The Diddy trial is happening, but are they prosecuting the right case? Also, there’s something fishy going on with Red Lobster’s bankruptcy. And, some of you might be wondering who I am, so today I'm going to take you all the way back to the first story I ever covered- exposing poison in baby food. Follow Ian here:https://www.youtube.com/@UCCgpGpylCfrJIV-RwA_L7tg Check out Ian's product sources here: https://cancelthisclothingcompany.com/resources/ And check out Ian's new app here: https://buyrapp.com/ 00:00 - Start. 27:23 - Diddy trial. 37:39 - My first story. Poison in baby food. 53:41 - Comments. Gold Co Worried about market uncertainty? Protect yourself with gold & silver from my partner, Goldco. You could get UNLIMITED FREE BONUS SILVER #goldcopartner http://www.candacelikesgold.com 855.222.GOLD Pure Talk Make the switch today at http://www.PureTalk.com/Owens American Financing Act today! Call 800-795-1210 or visit http://www.AmericanFinancing.net/owens American Financing 800-795-1210, http://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org, NMLS 182334, nmlsconsumeraccess.org Candace Official Website: https://candaceowens.com Candace Merch: https://shop.candaceowens.com Candace on Apple Podcasts: https://t.co/Pp5VZiLXbq Candace on Spotify: https://t.co/16pMuADXuT Candace on Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/RealCandaceO Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What are the suspicious details behind Red Lobster's bankruptcy?
Our first story today is about food. A specific kind of food that most of you probably eat, but you probably never realize that this food has a serious dark side. And I'm speaking, obviously, about shrimp. Endless shrimp, to be exact. Last May, Red Lobster filed for bankruptcy.
And at the time, I had mistakenly assumed that it was because of mismanagement in some sort of private equity buyout, like all the other cool kids these days. But it turns out that that's old news. Private equity had already been there and done that way back in 2014, when Red Lobster had been bought out by Golden Gate Capital. And what did they immediately do?
Well, if you watched our show yesterday, you would know that they sold off all of Red Lobster's real estate in a leaseback scheme, much like Toys R Us and all sorts of other brands before them. They actually used this leaseback scheme to finance their initial purchase of Red Lobster like a leverage buyout that we already talked about.
But color me surprised when I looked up who owns Golden Gate Capital. It was founded by former professionals from private equity firm Bain Capital and its affiliate Bain & Company, led by former Bain Capital partner David Dominick.
So you remember how last time we talked about how Bain Capital was the private equity arm and Bain & Company was the consulting arm and they would never work together, right? But not only that, when you look up the real estate company that they partnered with in the deal, later that same year, 2014, they got busted for a little $23 million accounting error.
This is coming from a couple of different sources online, as well as Wikipedia to summarize it all for us. The company was formerly known as American Realty Capital Properties, Inc. And it changed its name after an accounting scandal. Its name was derived from the Latin word veritas, meaning truth.
In October 2014, the company admitted to $23 million accounting error and fired Chief Financial Officer Brian Block. Lawsuits allege that insiders received over $900 million in fees from the company. In December 2014, Schorsch resigned as chairman.
Remember, 2014, right around the time that they had just bought back all these properties from Red Lobster, that's when they were doing this whole accounting error. In July 2015, the company changed its name to V-E-R-E-I-T, Verite, Verite. In September 2019, certain defendants agreed to pay $1.025 billion. So that's a little bit of a whoopsies. But anyways, we're getting distracted.
Back to Endless Shrimp. Endless Shrimp led to an $11 million operating loss in Q4 of 2023. There was also the fact that when parties arrived at Red Lobster looking to pig out on a barge full of Endless Shrimp, they simply wouldn't leave. Burke's experience serving a man who put away 16 servings over the course of two hours was actually mild compared with some of the other stories I've heard.
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Chapter 2: Who really owns Red Lobster and how does the shrimp industry operate?
Josie, 19, who also asked to be anonymous—super anonymous— worked at a now-shuttered Kansas City Red Lobster, where she watched a solo diner take down 30 orders of fried shrimp within four hours. According to the nutritional information on Red Lobster's website, that's something like 14,000 calories. Bulking season.
