The Washington Post published an investigation on Thursday detailing how an Instagram influencer raised nearly $7 million to evacuate people from Afghanistan during the Taliban’s takeover. Nearly half the money went towards canceled flights. Also, a company owned by a man under surveillance for fraud dealings received over $2 million.
No Afghans have been evacuated on flights chartered by ‘Operation Flyaway,’ a charity campaign to rescue people in Afghanistan promoted through the Instagram meme page ‘Quentin Quarantino’, which has over 820,000 followers and is run by 26-year-old Tommy Marcus. In total, $3.3 million has been spent on flights that were ultimately canceled and for which the group has not yet received refunds, according to The Washington Post, which examined ‘financial records, emails, text messages, recordings of calls and interviews’.
Afghanistan’s capital Kabul has been a chaotic scene since the Taliban took over the city’s airport in mid-August. Many people have attempted to evacuate but have been unable to do so. Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry issued an announcement on Sunday, saying the airport is ‘fully operational again’ and has promised full communication with airlines. A report says that the global consulting firm Sayara International assisted in evacuating 51 people from Afghanistan as part of ‘Operation Flyaway’. Both groups offered seats to 200 of the campaign’s evacuees, but some were not able to make their way to the airport, an anonymous source told The Post.
80 Minutes in and we have raised the $550,000 to fully fund two airplanes and save over 300 Afghan lives that are in grave danger. We are raising the goal amount to $1.1 Million, to make another round-trip to Kabul. Please donate, share, and like.https://t.co/LM0SRMF57U
— IG: @quentin.quarantino (@quentquarantino) August 17, 2021
According to the Post, ‘Operation Flyaway’ has assisted with at least two rescue operations since then. It provided transportation and other assistance to help 57 people get on a flight that left Afghanistan on September 17. As part of the same campaign, the Post is told that 27 people were supported on a flight to Canada that departed a few days later. In total, Operation Flyaway has helped rescue at least 135 evacuees. In a post on the ‘Quentin Quarantino’ Instagram account on August 17, the campaign raised millions of dollars to support the Afghan evacuation through an online GoFundMe fundraiser. A month ago, the fundraiser announced that new donations wouldn’t be accepted. As of Thursday afternoon, donations weren’t being accepted.
According to its description, the mission’s goal was to evacuate ‘high-value targets’, including Afghans ‘who have worked as human rights lawyers, champions of women’s and LGBTQ rights, journalists, government liaisons, artists, and interpreters’ who face imminent danger from the Taliban. On the fundraising page, it was described that $1,500 would buy one seat on an airplane out of Kabul. As per the fundraiser’s page, the funds will be paid to and distributed by Raven Advisory, a security and intelligence company based in Fayetteville, North Carolina, which did not respond to a request for comment. Specifically, Raven Advisory has been making deals with airlines and organizing evacuation plans, according to the Post.
Using invoices, The Washington Post found that ‘Operation Flyaway’ provided Kiwijet with $2.8 million in order to secure four flights with 280 seats. The person who appears to be Kiwijet’s CEO was previously investigated for fraud and fined several times by the Federal Aviation Administration, according to a report. Raven Advisory CEO Sheffield Ford told the Post that he is not concerned about Steele’s background because Kiwijet came highly recommended from a trusted source.
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Nicolas Steele identifies himself as Kiwijet’s chief executive in a July 2020 search warrant application filed in a Los Angeles federal court, according to The Post. An Insider report found a 2020 lawsuit that names Steele and Kiwijet as defendants. Kiwijet did not respond to a request for comment. Steele Aviation, a company owned by Steele, allegedly conducted unauthorized flights with inexperienced pilots, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Steele Aviation has been proposed a civil penalty of $533,320 by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA proposed two similar penalties in 2018 for alleged illegal flights.
Steele Aviation was fined $1.3 million by the FAA and had its pilot certification revoked twice between 2017 and 2019, The Post reported. Apparently, the Post spoke to attorney Eric Bensamochan about Steele. Despite all the confusion and disarray caused by canceled flights, Bensamochan told the Post that the Kiwijet flights are ready for departure and waiting for approval from the campaign. Ford, Bensamochan, and Marcus did not respond to a request for comment.
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