In this post I will lay bare the financial relationship of Clark Baker/OMSJ (Office of Medical & Scientific Justice) to billionaire Robert D Leppo. I will also definitively prove the hypocrisy of Clark Baker because of this relationship and the possibly inappropriate ways these two men may have conspired. (Emphasis because I don’t want to get sued.) Lastly I will show that the leaders of ReThinking AIDS (RA) including Celia Farber, David Crowe, Elizabeth Ely, Henry Bauer, David Rasnick, Terry Michael, Christine Johnson and others were well aware of this relationship when they lied to the members of RA about the reason why OMSJ had gone out of business. They used this lie in an attempt to fraudulently obtain donations from members of RA and OMSJ sympathizers.
Clark Baker and other AIDS denialists have long claimed that anyone supporting the traditional science of HIV is being paid off by Big Pharma. Back in 2008 Clark Baker coined the term “Pharma-Slut” and in 2009 Baker wrote a lengthy post dedicated to explaining the term:
“Any individual or organization that directly OR indirectly; a) receives funding from pharmaceutical companies AND; b) uses medical or scientific diplomas, political influence, governmental or academic positions, to c) promote the marketing, sales, distribution or delivery of drugs to d) clinicians, physicians or patients.”
In the eight years since Mr. Baker started slinging that classy term around, he has accused many people, including myself, of being in the pocket of Big Pharma. The one thing Mr. Baker has never been able to produce, however, is proof to support this offensive claim. You can find many examples of Mr. Baker using the term Pharma Slut on his OMSJ website. This post provides one example that is so hyperbolic it defies reason:
“Seth Kalichman PhD received $17 million to blog for AIDS Inc.”
However, slinging unsupported ad-hominems about financial pay-offs against his perceived enemies is not Baker’s only strategy to deflect people from looking into his own finances. Mr. Baker also had this to say in defense of his fellow denialists:
“I must defend the good names of AIDS dissidents. We are not bad people, who in some sinister (if unspecified) way are profiting from the stands we have taken. This is the opposite of the truth. Believe me, there are no financial rewards for attacking the AIDS cash cow.” (emphasis mine)
And in the comment section of this Nature.com article Baker uses a different strategy of deflection:
“Yes Mr. Jefferys, OMSJ’s 990 proves that OMSJ doesn’t accept pharmaceutical funding like Treatment Action Group – you got me there.”
And it has been a pretty good strategy, too. You can peruse OMSJ’s 990 Tax Returns for 2012 yourself. You will only find the very basic information. Nowhere does Baker disclose where his funds come from nor does he give specific breakdowns of how the money is spent. You will never see the name of OMSJ’s billionaire benefactor, Robert Leppo. All of Baker’s tax forms are the antithesis of transparency. Of course that is precisely why Mr. Baker chose to make OMSJ a 501(c)3; This designation has the most relaxed regulations and requirements.
Unfortunately, Baker’s strategy has come to a tragic end. Because Mr. Baker is a coward who refuses to accept responsibility for his actions, he made the huge mistake of filing bankruptcy in his lawsuit with Dr. Murtagh. Now I have the Bank of America account statements for OMSJ as well as Clark Baker’s personal statements for June 2011 through June 2015. In those 4 years, Robert D. Leppo wire transferred $1,321,500.00 into the account of OMSJ. Other deposits of unknown origins in that same time period amount to $169,017.74, for a 4 year Grand Total of: $1,490,517.74 Because of on-going legal issues I will not link to the bank statements at this time. However, at the end of this post I have supplied the dates, amounts and mode of deposit for each transaction.
Robert D. Leppo has financially supported AIDS Denialist causes for many years. In 1999 Celia Farber wrote:
“The blitz was masterminded by Deane Collie, the executive director of the International Coalition for Medical Justice (ICMJ), and made possible by San Francisco venture capitalist Bob Leppo, who is emerging as a reluctant hero of the underground and who has contributed more than $1 million to the dissident cause.
It was Leppo who saved Duesberg from utter dissolution after the National Institutes of Health severed his federal funding as punishment for advancing a scientific hypothesis that differed from that of the establishment. Leppo’s funding enabled Duesberg to continue to function as a scientist and also gave a much-needed shot in the arm to both ICMJ and the Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV-AIDS Hypothesis.
I love Bob Leppo. In fact, in moments like this I even love capitalism. Leppo and Collie managed to meet with several members of Congress to discuss the HIV issue and plant seeds of discourse.”
In 2000 Robert Leppo purchased a building for AIDS Denialist break-off group, ACT UP San Francisco:
“Their radical pretense is undermined by the fact that conservative Republican venture capitalist, Robert Leppo, underworte the purchase of their building.”
