Tim Ballard

Fox 13 Salt Lake Metropolis on Instagram

Whereas Tim Ballard was championing his non-profit Operation Underground Railroad for its achievements and progress in combating youngster intercourse-trafficking, he was allegedly sexually abusing women and making them prove how far they had been “keen to go” in the name of the cause.

A new record by using Anna Merlan and Tim Marchman of VICE News outlines the investigation, which passed off now not lengthy prior to Ballard resigned from O.U.R. in June. In keeping with the article, seven girls made claims of sexual misconduct with the aid of Ballard, including him convincing girls working with him on behalf of O.U.R. to pose as his wife. However that act would lengthen into personal situations and include “sharing a mattress or showering collectively, claiming that it used to be vital to idiot traffickers,” according to Merlan and Marchman. He additionally despatched as a minimum one girl “a photograph of himself in his underwear, festooned with pretend tattoos, and to have asked another ‘how a long way she was once prepared to head,’ within the words of a source, to save lots of children.”

O.U.R. supplied a remark in regards to the investigation to VICE:

Tim Ballard resigned from O.U.R. on June 22, 2023. He has completely separated from O.U.R.

O.U.R. is devoted to combatting sexual abuse, and does not tolerate sexual harassment or discrimination through anyone in its group.

O.U.R. retained an independent regulation agency to conduct a comprehensive investigation of all relevant allegations, and O.U.R. continues to assess and toughen the governance of the group and protocols for its operations.

To preserve the integrity of its investigation and to offer protection to the privacy of all individuals concerned, O.U.R. is not going to make from now on public remark presently.

O.U.R. is confident in its future as the major organization committed to combatting sex trafficking and saving children who’ve been captured and sold into slavery.

Ballard was more of a identified quantity after the release of the movie Sound of Freedom, a dramatization of his mission wherein he was once played through actor Jim Caviezel. Critics of the film have argued that Ballard’s claims about his accomplishments were “dramatically overstated or without clear documentary proof.”

Local press in Salt Lake City, Utah has been covering Ballard and his dubious record as well as what resulted in his exit from his personal organization, and Fox 13 in Salt Lake City posted a video on their Instagram account of Ballard strolling out of an interview when he used to be questioned about “an investigation into his group”:

 

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Ballard is going through other accusations of dishonesty; he additionally seemingly fabricated a relationship with an elder within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, President M. Russell Ballard, which earned him a rebuke from the Church that known as his habits “morally unacceptable.” Ballard spoke to a small crowd that used to be caught on camera denying that the rebuke from the church by no means took place.

He’s additionally it appears mulling a run for U.S. Senate to replace outgoing Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), however there’s quite a lot of room in Congress for folks with a reality drawback.

The publish Self-Proclaimed Intercourse-Trafficking Champion Resigned From Personal Org Over Sexual Misconduct Allegations: Document first regarded on Mediaite.