The brazen assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on December 4 in New York City has prompted unseemly celebrations of his death by critics of for-profit health insurance—and sleuthing into his background by curious internet users.
Some social media users have shared a video that they claim features Thompson bragging about having Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California “working for us” to procure a government grant for the company.
These claims are false. The man in the video is indeed named Brian Thompson and he’s a CEO, but it’s a different Brian Thompson. The video is from 2012, and the Brian Thompson who is speaking was then CEO of Powergetics, a clean energy startup. That hasn’t stopped X users from making false assertions.
“The death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has some strange coincidences,” the X account, “Wall Street Apes,” tweeted to its 666,000 followers with the video clip. “Here he is saying he works with NANCY PELOSI to get grants.”
Internet influencer Matt Wallace, who boasts more than 2.2 million followers on X, also shared the video. “Here is a desurfaced [sic] video of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson talking about working directly with Nancy Pelosi. They are desperately trying to stop the public from seeing this!” he tweeted. “Coincidences this big rarely happen…”
“A resurfaced video shows UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson admitting to working with Nancy Pelosi to secure grants,” tweeted “Shadow of Ezra,” an X account with more than 600,000 followers. “The mainstream media says these connections aren’t worth investigating.”
The viral video clip of the clean energy executive was taken in March 2012 from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Entrepreneurs Workshop, a program that brought notable graduates of the university’s Wharton School of Business to speak with current graduate students. A University of Pennsylvania website page of the event described Thompson as “a serial entrepreneur, executive, and early stage investor” who shared “insights on team formation, angel financing, venture capital, product development, and product marketing.”
According to his introduction at the workshop, the clean energy executive had previously graduated from Duke University with a bachelor’s degree in public policy, and he later earned a business graduate degree from Wharton. A public profile of the clean energy executive’s LinkedIn page confirms those academic credentials. Conversely, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson graduated from the University of Iowa with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He had worked for UHC since 2004.
According to his LinkedIn Bio, Thompson, the clean energy executive, currently works as an independent director for Bridge to Renewables, a company that analyzes electric vehicle data. He is also an investor in Stem, Inc.—formerly Powergetics—though he is no longer the company’s CEO.
The Brian Thompson featured in the video confirmed his identity to the Dispatch Fact Check. “I can confirm that I am the person in the Wharton Entrepreneur Workshop video that is linked here,” he said. “The video appears to have been misused and misquoted on X, falsely attributing it to recently passed UnitedHealthcare CEO.”
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