But if you read enough headlines and you quickly start to realize there is a shrimp-spiracy afoot, And that's because Red Lobster was bought in its entirety by a company named Thai Union. Thai Union owned Red Lobster and is actually under investigation for its role in this whole debacle.
That's because Thai Union not only owns 100% of Red Lobster, but was also historically a large-scale supplier to the chain. Just before this promotion, they eliminated all other shrimp suppliers. Thai Union is one of the world's largest shrimp suppliers, as well as all sorts of other seafood like canned tuna.
And I can only presume that their goal with Red Lobster was never to run a successful restaurant company, but instead to perform the world's first shrimp-based bust-out scheme. Because remember, the Red Lobster company had already been looted by private equity before Thai Union bought it. So unless Thai Union is dumb... When they bought it, they already knew that Red Lobster was in big trouble.
And when they owned it, what did they do? They cut off all the other shrimp suppliers and turned themselves into the sole provider of shrimp and then offered this crazy deal where Red Lobster tanked on buying endless shrimp from Thai Union.
And when you dig into Thai Union's most recent financial statements, they own 62 different seafood companies around the world, many of them specifically shrimp farms, packing, and distribution companies. But when you add up all the companies they own more than 25% of, that number jumps up to 76.
Thai Union Group is the world's largest seafood company and ranked number one in the food production industry on Dow Jones Sustainability Index, which might be true as long as slavery isn't one of their metrics. Because this report was produced by Sustainability Incubator just last year about the rampant human rights abuses in the shrimp industry.
Thai Union is mentioned numerous times, often referencing their subsidiary Chicken of the Sea, which is one of the U.S. 's largest retail seafood suppliers. The report points out that at the prices paid per kilogram in these source countries, it's literally impossible that slave labor and exploitation aren't involved in the supply chain.
Based on their analysis, average monthly earnings for shrimp peelers are the lowest in India. Yeah, I'm not sure what happens to Ecuador between where the shrimp are cheap and where the wages are recorded. Like maybe they're not even paying wages in Ecuador. I don't know. But suffice to say, it's probably not too good of an industry to be dealing with shrimp in Ecuador.
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Chapter 3: What are the human rights abuses in the global shrimp supply chain?
He leaves his home village without telling anyone, bringing three t-shirts, three pairs of pants, one blanket, and the shoes he is wearing. He doesn't have a proper bag, so he uses a plastic one. He crosses the border at the town of Miwadi, and it's easy.
He does it all by himself, without a broker or a snakehead, just a matter of hitching a ride and dashing across a river a few meters down from the official checkpoint. When I visit Mewati 18 years later, I see several people doing the exact same thing. From there, he walks up the steep bank and emerges on the Thai side of the border into a town called Mae Sut. He's all alone.
The reality of being in Thailand, of the language being different, of knowing absolutely no one, hits home. And as that reality hits, a broker waves to him. Tung Lin says it seemed like he was waiting for him. The broker is about 40 years old, his eyes smart and handsome, dressed in a blue long-sleeved shirt that is clean.
So Tun Lin approaches and the broker asks him in Burmese, where would you like to go? And Tun Lin says simply, Thailand. Not totally realizing he's already in Thailand. The broker says that doesn't matter and puts his arm around him. The two of them walk back to a two-story brick house in Mae Sot. They walk side by side like they are on a date. The whole time, they talk in Burmese about Thailand.
Tun Lin is very excited. The broker is laying out a future, telling him about the different cities in Thailand, the resorts in the South, the skyscrapers in Bangkok, the factories in Samut Sakon. And of course, he's telling him all about the jobs. The first thing he's told when sitting on the floor in this hut, he is very lucky.
One of the migrants near him explains that Tun Lin has come at a very good time. It has been hard at the house. Some people have been waiting on the floor for over a week. But Tun Lin learns he should be very excited because the next day they are set to leave. True to his word, the next morning, the broker arrives.
