Q: Did British agents seize $400 million from the Clinton Foundation?
A: No. That claim was made up by a satirical website.
FULL ANSWER
The Clinton Foundation is a frequent target for conspiracy theories and conspiracy-theory spoofs.
A recent example of the latter claims that British authorities seized $400 million in cash from a warehouse the foundation was renting in the United Kingdom.
Although the story making that claim originated on a website that describes its content as satire, it has been copied and presented as news on several dubious websites that don’t carry a satire disclaimer.
Some Facebook users responded to those stories with comments such as, “Can you say gotcha,” while others flagged the story as potentially false. It is.
Not only did it come from a self-described satirical website, but there are other red flags, too — such as made-up characters. The story says that “Maleek Bin Shalakta” owns the warehouse where the cash was seized. It describes him as “a man known for shady arms deals” and says that he’s on the U.K. terrorist watch list. But an internet search shows no results for anyone by that name, and nobody by that name is on the U.K. government’s list of people targeted for sanctions due to suspected involvement in terrorist activity.
The story also says that the same character owns a trucking company that operates in France, Germany and “Latkavia.” There is no country called “Latkavia.”
And the picture of British police officers that is shown with the story is actually from the eviction of a group of people living in recreational vehicles parked at a warehouse on the outskirts of London last summer. The picture has nothing to do with the Clinton Foundation.
Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to help identify and label false stories flagged by readers on the social media network.
Sources
“BREAKING: British Intelligence Seizes Clinton Foundation Warehouse, $400 Million In Cash.” ReaganWasRight.com. 10 Nov 2017.
Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (UK). “CONSOLIDATED LIST OF FINANCIAL SANCTIONS TARGETS IN THE UK.” 28 Mar 2018.
Leo, Ben. “MY BIG FAT GYPSY DELIVERY: Travellers seize new Ocado warehouse and live high life for 24 hours – before riot cops storm the building.” The Sun. 22 Jun 2017.
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