[00:00] You really basically became an internet sleuth, didn't you? I did become an internet sleuth. I got in touch with, initially, 40 victims. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at the ordinary people who raised red flags
[00:13] about dangerous, corrupt, or abusive figures before the rest of the world caught on. I think we've all realized by now everyone with a brain knows this case is going nowhere. This case will be over sooner or later. Anyone with a brain can understand that. For this video, we're looking at whistleblowers, victims, co-workers, journalists, and bystanders
[00:27] whose warnings were ignored, dismissed, or buried. Floyd Landis warned us about Lance Armstrong. Former star of professional cycling drops a bombshell after years of denial. Disgrace racer Floyd Landis confessed to doping up.
[00:41] And he assigned a throw to Ford's biggest wheel under the bus too. But will the allegations fly with local riders? After being stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title for doping, Floyd Landis spent years denying wrongdoing before finally admitting in 2010 that he had doped.
[00:56] But that confession also came with a much bigger claim. He alleged that Lance Armstrong and other elite riders had doped too. At first, plenty of people dismissed him as bitter, disgraced, or simply trying to drag others down with him. But I'd remind everybody that this is a man that's been under oath several times and had a very different version.
[01:11] This is a man that wrote a book for profit that had a completely different version. This is somebody that took so much they cost a million dollars from innocent people for his defense.
[01:23] Landis later filed a federal whistleblower lawsuit against Armstrong under the False Claims Act. He alleged that Armstrong and team managers had defrauded the U.S. government through the U.S. Postal Service sponsorship. In 2018, Armstrong agreed to pay the U.S. government $5 million to settle the case.
[01:38] I didn't think I got out scot-free because the settlement with them for five was probably the tenth settlement. You know, there were all of these cases and the team, unbeknownst to me, had insured most of my pay, most of my bonuses.
[01:53] I knew about one of the insurance companies. But then they just started coming in. I was like, who are you? Efrazina Angelova warned us about Armie Hammer. I met Armie Hammer on Facebook in 2016 when I was 20 years old.
[02:09] I fell in love with him instantly. The relationship progressed that way, and the emotions from both sides became really intense. When allegations against Armie Hammer first exploded online, a lot of the public focused on the most lurid details.
[02:22] But behind the memes and morbid curiosity was a woman known publicly as Effie, later identified as Efrazina Angelova. In 2021, she accused Hammer of sexually assaulting her in Los Angeles in 2017, while Hammer's attorney called the allegation outrageous and denied it.
[02:52] me is a twisted form of love. In 2024, Angelova published a long Medium post laying out her account of their relationship, including alleged messages, coercive behavior, and psychological harm. Los Angeles prosecutors
[03:04] later declined to file charges against Hammer, citing insufficient evidence. That's legally significant to be sure, but not the same thing as disproving what she said. My hope in speaking out about the abuse endured at the hands of
[03:16] Harvey Hammer is that he will be held accountable. I feel immense guilt for not speaking out sooner because I feel that I might have been able to save others from becoming victims.
[03:28] Sharon Watkins warned us about Kenneth Way. It really seems like yesterday. It does not seem like two decades ago, but in fact it was 20 years ago, and it's amazing how much Enron is still the
[03:42] byword for mega corporate scandal. A former vice president of corporate development at Enron, Sharon Watkins discovered and reported accounting irregularities to CEO Kenneth Lay in August 2001.
[03:54] Enron began an inquiry, but her concerns were largely dismissed, in part because the investigation wasn't truly independent. I really had had no real job ever since reporting the accounting fraud to Ken Lay.
[04:06] So I ended up calling the head of HR, Cindy Olson, to say, what do I do? And she said, hey, if you didn't get a phone call over the weekend that you're working for the bankrupt estate, then you're leaving just like everyone else.
[04:20] Watkins has been criticized for not going public or taking her concerns to authority sooner, but as an internal warning, her case is painfully clear. She saw a financial disaster forming inside one of America's most admired companies and tried to alert leadership before the collapse became unavoidable.
[04:34] Watkins was later named one of Time's 2002 Persons of the Year alongside Colleen Rowley and Cynthia Cooper. All of them used losing their retirement funds. Enron matched your retirement contribution with Enron stock.
