anyone I can go to. There's no one else to go to."

Reyes issued a public condemnation of Ballard in December and promised to not seek re-election.

Around that time, Whitehead met with Reyes and agreed to drop him as a defendant.

"We didn't settle. There was no exchange. He didn't give me money to be quiet," Whitehead said. "There was nothing that happened. It was just a conversation."

"Do you think he's ashamed about his 'past friendship' with Tim Ballard?" asked FOX 13 News investigative reporter Adam Herbets.

"I don't think politicians like to say when they're ashamed," Whitehead said. "I think he should be ashamed... I would be embarrassed."

"Did he seem embarrassed?" Herbets asked.

"He seemed regretful," Whitehead responded. "A lot of the stuff he said, I felt for him, because if he really is being duped like everybody else? That sucks."

OUR said it was trying to "amicably" resolve a dispute with Whitehead, which is not grounds for a lawsuit. The organization has filed a motion to dismiss.

The nonprofit also argued Reyes was not under OUR's control or authorized to act on the organization's behalf.

Reyes' own campaign documents show he was a member of the OUR advisory board.

He also fundraised for OUR and went on "missions" with Ballard, appearing in OUR films.

"I've sat on maybe over a dozen nonprofit boards during my career, and I know that there's a lot of corruption, there's a lot of fraud, there's a lot of ego in the nonprofit world," Reyes once said at a fundraiser in 2015. "I looked long and hard at OUR, and I could find nothing wrong."

Whitehead said Reyes told her that he "didn't realize how they were using his name."

She plans to refile the lawsuit against Reyes if she finds evidence that he was more involved than he says.

Reyes' attorney sent a statement to FOX 13 News, indicating Reyes supports Whitehead's efforts to combat human trafficking. He said the evidence will continue to show Reyes never engaged in threats or improper conduct.

"It takes a lot more than one meeting for me to trust anyone, but I like giving people the benefit of the doubt," Whitehead said. "If I’m electing somebody to a position that’s supposed to oversee a bunch of things that they don’t know anything about? That is not a smart move."

This civil suit is not the first time Whitehead has raised official concerns about OUR. She was also a witness in a criminal fraud investigation in 2020, but she said the does not know the status of that case. At least a portion of the investigation concluded without the filing of charges.

An attorney for Ballard sent an email to FOX 13 News, stating evidence will show Ballard's correspondence with Whitehead in 2016 proves he was focused on improving OUR's work toward the common goal of saving children from human trafficking.

"She has turned her disagreements about how best to achieve those goals into a demand for compensation for 'loss of self-esteem' which is actually taking resources away from protecting children from trafficking."

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