Lost In Panama

Transcript

At Birra Moretti, our passion for brewing has been transforming a few simple ingredients into a beer of unmistakable quality and taste since 18/59. Bira Moretti, brewed with passion. Brewed with passion. Get the facts. Be drink aware. Visit drinkaware.ai. Why choose a Volkswagen service for your Volkswagen commercial vehicle? The same reason people hire Cahill the builder, or Gary the painter, or Shane the electrician, Because our technicians know how to meet your vehicle's needs, like you meet those of your customers. And we only use 100% genuine parts with a 2 year warranty. So you know you're getting the best, just like your clients. Book your Volkswagen commercial vehicle service today at Volkswagen service dot ie. A warning. This episode contains discussion of sexual assault that may be disturbing. Listener discretion is advised. As a note, we reached out to Tim Ballard's attorney to request an interview, and our request went unanswered. And one last thing, after Tim Ballard left the anti trafficking organization, OUR, in 2023, it was renamed OUR Rescue. Its new leaders say they do not condone Tim Ballard's alleged actions while part of the old organization. I was molested and sexually assaulted by Tim in 4 different states, 5 different countries in the span of 10 months. Tim manipulated and abused and brainwashed me to a point where I didn't know left from right and right from wrong. He has ruined so many people's lives. As big as that like, my heart was for the mission, and I would do anything for the mission, like, as far as wanting to save kids, not anything. Like, I should stop and not say that because what what it got me in. Celeste Borys told me her first one on one with Tim Ballard was intense. She was working with Operation Underground Railroad, now known as OUR Rescue, or OUR for short, which was an organization that Ballard began in 2013, with the stated goal of rescuing children around the world from sex trafficking. So naturally, the stakes were high. But even under those circumstances, Ballard really laid it on thick. Celeste was in her office working late when Ballard burst in slamming the door behind him. He told her that he had asked God who could help him pull off one of his dangerous undercover operations, and he told her that he then saw her face. It must be a sign. They were meant to work together to help free children from enslavement. When someone says that God has hand chosen you to save children's lives, how do you say no? So, of course, she said yes. At that moment, there was no way for her to know what would happen when she and Ballard began working together more closely. There was no way for her to know the ways that Ballard would completely take over her life. And there was no way for her to know how he would take advantage of her trust in one of the most heinous ways imaginable. This is The Opportunist, an original podcast from podcast 1. You're listening to the first episode of a 10 part series on 10 Ballard and Operation Underground Railroad. I'm Sarah James McLaughlin. Remember the summer of 2023? A movie came out that became a surprise hit. It was called Sound of Freedom, and it was about a former US agent turned vigilante who went on a mission to rescue traffic children in Colombia. You might have heard of it, but you might not know the movie was based on the life of Tim Ballard, and you might not know much about him at all. But we're gonna fix that. With a 10 episode deep dive into him, his connections, his organization, and the mounting allegations against him. In this first episode, I dive into the story of Celeste Borys and her experience with Tim Ballard and OUR Rescue. I've spoken with Celeste several times and discussed her shocking allegations, accusing Ballard of unethical behavior during their work together, which have raised serious questions about OUR's methods, leadership, and even its true purpose. But before we get too deep into the specifics of Tim Ballard and the organization he founded, I wanna tell the story of Celeste Borys and how she got pulled into OUR's orbit and ultimately sucked into a black hole. Celeste Bory is what's first introduced to Operation Underground Railroad in the summer of 2021. She was 35 years old, living in northern Utah with her husband and 2 children. Formerly a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon Church, she was passionate about volunteering and helping people in any way she could. So OUR's mission was a natural fit. I joined Operation Underground Railroad to help save kids from sex trafficking. Celeste was fired up about the cause even before she was officially hired by the organization. She took the initiative to plan and carry out a huge fundraiser, which brought in nearly $25,000. So it's no surprise she was quickly offered a formal position. Celeste was so passionate about the cause, she was willing to do just about anything to pitch in. I said, whatever you guys need me to do. If you want me to, like, clean the