Someone With Big Money On The Line Or Facing 12 Years In Prison Hired The Hitman To Kill Brian Thompson

As of the writing of this op-ed, the man who assassinated Brian Thompson has not been officially identified. He is still at large. The manhunt for him is of the intensity that one would find if a U.S. District Court judge had been assassinated, for example. No expense is being spared to find out who he is and where he is.

   I have some preliminary conclusions that I would like to share with you. This young man is not a U.S., Canadian, citizen or permanent resident. His fingerprints, DNA, and facial recognition would have tied to somebody. We know he is a Caucasian of slender build and not very tall. He could have come from many different countries around the world. Law enforcement is madly checking Interpol and other databases around the world including Israel's and I suspect China's. 

     Firearms and criminal investigation experts have studied the videos of the assassination in detail. The man was not a professional killer with training from some military or law enforcement agency. His shooting style was odd and not conventional. A professional would have stood differently and gone right for a headshot. He made a lot of mistakes that left all sorts of clues to his identity.

       United Health Care has a sad statistic. It rejects 33% of claims submitted. (In comparison Kaiser where Elena and I have medical coverage rejects 7% of the care applications.) Many people suspect that a relative of his was denied care and died. He was out to get revenge. I reject this supposition. Despite some of the amateur actions of the killer, I can tell you that a large sum of money was invested to get him into position to shoot Brian Thompson. Someone with a large amount of money at stake wanted him killed. I would urge the law enforcement agencies to look carefully at his estranged wife and senior executives at United Health Care. If Brian died, most likely the estranged wife and two of her sons would have received an estate valued in the range of more than $100 million. She would have received far less money in a divorce action. Law enforcement should look carefully to see if she has a new romantic interest who would encourage such an action.

       There was a major criminal investigation underway against senior executives of United Healthcare. It is alleged that they used insider information illegally to sell $105 million in United Healthcare stock. One found guilty of insider trading at this level could expect to receive a prison sentence in the range of 12 years. Someone or a group of people may have decided that Brian would have agreed to testify against them. He had to be silenced. It is very odd to me that his security person was not made available to escort him from one hotel to another where he was shot dead.

    I think that the assassin fled the US on some airline flight. He is now sitting in a country without an extradition treaty with the U.S.

    Law enforcement professionals around the world will tell you that it is not easy to hire "a hit man or woman." These people do not advertise. Signal intelligence agencies like The National Security Agency, and civilian and military intelligence agencies listened in on voice calls, emails, and text messages, to detect such communications. Iranians repeatedly get assassination plots thwarted by vigilance on the part of law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Whoever put this assassination together was a real professional who outsmarted all these agencies.

    One day a best-selling book and blockbuster movie will be made about this event.