<http://pando.com/2015/02/28/meet-pierre-omidyar-a-handy-primer-for-new-first-look-hires/>
10 Things Every Fearless Adversarial Investigative Reporter Should Know About
Pierre Omidyar
By Mark Ames
On February 28, 2015
1. Pierre Omidyar, his wife, and his top Omidyar Network director have logged
in [39]over a
dozen visits to the Obama White House to visit senior officials and members of
Obama's
National Security Council.
39.
http://pando.com/2014/03/23/revealed-visitor-logs-show-full-extent-of-pierre-and-pamela-omidyars-cozy-white-house-ties/
2. Between 2011-2013, Omidyar Network [40]co-funded with USAID
[41]regime-change groups in
Ukraine that [42]organized the 2014 Maidan revolution. In India, the head of
Omidyar
Network's operation, [43]Jayant Sinha, [44]concurrently worked for the
far-right [45]BJP
Party leader Narendra Modi helping him take power in 2014, after which Modi
appointed the
[46]Omidyar Network partner as his [47]junior finance minister.
40.
http://pando.com/2014/02/28/pierre-omidyar-co-funded-ukraine-revolution-groups-with-us-government-documents-show/
41. https://www.evernote.com/l/AAGUkd3ft75Ha7xIz35eY9rmazxi_HOQ4s0
42.
http://www.scrible.com/contentview/page/I4Q00914I40EO32B1483G0QP46A420A2:67652409/index.html?utm_source=tb_permalink&utm_medium=permalink&utm_campaign=tb_buttons&_sti=1149916
43.
https://web.archive.org/web/20131029223456/http://www.omidyar.com/team/jayant-sinha
44.
http://pando.com/2014/05/26/revealed-the-head-of-omidyar-networks-in-india-had-a-secret-second-job-helping-elect-narendra-modi/
45.
http://www.vccircle.com/news/general/2014/05/16/former-omidyar-network-head-jayant-sinha-gets-elected-hazaribagh
46. https://twitter.com/OmidyarNetwork/status/467352544814305280
47.
http://pando.com/2014/11/09/pierre-omidyars-man-in-india-is-named-to-modis-cabinet/
3. Pierre Omidyar is a free-market libertarian loon who told Nobel Prize winner
Mohammed
Younus he refused to donate to the poor unless he could [48]personally profit
off of it. A
few years later, hundreds of poor rural Indians [49]committed suicide to avoid
debt
collectors working for one of Omidyar's for-profit [50]microfinance lenders.
48.
http://pando.com/2014/05/31/ebay-shrugged-pierre-omidyar-believes-there-should-be-no-philanthropy-without-profit/
49.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/Feb/24/ap-impact-lenders-own-probe-links-it-to-suicides/
50.
http://www.scrible.com/contentview/page/IKQA0105HK4E922A10C5K3RSC4C02427:76579211/index.html?utm_source=tb_permalink&utm_medium=permalink&utm_campaign=tb_buttons&_sti=1356693
4. Omidyar is the chairman of eBay/PayPal, which boasts of its own private
[51]global police
force that works "hand in glove with law enforcement agencies," including the
DEA, to whom
eBay provides user data "on a silver platter" without subpoenas. Omidyar's
eBay executives
boast of arranging [52]thousands of arrests around the world.
51.
http://pando.com/2013/12/14/team-omidar-world-police-ebay-puts-user-data-on-a-silver-platter-for-law-enforcement/
52.
http://www.csoonline.com/article/2135261/malware-cybercrime/ebay-security-offensive-leads-to-3k-arrests-globally.html
5. Although Omidyar allegedly does not interfere in his journalists' editorial,
he does
control all hiring and firing, budgets, approval of expenses for taxi rides and
cocktails,
snuffed months worth of investigative stories from leading investigative
journalists, forces
editorial staff to attend countless meetings, imposes task-management software
on editorial,
and [53]"writes more internal messaging than anyone else." But he does not
interfere in
editorial.
53.
http://pando.com/2014/03/01/on-the-importance-of-keeping-investors-out-of-the-newsroom-and-not-treating-your-readers-like-fools/
6. Omidyar [54]believes that journalists should help police arrest sources who
leak stolen
information from private for-profit companies. Omidyar supported the
[55]persecution of the
[56]PayPal 14 because he believes that free speech rights should be
[57]subordinate to the
rights of private enterprise's mission to maximize profits for shareholders.
54.
http://pando.com/2013/12/07/pierre-omidyar-in-2009-anybody-who-publishes-stolen-info-should-help-catch-the-thief/
55.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/12/05/inside-the-paypal-14-trial.html
56. http://thepaypal14.com/
57.
http://www.civilbeat.com/2010/12/7276-internet-press-vulnerable-after-wikileaks/
7. Omidyar is a [58]committed prepper whose fear of pandemics and epidemics is
so great, he
has invested large sums into ensuring his own personal food supply, and has
[59]buried
several months' worth of food in storage facilities in properties around the
world, from
Hawaii to Montana, Nevada, and an island off the coast of France. Omidyar
keeps a private
[60]French jet, and pays a [61]private security detail made up of former Secret
Service and
State Department officials to help him survive his apocalyptic fantasies.
58.
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2009/Mar/22/ln/hawaii903220357.html
59.
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2009/Mar/22/ln/hawaii903220357.html
60.
http://www.amjetexecutive.com/en/news/the-company/news-single-amlife/article/a-new-aoc-obtained.html
61.
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2009/Mar/22/ln/hawaii903220357.html
8. In 2007, Omidyar [62]invested in Maui Land & Pineapple, which was
subsequently accused of
being part of the [63]largest human trafficking operation ever [64]busted by US
federal
officials.
62. http://www.verite.org/node/470
63. http://www.motherjones.com/print/53406
64. http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/4-20-11b.cfm
9. Omidyar [65]loved Second Life so much he invested in Linden Lab and
communicated with its
CEO through his Second Life character, [66]"Kitto Mandala," a tattooed black
man who rode a
Segway and wore a T-shirt that read "KISS ME I'M LAWFUL EVIL."
65.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/10/pierre-omidyar-first-look-media.html
66.
http://gawker.com/billionaire-pierre-omidyar-s-online-alter-ego-a-tattoo-1654041698
10. Omidyar was [67]investigated by [68]Congress and [69]sued for secretly
"spinning stocks"
-- insider trading on IPOs -- with Goldman Sachs. Omidyar was also accused by
Craigslist and
a Delaware judge of [70]stealing the "secret sauce of Craigslist's success" and
passing
those secrets to eBay in violation of contracts, fiduciary duties and
securities laws.
67.
http://www.scrible.com/contentview/page/M4QI0105H6KCP22A10S5G39O44C0I427:76565565/index.html?utm_source=tb_permalink&utm_medium=permalink&utm_campaign=tb_buttons&_sti=1356687
68.
http://www.scrible.com/contentview/page/M4QI0105H6KCP22A10S5G39O44C0I427:76565565/index.html?utm_source=tb_permalink&utm_medium=permalink&utm_campaign=tb_buttons&_sti=1356687
69. http://articles.latimes.com/print/2005/apr/29/business/fi-rup29.3
70. http://pando.com/2014/12/01/whitman-omidyar-craigslist-ebay/
Bonus: Pierre Omidyar [71]arranged an interview with two "fiercely independent"
journalists
on Omidyar's payroll at The Intercept, in which he revealed to them what tea he
drinks in
the morning. When asked to list his daily reading habits, The Intercept came in
at number
five, lower down on his reading list than the New York Times.
71.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/02/ken-silverstein-the-intercept-115586.html#.VPFB71PF-cY
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