He tells them they are going to Chiang Mai, a city in the north, but he tells the group that the police are looking for migrants. They are making his job very difficult and dangerous. He explains that the military is pulling vehicles to the side and checking papers, so to get to Chiang Mai without being arrested, they will have to go it by foot.
It is a 210-mile trek through a jungle over several mountains during the heart of the rainy season. Tun Lin does not know this because the broker does not say this. The broker does not take any questions or explain anything beyond how they are to leave town without attracting attention. Tun Lin is just excited to start.
It rains continuously the first day of the walk, and quickly, the group begins to break down. Many were sick and starving before leaving. Every night, they sleep outside, huddled in groups under trees or in small caves and overhangs in the mountain areas. The only food comes at two checkpoints per day, where the guide has arranged for meals to be stashed.
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Chapter 4: How does shrimp farming and eyestalk ablation work?
Then the door is closed. It is dark. No one speaks. Tun Lin is not on one of the benches but sitting on the floor with his knees tucked to his chest. He closes his eyes and tries not to think. Estimating from a map, driving with no traffic, their trip lasts 12 hours. He tells me there are no rest stops and that people cannot control themselves and they urinate and defecate in the truck.
When they arrive, the back of the truck is open and they are told to get out. One by one, they unfold. People are crying. A woman near Tun Lin has died. She was suffocated or crushed. Tun Lin does not know which. Only that he sat so close to her the entire trip and that he had not thought about her."
Once he gets put onto a boat, which he did not ask to be on, he cannot eat because he is seasick and throws everything up, and he is not allowed to sleep. This continues for three days. It is at this point the captain puts out the big canisters of instant coffee for the crew to eat. Yes, to eat, not to drink.
On the fourth day, doing work he does not understand among men who speak languages like Khmer and Lao, he can only partially communicate with, nauseated, starving, exhausted, Tun Lin says he becomes physically unable to continue working. And so he stops and goes to the crawl space to take a nap. This is his first beating. The captain finds him asleep. He then wakes Tun Lin up with a weapon.
My translator insists on calling a yo-yo. It is a steel ball on an elastic cord, and he swings it at Tun Lin, catching him across the face, then repeatedly on the shoulders. Tun Lin shows me his scars. He says he has beaten many times over the years, but he will always remember this first one. Tun Lin says he is not beaten again after this.
The captain merely has to point at this yo-yo for Tun Lin to increase the speed of his work, until after waiting six months, he makes the mistake of asking for the salary he was promised, because that's how they got him onto the boat, saying that he was going to have a job. For this, he is beaten even harder than before.
He learns now the captain owns him, that he bought him when he acquired his debt. His friend Tulek simply can't handle it. He is only a teenager and is weak, which means he is beaten more frequently. As the captain whips him, Tulek slowly loses his mind. After a particularly bad beating, Tulek gets very sick. He can't walk, and he is allowed to rest. But Tun Lin knows things are wrong.
Whenever he asks Tulek questions, the boy will only laugh or cry. Soon after, Tulek refuses to work. It is now that he is beaten until he is unconscious and kicked into the sea. Months at sea pass into years. Tun Lin adjusts. He never enjoys life on the boat, but he learns it. He becomes good at it.
He comes to do every job, sorting the fish, carrying them to the freezer on trays, patching, folding, pressing the net, and looking for rips, and more. This is Tun Lin's second year on the boat out of what will eventually be 14 years at sea. At this point, he's a slave in the only meaningful sense of the word. He cannot leave. He is not paid. He was brought here a prisoner.
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Chapter 5: What is the story of forced labor and slavery in the Thai shrimp industry?
Tun Lin shares a crawlspace with Tulek and the rest of the crew before Tulek dies. some closer to indentured servants, some free men who signed off on their own volition, some who enforced the captain's orders, many in more than one role, depending on the precise time you look, all sleeping together in a space less than a meter high.
