NY - UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in Midtown. #2

[Universecalling]

I don’t want to speak for that user but possibly what they meant is that while the company is known, BT wasn’t necessarily really ‘out there’ (although of course it’s no secret who the chief operating officers are for corporations)

This article says he kept a low public profile and the company’s ‘face’ was really Andrew Witty

UnitedHealthcare CEO kept a low public profile. Then he was shot to death in New York

Brian Thompson led one of the biggest health insurers in the US but was unknown to millions of people his decisions affected.

apnews.com

Witty is the CEO of UnitedHealthcare Group. Optum and UHC are under the umbrella of UHG. UHG is global.

 

[Inthedetails]

He will be easier to find since lowering his mask to flirt with the receptionist!

Huge mistake!! Just enormous error!

It will be made-for-tv-movie material if the handsome assassin is caught by police because he flirted with the hostel clerk.

jmo

 

[Universecalling]

“C-suites” ? What is that?

High level leaders. CEO CFO COO

 

[azure]

I agree regarding the “unknown” CEO. He has such a typical name - Brian Thompson. He looks ordinary. He was staying in a Marriott. His house and his wife’s house are both relatively modest (they are big, but barely qualifying under the “McMansion” category). This is not a flashy, uber wealthy CEO. He’s not even at the top of the corporate pyramid.

I have such a hard time with him being a target for some kind of political message.

I think that whoever is most likely to benefit from his absence is most likely behind it. Could be someone who was concerned about possible criminal charges, could be someone who would be set to inherit something, could be someone who wanted his position.

I’m not really sure, but it just seems to me that the person behind this has some kind of personal motivation, outside of their parent being denied coverage.

If it was a disgruntled customer, I’d expect them to roll up into headquarters and open fire.

JMO

Yes, to me it seems like a lot of the messaging about this murder is happening on the backside. I'm seeing a lot of (paraphrased) "if you think this murder is bad, you should know how many people health insurance murders each year by declining care!" (Not the opinion of this gentle poster.)

In a modern corporation, most employees, even higher-ups, are basically cogs in the system. Realistically BT will be replaced next week with a very similar version of himself and the company will go on. There will be no, significant, lasting changes to the health insurance industry because of this, besides the ending of the poorly timed announcement that a different insurer would be throttling anesthesia coverage for surgeries over a certain length.

With all that said, it seems strange to target such a relatively small fish. If you have a grievance against the health insurance industry, wouldn't you want to target a politician that opposes single payer insurance, for example? The whole thing seems a bit misguided. I'm leaning back towards a personal motive. A motive we may have not an inkling of information about...

 

[getthefax]

lol bizarre - No one knows who this guy is. He is not remotely famous or a celebrity in any way. He's a successful businessman, that's all. Spend some more of your time doing your research lol & find out how many employees the company has

United HealthGroup has between 400 and 450 thousand employees worldwide, of which 100,000 are employed by United HealthCare.

That’s a huge company.

 

[ChrisM]

Im wondering if the model of the gun was rather uncommon. If a supressor was used, im wondering if that item was purchased with the gun.

The combination of items purchased may have set off a red flag

b&t vp9 bolt action integrated suppresor - completely unusual seemingly rare gun

 

[whitelilac]

Theories are all over the place, and many could be feasible.

My feeling is that this was not personal. The way this guy carried out the shooting appeared to me to just be a job. No emotion, no words, quick and lethal.. done, successful, walk away.

 

[otto]

I just read they have him arriving last month on a greyhound bus from Atlanta... UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting suspect arrived in New York last month on Greyhound bus from Atlanta: sources

From the link ... he looks so different in each of the photos. One is friendly, smiling, the other appears calculating. Same time frame. Quick switch.

 

[getthefax]

b&t vp9 bolt action integrated suppresor - completely unusual seemingly rare gun

A $5700 gun at that.

 

[Universecalling]

Trust me, he doesn't look neither Slavic nor Eastern European. You think "Slavic" because areas where Southern Slavs lived were under the Ottoman Empire, so there is a huge Turkish admixture there, but it is not a Slavic look

. I think he is not a typical Slav because he has pretty dense facial hair growth. Dense and dark. For this reason, I don't think he is Mexican, either (although some parts of Mexico are becoming a huge melting pot.)

- to say Americans are unfamiliar with dark web or cryptocurrency is to sell them very short. JMO.

- I doubt that anyone would need to bring a gun into US, lol. Why? It is like traveling with own pot to the US.

Now, he might have been raised in one of immigrant communities from the Postsoviet place, but even so, I feel he is probably raised in the US.

It makes almost no sense to import a sole killer from abroad now. Expensive and actually, can be easier traced to the customer. I am not in that area but think that para-casinos human trafficking can have some mafia involvement, but these are usually groups.

As to, "no one stepped", if it was a statement, consider that he has already made it. No need in manifestos with our modern echo chambers. I think he may be affiliated with a group, but the group is not interested in advertising the emergence of a new planned activity. We can guess what they want.

If the plan is terror (not sure yet), then it is not a political protest. Very interesting. It is economical protest. Insurance companies are monopolies. People whose protests don't target ideology, but the way the economy is run have to minimally understand this economy. They are usually younger. I am not even sure if it is anti-capitalist protest. It is the protest against how the monopolies are run, "make them better." "Improve them." He didn't write "free healthcare" on the bullets. He actually was protesting against the denials.

