Two Penny Philanthropist: The Annett Family’s Great Indian Residential School & Tax Fraud Adventure!

Shawna Green and Kevin Annett (sorta) evicting the Vatican...

Shawna Green and Kevin Annett (sorta) evicting the Vatican…

If there’s anything that Kevin Annett has proven in his career appropriating the voices of Canada’s residential school survivors it’s that there’s a sucker born every minute. Despite the depth of research done on Annett, repeated denouncements of his fraud by residential school survivors and even a feature length expose by the Aboriginal People’s Television Network- there are still people out there who are getting fooled into giving him their time and their money.

Last August, this site exposed bank transfer receipts from one of Annett’s victims. In September Annett was recorded on an internet radio show laughing about how he screws-over the Indians and how he actively avoids paying taxes on the contributions he takes. Today, new information has come to light that exposes Annett’s continuing pattern of fraud and tax evasion.

One of the tricks Annett has used to shield himself from prosecution for his crimes is to get other people to do his dirty work- we saw this last week when Annett conned a native man to deliver fake arrest warrants to the RCMP. Sometimes the people who worked for Annett were his victims, and other times (like with Jason Bowman) they were established con-men. But, when it comes to collecting the money, Annett kept it to his family- donations have mostly been taken either in the name of his wife Lori O’Rorke, or his father William Annett.

William Annett, the pride of Holly Hill Florida...

William Annett, the pride of Holly Hill Florida…

At first requests for money were sent by transfers to O’Rorke’s bank account. A Canadian Dollar based PayPal account was later added to Annett’s website, but it seems it’s defunct now. Later, Annett began to have his money shipped offshore through bank transfers to his dad’s account in Holly Hill Florida. It’s very typical of a con-artist to funnel their earnings through third parties in other countries.

Recently Annett’s website for his grandiosely named International Tribunal For Crimes Of Church & State added a new PayPal option. Using a trick I learned investigating how University of Toronto students fund a pro-violence hate group, I clicked on Annett’s donations button expecting to make my traditional one-penny donation in protest of his dishonesty.

When one makes a payment or donation using PayPal they’re emailed a receipt right after. Quite often these receipts provide some excellent information- this case was no exception:

kevin-annett-bill-annett-itccs-fraud-paypal-receipt

First, it was not possible to make a one-penny donation. Annett must be a little spooked after all the attention that’s been given to his frauds. He’s gone from taking money in Canada, to taking it in the US, and now his PayPal donations are taken by an account registered in the European Union. This is also indicative of how Annett has dried his well in North America and is focussing more finding victims in Europe.

The money is still being sent in Bill Annett’s name. There’s no evidence Bill is living in Europe, so it’s likely a fraudulent statement of residence was made when registering the account. There’s no indication of if the account is registered to a bank account (that’s always private)- but, if one is willing to pay an extra transaction fee, the money could be extracted by transferring it to an on-shore PayPal account. Regardless, it’s all quite traceable if/when the tax authorities decide to investigate and audit the Annett’s accounts. (Experience shows it’s unlikely they’re smart enough to successfully launder their spoils.)

The good news about what’s happening with Annett is that it’s become obvious that, with all the great information out there now, most reasonable intelligent people are able to see through Annett’s fraud. That said, there are still people who are vulnerable to Annett’s charms- some desperately want what he’s promising, others are simply gullible, and then there are those who work with Annett for personal gain.

Annett has been conducting a one-man crusade against the Pope, the Queen, the head of the RCMP, some churches, and a few people with who he has personal vendettas. He promised to his followers that this week he would have people storming into churches across the globe, issuing arrest warrants, banishing the clergy and setting-up shop. But, as is usual with Annett’s proclamations, all of the hoopla Fizzled Into A Tea Cozy.

So far, the only public evidence of Annett’s great church takeover was a video released on Monday. It stars Kevin Annett, and an indigenous woman named Shawna Green. They both stood across the street from Vancouver’s Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Cathedral. They made brief statements, walked across the street, taped their ‘official’ banishment on the church’s front door and quietly walked away.

The Pope(s) must be shivering in their white slippers…

Shawana Green is a Cree woman who is currently living in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island. She’s a long-term Kevin Annett devotee who first discovered Annett’s con-job on the Internet, and then personally sleeked him out looking for answers. Annett has a long history of exploiting indigenous men and women- particularly those who are most vulnerable.

Annett was probably frothing at the mouth when he met Green. She’s the daughter of two residential school survivors who claims her parents left her out on a doorstep as an child. Annett’s grossly misrepresented (and often made up) version of what happened at the residential schools fed Green’s need to understand what drove her parents to abandon her. On an appearance on Annett’s Internet radio show last year, she explained how he impacted her:

“I came upon Kevin’s Movie…and it just opened up my world to things I never knew what happened in Canada.”

“I found you, and, I don’t know, I found someone that has…the same questions…, and answers, mostly the answers I’ve been looking for my whole life” 

Last year Green was invited to attend the Residential School Truth & Reconciliation conference- a project put in place in an effort to heal the wounds of Canada’s past mistakes. Unfortunately, fuelled with Annett’s mistruths and vitriol, it appears Green missed on the opportunity to find solace. She walked around the conference trying to distribute DVD’s of Annett’s ‘documentary’ Unrepentant. She explained on Annett’s show how that resulted in people shunning and treating her badly for doing that. (It’s unknown if they also tried to reach-out to her.)

Looking at Green’s work, it looks like she’s an activist with a genuine desire to make the world a better place. When people in the Cowichan community where she lives were experiencing an increase in suicides she led a march to help bring people together in a healthy way. More recently, Green was the organizer behind an Idle No More march in the Cowichan Valley (where the RCMP stopped them from marching on the street.)

As long as Green believes and continues to support Annett’s representation of the truth it will be unlikely she’ll reach any sense of reconciliation of what happened to her parents, and how it reverberated into her own life. Annett’s predatory nature rips at the heart of his victims and has caused immeasurable pain to indigenous communities across the country. The damage has been so great, that Denis Banks and Royce White Calf of the American Indian Movement published a public warning to indigenous people around the world.

The vast majority of the people who supported Annett have moved on now- some of them were some pretty big names in politicsacademia, media, union, religious and activist communities. Despite all of the pain Annett’s caused, these same people and organizations have steadily refused to take action to fix the problem. Annett’s former supporters claim to support crushing oppression against indigenous people- only, they leave people like Shawna Green to be preyed upon by con-artists like Kevin Annett.

A growing number of people are seeing this lack of action as a form of abuse by proxy. How can one who helped put this predator into indigenous communities just stand back and do nothing to help his victims?

The same problem lies on the side of the government. Practically every applicable government and law enforcement agency has been contacted with requests to help stop Annett’s path of destruction. And, unless they’re keeping their cards very close to their chest, our government appears to refuse to react. It’s very reminiscent of the stories about the Pickton murders or the Highway of Tears- it took years of people raising red flags before officials finally took action.

I’ve spoken to a few of Annett’s victims over the past year. Many of them have worked very hard to try and get the word out about his predatory ways. Their stories are heartbreaking, people are being hurt, whole communities too. There are people out there who have the power to fix this problem- it’s time for them to honour the damage that’s been done and take immediate action.

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