In 2004 Robert Leppo funded the AIDS Denialist documentary The Other Side of AIDS:
“The executive producer of The Other Side of AIDS was Robert Leppo, a venture capitalist who has also funded the activities of well-known AIDS denialist Peter Duesberg.”
SNOUT reported that in 2006 Robert Leppo was actually on the RA Board of Directors via their minutes of June 11, supplied by Anthony Brink:
“Bob Leppo (the principal financier of RA) moved that RA board authorities authorize the RA foundation to make grants for a wider range of purposes, including films and video. Seconded by Charles Geschekter…
“Robert Giraldo moved that the RA foundation make grants for Brent Leung’s film based on available funds (Leppo’s money). Seconded by Christine Maggiore. Unanimous agreement…”
This background on Leppo is important for several reasons, most importantly because of his association with Clark Baker and Baker’s extensive history of criminal behavior as alleged in Dr. Murtagh’s lawsuit against Baker. These well substantiated allegations include, but are not limited to:
- Making and maintaining defamatory websites about Dr. Murtagh.
- Spoofing Dr. Murtagh’s email with fake accounts, including one purported to be me.
- Pinging Dr. Murtagh’s cell phone.
- Stalking Dr. Murtagh’s girlfriend in Atlanta.
- Serving fraudulent subpoenas.
Clark Baker maintained a pervasive and consistent attack against Dr. Murtagh in a successful attempt to get Dr. Murtagh fired from jobs and keep him from obtaining future employment. Baker filed bankruptcy because he was about to lose a $1.4 Million Dollar judgement to Dr. Murtagh for Baker’s 10 year sustained harassment of Dr. Murtagh. It would be a stretch of the most fervent imagination to believe that Robert Leppo had no knowledge of this sustained attack on Dr. Murtagh by a man to whom he was making monthly wire transfers that some months amounted to over one hundred thousand dollars! Not only should Robert Leppo have known how his money was being spent just due to the large amount of money he was donating, but also because of his extensive history of dealing with all sorts of other AIDS Denialists and AIDS Denialist causes and organizations.
As I have reported before, this bankruptcy by Mr. Baker is not legitimate. I always thought it was odd that Leppo would abandon his little puppet. Hell, the $1.4 million judgment due to Dr. Murtagh is nothing to Leppo; he has already forked over much, much more than that in his time funding the AIDS Denial machine. And now it seems that Leppo is secretly funding Baker again. Baker is no longer represented by the court appointed bankruptcy attorney: He now has a very high priced attorney named Baruch Cohen. I know that Baker can not afford such an attorney. The other financials Baker had to disclose to the bankruptcy court show that Baker has had no income since retiring from the LAPD and the retirement pension from the LAPD that Baker has previously described as “generous” is only $3,100.00 per month. That amount leads me to wonder if Baker was being deceptive out of embarrassment or if he meant that it was generous of the LAPD to give him any pension at all after his bad behavior as a cop.
Also, Baker’s Co-Habitation Agreement is dubious as well. Baker entered into this contract with the female millionaire whom he lives with, but will not marry, in 2008; the same time he formed OMSJ and 6 years after they began their relationship. In his profile at his now defunct blog Ex Liberal In Hollywood, Baker wrote that he entered into this agreement to legally protect his meal ticket significant other. Baker wrote that he learned this lesson when he was sued for Police Brutality and fired from the LAPD. (Baker regained his employment upon appeal.)
But the timing is incredibly suspicious; as I wrote above, this agreement came 6 years after the relationship began but very quickly after Baker formed OMSJ. It’s almost as if Baker planned all the alleged criminal behavior he engaged in via OMSJ from the start. Or perhaps Baker conspired with another person or people to whom he was beholden financially to engage in his bully-behavior.
Whatever the circumstances, it is obvious that a middle-aged man with no education, no significant accomplishments and no marketable skills would need to hitch his wagon to people with assets if he wanted a comfortable future.
The other leaders of the AIDS Denialist movement, Rethinking AIDS, are also culpable in this OMSJ scam. Celia Farber first laid the false ground work in February 2015:
OMSJ is under heavy heavy fire, meanwhile, from pharma-funded lawsuits and harassment.
They are trying to crush Clark. He can crush right back if he has the money. He needs lawyers to fight back against a barrage of bogus lawsuits.
By July all hands were on-deck perpetuating a rumor they knew to be completely false. The perpetuation of this lie lead to two separate money begs for OMSJ, although one was disguised as being for the defense of David Gutierrez.
Although both requests were unsuccessful, they still amounted to fraud because the requests were made with deception and withholding of information. Why would Clark Baker need money when he has his own, personal billionaire funding his bad behavior and paying for his attorneys? Not to mention the fact that the lawsuits Baker faced were being presented to the public in a less than truthful manner and had nothing to do with a coordinated attack by Big Pharma:
- The lawsuit against me was initiated by Baker himself.