bathrooms, if that's gonna help keep the lights on for the employees and save kids, I'll do that. Celeste worked for OUR for several months, coordinating volunteer efforts across several states. She was deeply committed to the work, doing whatever was required, attending events, running booths, selling merchandise. In her capacity, she didn't work directly with Tim Ballard yet, but she was aware of his larger than life presence. There was no way to escape it. What was your first impression of him? What kind of personality did he have? When Tim speaks to a crowd, you literally I mean, you can hear a needle drop on the floor. Everybody is, like, silent. He can draw a crowd in because he's so you know, his stories are so elaborate and believing and, you know, he cry you cry because they're so beautiful. And I said, I said, it is creepy how people are so obsessed with you. And he goes, I love it. I remember him telling me that. He was, I love it. I just love it. It wasn't until October of 2021 that Ballard approached Celeste, albeit in a dramatic fashion, with a new opportunity within OUR. He said that he was in the middle of working on an operation in London, and he needed to get another female job or, operator. It was a sensitive mission. According to Celeste's victim impact statement filed as part of her lawsuit against Tim Ballard, this new female operator would need to pose as Tim's girlfriend and get close to a woman who they suspected was being trafficked to help gain information about how to take down the ring. And he's like, I've been having the hardest time thinking who I could bring because I need somebody right for the job. These things are so particular, and I need somebody right. And he goes, I was just driving down the road, and I just closed my eyes, and I said a prayer. And he goes, I just I don't I just saw your face. Just popped in my mind. And he goes, and now it's crazy. I walked in the office, and you're the only one here. You're the only one here. I was just like, okay. So, he didn't even have my information, so he had me write down my phone number. And when I left that night, I was driving home, and I literally was like, what the f? Like, that is so weird. Weirdness aside, Celeste wasn't sure she was cut out for going undercover to break up child sex trafficking rings. For one, she didn't have the background or the training. But instead of addressing her concerns, he merely brushed them off. Instead, he tried to boost her confidence. I always thought operations were, like, big guys, like, with combat boots running through the door. I go, that's not me at all. And, he goes, you'd be surprised some of the best operators are women. And I've I was like, really? And he said, yeah. He goes he goes, women are the kids talk to women on, on operations, and so women are some some of the women are the best operators and have saved so many kids on our ops, and that just made sense to me. Eventually, Celeste was convinced to join Ballard in his high stakes operations. From the beginning, there was a sense of cloak and dagger secrecy. Ballard directed Celeste to head to California for training. Ballard was there for a big OUR board meeting, which Celeste had helped plan. This wasn't a normal work trip. He had also challenged her to get to California without telling anyone else where she was going or why. Borie's safety was of little concern. She was traveling alone, and only Ballard knew her whereabouts. If anything were to happen to her, her family wouldn't even know where to look for her, and he would have plausible deniability. And I wasn't allowed to talk to anybody about it, and that was the that was the first that was the first kicker. Like, that was actually, like, my first test. And he's like, I need you in California this weekend so we can train you. And I it was also like, it all happened so fast because it wasn't normal. And he said, but the but we're gonna see if you can get there without anyone seeing it's like it was almost like combat training. It was like, let's see if you can get there without anyone knowing. So Celeste booked herself a flight. When she arrived in California, she was put up in a hotel room, and Ballard came to give her a rundown on how things work in operations. And Celeste's victim statement filed as part of her lawsuit against Tim Ballard, she writes that she felt uncomfortable when Ballard came into her hotel room. I remember thinking the very first time he walked into my hotel room, the first time even as little as, like, okay, he's in my hotel room by my himself. I felt really uncomfortable. He's but I couldn't say, hey. Maybe let's go to the lobby or let's go to a conference room. Because if he were to disagree with me, how awkward would that be? So, of course, he wouldn't do anything wrong. Of course, he's Tim Ballard. He's Tim Ballard. He's Tim Ballard. So I really had to normalize things until I was so desensitized for to the most heinous things. Ballard launched into an explanation of his undercover alter ego, Brian