As a Rising Political Star, Gabbard Paid to Mask Her Sect’s Ties to Alleged Scheme

To defend and burnish Tulsi Gabbard’s image as her political star was rising, her congressional campaign hired a public-affairs firm in 2017 that tried to suppress coverage of an alleged pyramid scheme connected to her Hindu sect, according to interviews, emails and Federal Election Commission records. Gabbard, a former House member who is now President Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence , was raised in the Science of Identity Foundation, a sect tied to a direct-marketing firm accused of running a pyramid scheme in several countries. Neither Gabbard, the sect nor the firm, QI Group, wanted the relationships scrutinized. Gabbard’s campaign paid Washington, D.C.,-based Potomac Square Group for the PR cleanup, trying to mask the connections. But the operation was directed by a Science of Identity follower—and longtime Gabbard adviser—who sits on the board of a QI subsidiary. The revelations shed further light on Gabbard’s ties to the religious group—publicly described by some former followers as a cult that demands total loyalty to its founder—and to the Hong Kong-based QI, which has been a target of criminal and civil cases alleging fraud and racketeering in at least seven countries. Lawmakers have looked closely at Gabbard’s connections with Science of Identity and QI ahead of her confirmation hearing Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee, according to people familiar with the matter. Gabbard’s ties raise questions about her judgment and loyalty, congressional staffers said. Gabbard and many of her former Capitol Hill staffers are followers of the sect, people with knowledge of the matter said. Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, has called Chris Butler , the sect’s leader, her “guru dev,” a Hindu term that is frequently translated as divine teacher. Science of Identity is entwined with QI, according to real-estate and corporate records, as well as interviews with former followers. Sunil Khemaney, who serves on the board of one of QI’s subsidiaries, is a longtime political fundraiser for Gabbard. She has described him as an “uncle.” Trump nominated Gabbard for one of the most sensitive roles in the federal government. Senate confirmation would give the 43-year-old former lawmaker the task of coordinating the work of all U.S. spy agencies , including the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and the intelligence branch of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Gabbard’s parents are followers of Butler, a former Hare Krishna disciple who founded Science of Identity Foundation in Hawaii in the 1970s. They raised Gabbard in the group, said former followers, who described Butler’s demands of fealty. Some adherents mixed Butler’s toenail clippings into their meals, two former followers said, as a sign of devotion. Others used his shoes as prayer totems, they said. A spokeswoman for the sect declined to respond to questions, accusing The Wall Street Journal of “falsehoods, half-truths, and misrepresentations.” A QI spokeswoman said the company and its principals “refute any connection with Tulsi Gabbard .” “The QI Group has no knowledge of, and has had no involvement in the Congressional Campaign of Ms. Gabbard,” the spokeswoman said. Christopher Cooper, Potomac’s managing director, said the campaign hired Potomac for help managing “online attacks related to her religion” and didn’t seek to conceal Gabbard’s relationship with Butler. Potomac worked separately for the sect on media strategy, he said, “with no involvement from the Gabbard campaign.” Gabbard’s relative inexperience in national intelligence, as well as her past support for regimes in Russia and Syria, has raised concern among some national-security officials and lawmakers. Gabbard served two years on the House Homeland Security committee. Gabbard seemed confused about a key U.S. national-security surveillance power in recent meetings with Senate Republicans. GOP lawmakers are expected to support her nomination. Trump said Gabbard “will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our Intelligence Community, championing our Constitutional Rights, and securing Peace through Strength,” in his statement announcing her nomination. A spokeswoman in the Trump administration responded on behalf of Gabbard to emailed inquiries from the Journal by posting screenshots of the email to her X account on Friday, calling the questions and Journal findings “Hinduphobic smears and other lies about” Gabbard. In a follow-up email, the spokeswoman said Gabbard would “speak truth to power and isn’t afraid to take on rogue bureaucrats and those who politicize the [intelligence community], and this is why President Trump nominated her.” ‘Ponzi scheme’ Science of Identity adherents believe that to achieve peace, they must break from worldly desires. Followers abstain from eating meat, taking drugs, drinking alcohol, gambling and having sex outside of marriage, according to former followers. The group discourages relationships with anyone outside the group, which operates in Hawaii, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere. It also has run sect-affiliated schools in Hawaii and the Philippines. Butler, the sect’s leader, enforces a rigid hierarchy among followers, who are assigned a letter grade. A small number of people who work directly for Butler are designated with the letter A. They are the only followers allowed close physical proximity to Butler or to anything he touches, two former disciples said. “It’s a cult,” said Lalita Mann, a former follower. “You’ve got a charismatic leader who is seen as a messiah figure…the only pathway to