- The lawsuit with Dr. Murtagh was about Baker’s alleged criminal activity and defamation against Dr. Murtagh and had nothing to do with HIV or Pharma.
Lastly, it is extremely hypocritical for Baker to have accused his enemies of being financially beholden to Big Pharma without one iota of proof, while Baker himself was completely on the dole doing a billionaires’ bidding. In future posts I will show how much of the money Baker received from Mr. Leppo was spent in dubious ways; limousines, airlines, fancy dinners and fancy hotels just to name a few. None of which is how a true 501(c)3 Charity should be spending money.
And for Baker to say that AIDS dissidents are not “profiting from the stands we have taken” and “there are no financial rewards for attacking the AIDS cash cow” was always dubious at best. Many denialists have profited from AIDS and Big Pharma including, but not limited to: David Rasnick, Matthias Rath, David Steele, Rodney Richards, Anthony Liversidge and Nancy Turner Banks, as well as Robert Leppo, himself. But now that I have hard proof of this as presented in this post, the argument that AIDS Dissidents are just well meaning people, fighting the good fight, is destroyed. You’re Welcome!
Wire Transfers from Robert D. Leppo to OMSJ June 2011 through June 2015
6.23.11 $9,500.00
7.26.11 $9,500.00
9.01.11 $9,500.00
9.21.11 $9,500.00
10.26.11 $9,500.00
11.23.11 $9,500.00
12.19.11 $9,500.00
1.30.12 $9,500.00
2.29.12 $9,500.00
3.30.12 $9,500.00
4.24.12 $9,500.00
5.14.12 $5,000.00
5.24.12 $9,500.00
6.19.12 $9,500.00
6.19.12 $10.500.00
7.02.12 $10,000.00
7.23.12 $25,000.00
7.25.12 $75,000.00
8.09.12 $40,000.00
9.10.12 $40,000.00
10.02.12 $40,000.00
11.05.12 $40,000.00
12.04.12 $40,000.00
1.07.13 $45,000.00
2.06.13 $40,000.00
3.05.13 $40,000.00
4.09.13 $40,000.00
5.07.13 $40,000.00
6.10.13 $40,000.00
7.10.13 $40,000.00
8.13.13 $25,000.00
9.19.13 $25,000.00
10.22.13 $25,000.00
11.26.13 $25,000.00
12.16.13 $25,000.00
12.17.13 $15,000.00
1.16.14 $25,000.00
2.24.14 $25,000.00
3.26.14 $25,000.00
4.25.14 $25,000.00
5.28.14 $25,000.00
6.16.14 $25,000.00
7.01.14 $25,000.00
7.28.14 $25,000.00
8.27.14 $25,000.00
9.24.14 $10,000.00
10.03.14 $25,000.00
10.23.14 $10,000.00
11.20.14 $10,000.00
12.23.14 $10,000.00
1.23.15 $10,000.00
2.23.15 $10,000.00
3.17.15 $14,000.00
3.24.15 $10,000.00
4.01.15 $5,000.00
4.22.15 $36,000.00
4.24.15 $7,500.00
5.15.15 $20,000.00
5.20.15 $15,000.00
5.26.15 $30,000.00
Total: $1,321,500.00
Other deposits, all of unknown source:
9.23 & 9.26 ATM Deposits of $15K each
12.5.11 ATM Deposit of $2,500.00
12.27.11 ATM Deposit of $600.00
4.2.12 PayPal $500.00
4.6.12 ATM Deposit $5,000.00
4.18.12 ATMD Deposit $304.43
10.12.12 $5,000.00 In-bank deposit
11.14.12 $20,000.00 Paypal
12.31.12 $30,000.00 In-bank deposit
1.4.13 $1,000.00 & 1.28.13 $1,700.00 ATM Deposits
2.01.13 $10,000.00 & 2.04.13 $1,500.00 & 2.11.13 $6,577.81 All ATM Deposits
4.04.13 $11,250.00 ATM Deposit
7.01.13 $6,271.00 In-bank deposit
10.21.13 $10,000.00 Paypal
11.06.13 $3,000.00 ATM Deposit
12.04.14 $5,000.00 ATM Deposit
1.9.15 $4,825.00 Paypal
2.26.15 $3,688.50 ATM Deposit
3.2.15 $3,500.00 Paypal
4.27.15 $2,500.00 Paypal
5.11.15 $1,000.00 Paypal
6.1.15 $2,000.00 ATM & 6.8.15 $1,301.00 ATM
Total: $169,017.74
Grand Total Deposits to OMSJ in 4 Year Period: $1,490,517.74
HIV Innocence Group Truth 