To get to the bed, they crawl on their hands and knees for about 12 feet into the darkness through an opening that can fit at most one person at a time. This is where Tun Lin sleeps when not working his 20 hour days. When I visit a similar sleeping hole on the Thai docks, the opening comes up just above my knee and it is warm, exhaling the dark yeasty manure smell of the unwashed human body.
Tun Lin and all the rest of these workers are working in the fishing industry pulling up all sorts of fish. But the waters of Thailand were getting overfished. And as they got overfished, more and more of that Thai fishing industry was actually based on the trash fish, the small fish, the guts, the things that actually can't sell as fish, but instead become fish meal.
And they never actually go back to port. They stay out at sea for years at a time, and they get other boats to come and resupply them and take their catch into port for them. And this describes how fishers like Tun Lin never see these small, unsalable fish make it to port. They are passed to a sister boat at a rendezvous, at sea, traded along with food, cigarettes, Thai baht, and fuel.
This is called transshipment at sea. It saves fuel for the larger refrigerated fishing vessels, and it allows some boats to stay out almost indefinitely, resupplied by others. They turn into floating prisons for trafficked workers.
So once all this trash fish makes it into port after being out in the sun on a boat all day, then it gets rolled into the docks where it gets dumped out onto the ground into the sun all day to rot. But within a day, a man with a rake and wearing dark rubber boots will push this pile of fish and fish pieces towards a growling mouth in the cement docks.
It looks like a hole in the ground with two grinders in it for teeth, and it takes the rotting fish and pulverizes them further. The scent near the hole is deafening. If you really want to know what you're feeding your pets when it says fish on the label, this is what it is.
It is the smell of thousands of tiny rotting fish piled ankle high in the 90 degree Thai sun on a space that has held ankle high levels of tiny rotting fish for years. It is a hot smell, not just from the climate and the decomposition, but because there are furnaces just beyond. You can see them glowing behind the man with the rake.
The pulverized fish will pass on a conveyor belt toward those furnaces, getting cooked into a paste, then baked into meal. This will then be sold to yet another broker, bought by a feed mill, and blended with inputs from dozens of other facilities, all to create the protein base in pet food, food for fish farms, and the feed for hungry little shrimp.
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Chapter 6: How does shrimp slavery continue and move to other countries like India?
Transportation and company buses is also deducted from some workers' salaries, along with the cost of lunch from company canteens. Many workers have no contracts and no recourse if they are hurt on the job. Another peeler said she suffers back pain all the time from the arduous work, for which she's paid about $3 a day.
Some have nail fungus caused by small cracks that allow germs to cause infections. Other women have fingers or even their entire hands darkening with frostbite. Mehta said that sometimes she has to amputate. AP journalists observed dozens of women working in unsanitary and dangerous conditions. The shrimp pulled from outdoor ponds in barrels were swished around by hand in grimy water.
Once rinsed, they were dumped onto ice-covered tables where women stood, peeling them one shrimp at a time. Many handled shrimp with bare hands. Some women had bandages on injured fingers. Some women's long hair dangled into the shrimp. And you kind of expect that kind of conditions maybe in, you know, third world countries processing your food like India or Thailand.
But the point of this is that Nikanti, the company that they were apparently peeling shrimp for, they present a very different image in the bottom section here.
A marketing video produced by Nikanti, which is projecting $150 million in revenues this year, shows shrimp peelers in a spotless room with shiny tables and workers wearing gloves, head coverings, face masks, rubber boots, and waterproof aprons. By the way, Nikanti is a subsidiary of guess who? Thai Union Group.
They, of course, denied the allegations, said the company had nothing to do with the peeling shed that AP had visited, and said that their branded truck was there only because it was being leased to another company. He provided a document that said that Nakanti was paid $3,600 for the four-month lease of a truck with the license plate number the AP observed. Sure, that document is A-OK, but...
You have to imagine what's going on out there when that's the image they're presenting and the actual conditions in these countries are like the stories that you're hearing. And I just wanted to give you a little image, a little visual of where all the shrimp in the world is coming from right now. But just to be clear, the shrimp industry works the way that the shrimp industry works.
