Keffals: A Case Study on Internet Terrorism and Mass Media Manipulation by Steven Bonnell II part 5 of 8

[Chuck Tamzarian]

V | The GoFundMe Heist

It’s been mentioned a bit so far, but it’s worth going into the details
surrounding Sorrenti’s GoFundMe. Many of the claims surrounding the
purpose of the funds raised from the GoFundMe are exaggerated in an
effort to raise as much money as possible. This is especially egregious
given that Sorrenti has bragged about how much money she makes and given
how much financial support is needed for at-risk members of the trans
community. The original GoFundMe goal was for $20,000, though she
continues to raise the goal as more and more money has been raised,
despite the fact that GoFundMe allows you to raise more money than the
original goal. While she would be fastidious about increasing the goal
every time the previous one was hit, she would never add any further
clarification to some of the demonstrably false claims made in the
initial video, nor would she adequately justify the progressive increase
of the goal.

Sorrenti claims that they started a GoFundMe to: 1) move immediately, 2)
recoup her losses, and 3) build a legal fund to protect her rights.

In the GoFundMe video:

Sorrenti claims ( 1 | 2 | 3 ) that the police dead-named her several
times during her arrest and when booking her, though she and her
partner, Alex, would go on to make claims ( 1 | 2 ) contradicting both
of these statements later on in a September 15th stream, as well as an
official statement released by the police chief claiming that Sorrenti
was never dead-named once in custody. Sorrenti claimed the incident
“reveals the prejudice that many police have towards transgender
people,” despite them initially confronting her using her given name and
apparently never using her dead-name while she was in custody. There is
no evidence that police used her pre-transition first name, which is
what is most commonly referred to as a “dead-name.” The only evidence
Sorrenti has ever posted are evidence bags showing her previous last name.

Sorrenti claims that, “because of the negligence of the police, [her and
her fiance] were both left functionally unemployed. And [she has] spent
thousands of dollars replacing [their] computers and cell phones.” She
has never posted proof of repurchasing any cell phones or computers. Her
phones and computers were returned to her in 3 days, as well. She
suffered no losses, yet never updated the GoFundMe to reflect this.

In a leaked conversation, Sorrenti admitted to keeping the money she’d
raised in her savings account “until she needs to use it,” and she
publicly stated that she will “never do a GoFundMe breakdown for bad
faith actors.” It’s also been leaked from her Twitter messages that she
is currently vacationing around Europe.

On an August 10th stream, when speaking about why she is continually
raising the goal of the GoFundMe, she reaffirms that “once [I’m] safe,
the rest of those funds are going to be used for legal expenses, because
I’m not just moving, I’m also taking legal action, I already have one
lawyer and I’m consulting with two more. I’m going to get justice for
what happened to me, and for every other marginalized person in this
country who has been victimized. Legal fees are incredibly expensive,
and I feel very fortunate that I was able to raise this much money,
because I would not be able to take legal action if it wasn’t for that.”
Note that this is not a reasonable explanation for the continual raising
of the goal. The goal moved up as the money was coming in, and was never
set at the amount that she would need to cover such legal expenses. The
goal seems to always track the money in, rather than any fixed cost. At
this point, the GoFundMe had raised about $74,300. However, on August
21st, she was more careful with her language, stating now that “[she]
wanted to even potentially pursue legal action against them, but they’ve
taken the threat against [her] life very seriously,” casting doubt on
whether she’d pursue legal action against them. And then finally, on
September 14th, she claims that “the thing that they say with this is
that I said that this money was for suing the police, which I never
did.” She also claims that she wanted to raise $100,000 from the
beginning, so she “kept raising the cap until [she]” got there, and
she’s also claimed that she simply just wanted to raise as much money as
possible.. She goes on to claim that she’s used the GoFundMe money to
pay an entire year’s worth of rent.

So let’s review, from her original claim:

Move immediately

She has used the money to pay for 12 months rent in advance,
but rather than move immediately, she seems to have taken a vacation
around Europe.

Recoup her losses

There were no financial damages to recoup.

Build a legal fund to protect her rights

Sorrenti is now claiming she is not going to sue the police.

According to GoFundMe’s fraudulent campaign policy, “examples of
expressly forbidden fraudulent activity” include: “Posting misleading
statements in the fundraiser story.” It’s up for them to decide if
anything thus far is misleading, though the answer seems obvious.

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continued in part 6