salvation.” Science of Identity has described such characterizations as anti-Hindu bigotry. Followers who attain a certain status in the group are initiated in a ceremony and given a new name, former disciples said. At least four former adherents said they believe that Gabbard was initiated and received the name Shraddha Dasi . Science of Identity and QI have been linked since at least 2007, when QI purchased Healthy’s, the parent company of the sect-affiliated Down to Earth grocery store chain. Sect followers founded and operated the chain, which has six locations in Hawaii. Down to Earth didn’t respond to requests for comment. QI was founded in 1998 by Vijay Eswaran and Joseph Bismark , a Filipino businessman who is a Science of Identity follower. In September, at QI Group’s annual convention in Malaysia, employees knelt to touch Eswaran’s feet, while he blessed them, according to videos Eswaran posted to Facebook . QI began under a different name as an e-commerce portal that sold commemorative gold and silver coins in developing countries. It went on to sell luxury watches, air purifiers and nutritional products . The company is a member of the World Economic Forum and participates in the forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. A subsidiary sponsors the Manchester City Football Club. Among the company’s enterprises is a multilevel marketing system. Customers can sign up to be distributors, buying gadgets, jewelry, beauty care and other products and then sell them for a share of the profits. Customers also are encouraged to recruit others to become distributors—earning money from their sales as well. QI subsidiaries were banned in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Rwanda in the 2000s after being declared pyramid schemes, according to media reports at the time. In a January 2023 press release, Indian prosecutors called the India franchise of QI’s direct-selling business, Qnet, a “Ponzi scheme in the guise of a direct selling business” after conducting a raid on several of its locations. Indian authorities didn’t respond to inquiries about the status of the investigation. In 2009, Indian authorities filed criminal charges against 25 people and entities related to Qnet’s local network, including Eswaran and Allan Tibby , a senior Science of Identity figure. The case involved more than 32,000 alleged victims in India’s Tamil Nadu state, according to police records. Qnet’s local network settled with about half of the complainants, and a court closed the case in early 2020. “There are no related cases brought by authorities against me that remain active,” Tibby said. A separate case sprang out of the 2009 investigation. Indian authorities alleged that Qnet’s local network had falsified its books for years. In August 2023, a district court in Chennai prosecuted company directors who signed falsified company statements. The case is ongoing, court documents show. Unwanted scrutiny Khemaney—Gabbard’s longtime political adviser—was a shareholder in a New Zealand company formed to produce an action movie, “The Lost Prince,” in the 1990s. Butler, the Science of Identity leader, was to write, direct, and co-produce the film, court records show. It was never made. Among his current roles, Khemaney is executive director of a yoga business led by Wai Lana , who is married to Butler, according to tax filings and Hong Kong court records. Lana was previously married to Khemaney. Khemaney has long served on the board of Healthy’s, which operates the Down to Earth grocery chain. Eswaran and Bismark, co-founders of QI Group, joined the board by 2016 and 2015, respectively, corporate records show. The QI spokeswoman at first denied any company ties to Khemaney. After being shown evidence of Khemaney’s seat on Healthy’s board, the spokeswoman said he served “solely as an inactive, non-executive director.” As Gabbard’s political profile grew in 2017, and she contemplated a 2020 presidential bid, public scrutiny of her roots in Science of Identity intensified. Gabbard’s campaign, Tulsi for Hawaii, hired Potomac Square Group, paying the firm $19,400 in October 2017, FEC records show. Under Khemaney’s direction, Potomac worked to obscure longstanding connections between Gabbard and Butler, as well as between QI and Science of Identity, according to documents reviewed by the Journal and a person familiar with the matter. Potomac targeted journalists who had conducted research into the groups, for instance, writing an email to a magazine editor questioning the credentials of a reporter working on a related article. Khemaney didn’t respond to requests for comment. Cooper, of Potomac, declined to provide billing records or other evidence showing the firm’s work for Science of Identity was separate from its work on behalf of Gabbard. A sect spokeswoman declined to say whether the group had hired Potomac. Potomac also prepared materials that defended QI and Eswaran, according to documents reviewed by the Journal and a person with knowledge of the operation. Jeannie Bishop , Science of Identity Foundation president, was also involved in the project, according to the person. Bishop didn’t respond to requests for comment. Gabbard has rarely addressed her ties to the Science of Identity Foundation and its leader Chris Butler. “I can speak to my own personal experience and, frankly, my gratitude to him,” she said in a 2017 magazine profile, “for the gift of this wonderful spiritual practice that he has given to me, and to so many people.” Write to Brett Forrest at brett.forrest@wsj.com , Caitlin Ostroff at caitlin.ostroff@wsj.com and Rebecca Feng at rebecca.feng@wsj.com https://www.berlingske.dk/internationalt/as-a-rising-political-star-gabbard-paid-to-mask-her-sects-ties-to