And if you want to sell shrimp for the prices that these countries are selling shrimp for, you have to compete with countries that are using slave labor. So, Your bottomless shrimp is another man's, or child slave laborer's, bottomless despair. This year in 2025, New Orleans hosted the Super Bowl.
And someone had the bright idea of going there and doing a little testy-testy on the shrimp that they were selling in New Orleans and other Gulf Coast cities. Turns out, everyone lies. The testing was done by CD Consulting, made possible by a new testing technology that could turn results around in less than an hour instead of sending to labs and taking days. And what did those test results show?
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Chapter 7: What is the impact of shrimp fraud on American consumers and businesses?
In April of this year, Whitney Webb released an excellent report about Diddy's early life, outlining how he attended a boys' school that was marred in numerous sex scandals, and how his father was very likely a rat, an informant, that was eventually caught and killed.
All of this was even before Diddy even got into the music industry, where his early mentors were linked to the mob and all sorts of other scandals. The real story is Lil Rod's lawsuit, which we've all seen and talked about before. Lucy and Grange, the CEO of Universal Music Group, was originally named in that lawsuit, and so was Universal Music Group and Motown, as well as many other people.
But their names all mysteriously vanished, But the lawsuit directly alleges that Grange was at the parties and presumably partially or entirely funding them at times. The lawsuit included what appeared to be screenshots from videos of famous people and told of coercion based on performing sexual acts on camera. It included many specific allegations about drugs, guns, prostitutes, even minors.
But the biggest bombshell in the lawsuit, as far as I'm concerned, and the thing that no mainstream outlet wants to touch, is the allegations of hidden cameras. Quote, While living and traveling with Mr. Combs, Mr. Jones discovered that Mr. Combs has hidden cameras in every room of his homes.
Mr. Jones believes that Mr. Combs has recordings of defendants Lucian Charles Grange, Ethiopia Habter Mariam, as well as other celebrities, music label executives, politicians, and athletes. Upon information and belief, these individuals were recorded without their knowledge and consent.
And as is the case with the homosexual sex tape of Stevie J that Mr. Combs provided to Mr. Jones, Mr. Combs possesses compromising footage of every person that has attended his freak-off parties and his house parties. I don't think that all of those videos are the ones being shown in court. Just my suspicions. Upon information and belief, Mr. Combs employs Jose Cruz as his IT director.
This writer has spoken to several former employees of Mr. Combs who confirmed that Jose Cruz is the gatekeeper to all of Mr. Combs' recordings. And I want to point out here, This document was prepared by a lawyer, and that lawyer has a legal duty to believe that all the statements in this document are true, at least to a certain degree. He cannot just lie openly.
He cannot say that he spoke to all these other employees of Mr. Combs if he never did. That would be a disbarrable offense. And so this lawsuit has to at least have merit in the lawyer's eyes. And maybe it wouldn't all prove out in court, but it's not just made up out of nowhere, right? And there are very specific claims. And there are screenshots that seem to show screenshots of video evidence.
There's all sorts of stuff in there, okay? Pair all that with the fact that Diddy's head of security was Fahim Muhammad. Quote, in 2008, Fahim graduated from Sacramento State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with a concentration in real estate and marketing. Michael Jackson died just one year after Fahim apparently graduated from college.
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Chapter 8: What is the real story behind the Diddy trial?
Forty acres of land in San Diego County. That's what one dad gave his son for his 13th birthday.
He posted about it on social media and their story went viral. Rapper Sean Combs even posted about it.
Faheem Muhammad bought 198 acres out here in Boulevard to get away.
It's real quiet. The wall is right there.
This is not like Chicago, not like LA. He lives in Los Angeles and runs a real estate business that buys and rebuilds properties in the south side of Chicago. He says to create a better living situation for the black community there. Fahim says his mom taught he and his siblings how important it is to own your own property and to help their community.
So when his son Fahim recently turned 13, he gave him 40 acres.
I thought it would be a great opportunity to teach them a life lesson about the value of land.
And they're teaching other kids from L.A. these lessons, too.
So all them regular rocks you picked?
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