Black. He would regularly become this character with a fairly low effort disguise that included a wig and fake tattoos. He also laid out a strategy called the couple's ruse. We'll get into this more later, but, basically, the couple's ruse was a tactic used by Ballard and OUR to provide cover for their operatives. The idea was that when infiltrating sex trafficking rings, OUR members would seem less suspicious if they appear to be a couple. Working in pairs, they could sort of block each other from having to participate in unethical or compromising behavior. According to Celeste, one example that Ballard gave was a hypothetical situation where 2 OUR operatives were gathering intel at a strip club. If a dancer tried to give the male operative a lap dance, then the female operative could block this by sitting on his lap instead. Ballard laid out the rules for operations. No kissing or touching private parts, and no being alone with escorts. But Ballard warned that certain things had to be convincing to pull off this ruse. Celeste says Ballard warned that traffickers could smell pheromones, and so they had to make their chemistry seem real, which might even involve simulating sex. Now, granted, people engaged in risky illegal activities like human trafficking would be on alert for potential undercover agents, but it's a little over the top for Ballard to say they could smell pheromones. Traffickers are still humans. They don't somehow have a superhuman sense of smell. So Ballard was probably playing up the threat of exposure to manipulate female operators. So he basically told you you needed to pretend to be his girlfriend and that if you deviated from that, that you were putting children at risk. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So when you found yourself in this situation, did you did you trust him? It wasn't even that. It was more so my life was at risk. In her victim statement, Celeste recalled being gobsmacked by all this information. I'm wondering if HR was going to pop out of the closet to stop what Ballard was doing and saying. But no one showed up to question what was happening. The organization seemed to promote a culture that said, this is business as usual. And so Celeste was pulled deeper into Ballard's schemes. Yeah. I mean, it was stressful because it wasn't normal. It was stressful, but it was stressful in a sense that I wasn't a trained operator. But it was normal for, Tim. Like, Tim said it was normal. Like, this was normal work that operators do. As if it wasn't bad enough that Ballard had sprung all of this information on Celeste, he then proceeded to physically force himself on her. According to her victim impact statement, before Ballard left her hotel room, he hugged Celeste, then lifted her shirt to look at her stomach. He commented on her body, saying he didn't know she was so hot, because she was always covered up at the office. Ballard then pulled Celeste into him and kissed her neck. With all of their clothes still on, he had her lay down on the bed, wrapped one of her legs over his shoulder, and thrust his hips forward, demonstrating how to simulate sex without actual penetration. Ballard had taken her passion for helping children and used it to lure her hundreds of miles away from home, get her alone, and take advantage of her. And Ballard swore Celeste to complete secrecy about her operations training, and made her keep up with the full time job she was already working on top of her new duties. That meant she was essentially working 2 jobs for the price of 1, and it left her with little time for herself or her family. I was Tim's executive assistant for the better part of 12 months. During that time, I was the closest person to Tim. I traveled with him around the world thinking we were saving kids for and doing something good. Over time, Ballard became increasingly unstable and emotionally dependent on Celeste. She said he would call around the clock, straining her relationship with her husband to a breaking point. Balan further manipulated Celeste's emotions by claiming that he would, quote, put a bullet in his head if she ever left him and the organization. He also served as his personal therapist at all hours of the day and night. I had to be available 247 to give assurances to Tim of what a great guy he is to navigate his emotional meltdowns and his grit of suicide. No one did anything to protect me. I worked tirelessly day and night for the good of the cause. I sacrificed time I can never get back from my family, my kids, and my husband. My for my efforts and my sacrifice, I was left with a broken marriage, a broken spirit. This is episode 1 of the opportunist season 10, unmasking a hero. To listen to the rest of the episode, head over to The Opportunist wherever you listen to podcasts. At Birra Moretti, our passion for brewing has been transforming a few simple ingredients into a beer of unmistakable quality and taste since 18/59. Brewed with passion. Get the facts. Be drink aware. Visit drinkaware.