(If it was his plan. Could be perfectly personal, after all.)

I'm quite familiar with that part of Europe. He looks to me like a typical pretty boy from there. Well dressed, gallant, mannerisms, high cheek bones, nose, etc.

 

[armchairagatha]

Yes, to me it seems like a lot of the messaging about this murder is happening on the backside. I'm seeing a lot of (paraphrased) "if you think this murder is bad, you should know how many people health insurance murders each year by declining care!" (Not the opinion of this gentle poster.)

In a modern corporation, most employees, even higher-ups, are basically cogs in the system. Realistically BT will be replaced next week with a very similar version of himself and the company will go on. There will be no, significant, lasting changes to the health insurance industry because of this, besides the ending of the poorly timed announcement that a different insurer would be throttling anesthesia coverage for surgeries over a certain length.

With all that said, it seems strange to target such a relatively small fish. If you have a grievance against the health insurance industry, wouldn't you want to target a politician that opposes single payer insurance, for example? The whole thing seems a bit misguided. I'm leaning back towards a personal motive. A motive we may have not an inkling of information about...

Agree with this and if this is true, then the bullet casing words were a theatrical touch to throw off LE. In other words, this had nothing to do with UHC as an insurance corporation and is tied to Thompson directly - either his personal life or his business dealings. Plenty of possibilities there.

 

[azure]

I'd love more info about Brian Thompson. Was he an athlete? Was he a crypto fan? Into sports betting? Did he date? How discreetly did he date if so? There are so many possible motives out there, but with little information about BT, it's hard to prognosticate.

 

[getthefax]

Trust me, he doesn't look neither Slavic nor Eastern European. You think "Slavic" because areas where Southern Slavs lived were under the Ottoman Empire, so there is a huge Turkish admixture there, but it is not a Slavic look

. I think he is not a typical Slav because he has pretty dense facial hair growth. Dense and dark. For this reason, I don't think he is Mexican, either (although some parts of Mexico are becoming a huge melting pot.)

- to say Americans are unfamiliar with dark web or cryptocurrency is to sell them very short. JMO.

- I doubt that anyone would need to bring a gun into US, lol. Why? It is like traveling with own pot to the US.

Now, he might have been raised in one of immigrant communities from the Postsoviet place, but even so, I feel he is probably raised in the US.

It makes almost no sense to import a sole killer from abroad now. Expensive and actually, can be easier traced to the customer. I am not in that area but think that para-casinos human trafficking can have some mafia involvement, but these are usually groups.

As to, "no one stepped", if it was a statement, consider that he has already made it. No need in manifestos with our modern echo chambers. I think he may be affiliated with a group, but the group is not interested in advertising the emergence of a new planned activity. We can guess what they want.

If the plan is terror (not sure yet), then it is not a political protest. Very interesting. It is economical protest. Insurance companies are monopolies. People whose protests don't target ideology, but the way the economy is run have to minimally understand this economy. They are usually younger. I am not even sure if it is anti-capitalist protest. It is the protest against how the monopolies are run, "make them better." "Improve them." He didn't write "free healthcare" on the bullets. He actually was protesting against the denials.

(If it was his plan. Could be perfectly personal, after all.)

Very interesting points. Great post

 

[Inthedetails]

How did the ransom cyberattack on the company get resolved?

 

[sleepysleuth]

I'd love more info about Brian Thompson. Was he an athlete? Was he a crypto fan? Into sports betting? Did he date? How discreetly did he date if so? There are so many possible motives out there, but with little information about BT, it's hard to prognosticate.

It is so strange to me that we haven’t heard the friends and nosey neighbors talking to the press yet.

 

[HanniBJeter]

Why would he target Brian Thompson and not the CEO of UnitedHealth Group, Andrew Witty? I believe Witty was also there for the meeting. <modsnip: Not victim friendly>

 

[Charlot123]

They each have a home worth over $1M, about a mile apart.

She works as a physio, IIRC.

Lots of money of course but who has or who wants it, I dunno. Yet.

I don't think anyone wanted this money. But if the DOJ probe revealed his involvement, he'd lose his job, most of his money and could get up to 20 years in prison. So could other people involved.

Preventing the loss of money is a good motive.

 

[getthefax]

How did the ransom cyberattack on the company get resolved?

EBM for typo and clarity.

Welll …

UHC paid the hackers $22 million in bitcoin to release their servers.
Worth noting that they had had plenty of time to clone them, so they got $22 million in untraceable cryptocurrency AND all the personal data on the entire UHC server network. That’s worth a ton on the dark web…

This data, I believe, would also easily motivate plenty of people to be hostile—they’d have a bird’s eye view of the company’s actions… so if you wanted, say, to be a modern anti-hero…you’d have plenty of reasons.

Link to source: Ransomware attack has cost UnitedHealth $872 million; total expected to surpass $1 billion

 

[KellySleuth]

Wife lives in the original $1 million home, deceased purchased a separate $1.5 million home less than a mile away. They've been separated since 2018.

Something about the wife’s statement struck me as being a little off. A little less personal than I would have expected. The fact that they’re separated it makes sense to me now.

 

[Marysmith]

He should have fake coughed a few times and said ‘I can’t but I wish I could’.

I wonder if he had to show his face thought for admittance to the hostel? At some places you have to upon entrance.