AFLDS Founder Dr. Simone Gold and her long-standing management team worked tirelessly in 2023 to protect the donations that support its mission of fighting for the medical freedom of all Americans. Unfortunately, several fraudulent actors illegitimately posing as AFLDS personnel have converted significant amounts of donor funds from banks and law firm trust accounts with the assistance of (and in some cases with the knowledge of) their attorneys. These fraudulent actors relied on the actions of their legal counsel to shield their criminal conduct by asserting attorney-client privilege. But the Crime-Fraud Exception to Attorney-Client Privilege allows and encourages fraud victims and plaintiffs to pierce the “veil” of attorney-client privilege in cases where criminal conduct is discovered by the defrauded victim.
For this exception to apply, the client must have been in the process of committing a crime or planning to commit a crime. In cases involving financial crimes, falsifying information about income or ownership, or hiding assets can trigger the crime-fraud exception. If the crime-fraud exception applies, a judge can compel the attorney to produce the evidence of the crime or for the victim to disclose evidence of criminal activity that the victim or plaintiff becomes aware of. This may include evidence of perjury, crucial evidence, missing witnesses or persons in danger, or serious threats of harm. The crime-fraud exception usually applies to communications and conduct regarding ongoing or future crimes.
Anonymous sources have provided The Gateway Pundit evidence of such financial crimes at AFLDS as well as at two other nonprofits. In the AFLDS situation, there are at least three attorneys – Rachel Rodriguez, Lauren Bradford, and Joey Gilbert – who appear to have aided and abetted in this fraud. These criminal actors and their attorneys appear to have been further facilitated in this financial fraud by another financial entity that had a contractual obligation to protect its client AFLDS but in fact, has done significant damage to AFLDS.
In 2022, Founder and Chairman Dr. Gold discovered Board member and attorney Joey Gilbert was committing financial malfeasance, and she sued to remove him and Board member Jurgen Matthesius for breaching their fiduciary duty of protecting AFLDS. A few months later, the disgraced Board members abruptly resigned but not without one or both giving cover and enabling Kevin Jenkins, attorney Rachel Rodriguez, and attorney Lauren Bradford to commit massive fraud and theft of AFLDS donated funds. Kevin Jenkins and Rachel Rodriguez impersonated AFLDS employees and officers with the assistance of attorney Lauren Bradford, who apparently forged documents to give Jenkins and Rodriguez “semblance” of corporate authority to cover their crimes. We have seen documents in which these three actors, in their own words, have admitted to committing corporate identity theft and we hope the relevant State Attorneys General and state Bar commissions will be investigating these actions. Disgraced and terminated former AFLDS attorney Lauren Bradford has been credibly accused of criminal activity, including forging documents and corporate websites that enabled the various incidents of financial conversion by Jenkins and Rodriguez.
Kevin Jenkins, a person with a checkered past including 34 liens and judgments against him in the public record [34 Liens & Judgments]who has never been on the AFLDS payroll, conspired with his personal attorney Rachel Rodriguez throughout 2023 to seize funds from various AFLDS bank accounts. Rachel Rodriguez falsely held herself out as corporate counsel for AFLDS and Kevin Jenkins falsely said he was CEO. [RRNeverWorkedAFLDS] Rachel Rodriguez and Kevin Jenkins then approached a bank to attempt to swindle $600,000 of AFLDS money. The Bank Manager affirms that these two people had no relationship to any AFLDS account [Security Bank]. Under Dr. Gold’s direction, AFLDS filed a police report of this attempted theft. [*PoliceReportAgainstKJRR]
When Rodriguez and Jenkins were foiled from stealing this money, Rodriguez then filed a police report complaining about her inability to have accomplished this theft. This was confusing to the detective, who noted in his police report that Rodriguez had no proof of ownership of the account they were trying to abscond funds from. [*RRAttemptedBankTheft] In addition, the sum of $393K of AFLDS money was illegitimately transferred from the Wagenmaker law firm trust account to Rachel Rodriguez of the Vires law firm trust account in May of 2023.
Kevin Jenkins’ attorney Rachel Rodriguez falsely changed the Florida State Sunbiz website, which is a felony, and both attorneys Lauren Bradford and Rachel Rodriguez falsified the Arizona Secretary of State website to create this semblance of corporate authority. The extent of attorneys Lauren Bradford and Rachel Rodriguez’s crimes are not yet fully known to us.
Attorney Rachel Rodriguez has been served multiple times with a cease and desist from claiming to be an AFLDS worker and to cease engaging in financial and other fraud. [*14a. RRCease and Desist] The Gateway Pundit has reviewed financial documents that prove that Rachel Rodriguez and Lauren Bradford have illegitimately received many hundreds of thousands of dollars from AFLDS funds.
These actions occurred while Dr. Gold was in the process of seeking judicial removal of the Board Members for financial malfeasance, failure to do due diligence, and breach of their fiduciary duty required of a Board member. Both the mega-church Awaken Pastor Jurgen Matthesius and Nevada attorney Joey Gilbert abruptly resigned from the Board in disgrace March 31, 2023, as simultaneously all their previous attorneys suddenly withdrew. Prior to that, Gilbert approved more than $57,000 to be sent to close Gilbert associate and personal attorney Adam Fulton, who was not litigating the case. We can only speculate that the former attorneys discovered their misdeeds and did not want themselves to be implicated.
Thanks to the Crime-Fraud Exception, non-profit organizations such as America’s Frontline Doctors can now bring these fraudulent actors to justice more quickly without the high cost and uncertainty of discovery and litigation. If you have evidence or suspicion that AFLDS or another non-profit has fallen victim to similar fraud, please email us. Donations are a precious resource that must not be wasted.
This is a developing story, and The Gateway Pundit will continue to keep you informed.