[04:48] And if you put your own contribution in stock, it was a double win. Frank Serpico warned us about corrupt officers in the NYPD. Don't be so fuzzy. I'm doing this. Not a question. I'm going to eat this.
[05:01] Charlie's an okay guy. You give him a break on double parking on deliveries. Frank Serpico became famous enough to be played by Al Pacino, but before the movie, he was a cop making enemies by refusing to play along. In 1967, Serfico reported credible evidence of systemic police corruption within the department, but little changed.
[05:16] He later helped bring national attention to the issue through a 1970 New York Times front page story. Delaney's going to issue some phony denial. Somebody from the mayor's office will say something noble. Delaney will change his tune.
[05:29] And then finally, the mayor is going to appoint a judge. I'm ashamed to say, Liz, you're not the only one. We have a special five-man committee to review the six procedures for investigating police corruption. How come I'm not in the first paragraph? That's kind of horrible.
[05:41] That public pressure helped lead Mayor John Lindsay to assemble the Knapp Commission. Saprico's warning came at a serious cost. In 1971, he was shot during an arrest in Brooklyn under suspicious circumstances. He survived, testified before the Knapp Commission,
[05:54] and became a symbol of what happens when an honest person challenges a corrupt system from inside it. It's a goddamn serious death night. I don't know if the timing is right. Look, I want it to get on the record.
[06:11] Joseph C. Wilson warned us about George W. Bush. I believed that the facts that had been conveyed by the president to the American people were not facts at all Were not sustained at all by the intelligence we had And I believe that we had a right as citizens to know the exact reasons why we went to war
[06:29] And if, in fact, we had been misled, the intelligence had been misled, and we had been misled into a war of choice rather than a true war of national security. In 2002, Joe Wilson traveled to Niger at the CIA's request to examine claims that Saddam Hussein had tried to purchase yellow cake uranium.
[06:45] After interviewing officials, Wilson concluded that such a transaction was highly doubtful. Then, in President George W. Bush's 2003 State of the Union Address, the administration included the now infamous 16 words claiming that the British government had learned Iraq sought uranium from Africa.
[06:59] The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes
[07:12] suitable for nuclear weapons production. Sir, I'm afraid it's not credibly explained, these activities. Wilson responded in the New York Times with an op-ed titled, What I Didn't Find in Africa,
[07:25] arguing that some intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear program had been twisted to exaggerate the threat. Wilson's warning didn't stop the Iraq War, but it became one of its clear public challenges. I expected them to come after me, and I thought that after two days,
[07:38] the press would focus less on me and more on the question of if they misled the American people on this, what else my business would be racking people up on. Danny Gonzalez warned us about Andrew Cain.
[07:51] On the surface, this kind of just seems like a trailer for a club where you get to hang out with a bunch of bald guys and smoke cigars and talk about business and making money. One year ago, I did not even have a business. I didn't make money. No one makes five figures in your month.
[08:03] I didn't have a business. I didn't make money. I didn't even want to start a business before I was forced to join the war room at gunpoint a year ago. On paper, Danny Gonzalez making a video about an alpha male club sounds like standard YouTube
[08:15] comedy. In hindsight, it plays a little differently. Gonzalez, a commentary YouTuber known for dissecting internet culture, posted a video called Terrifying Alpha Male Club, taking aim at the hyper-masculine world around Andrew Tate before Tate's legal
[08:27] troubles became impossible to ignore. This is insane. And then he gets them to join his webcam empire where he gets them to do, you know, he gets them to get nasty on camera. I'm not a lawyer, but does this not does this not feel illegal?
[08:40] At the very least, this seems like insanely creepy. This feels abusive. It feels like he's just confessing to crime. By late 2022, Romanian authorities had arrested Andrew and Tristan Tate. They have since faced investigations and charges related to human trafficking and other serious allegations, all of which they deny.
[08:57] In 2026, Romanian prosecutors expanded an investigation into Andrew Tate to include alleged incitement of hatred and discrimination against women. Are you going to go back to America or how long are you going to stay in Romania? Well, you know, I'm not convicted of any crimes.
[09:10] I'm a free person who has not been convicted of anything just the same as you are or anyone else here so I can take a holiday anywhere I want. Charlotte Lodge warned us about Hunter Moore. You can go down rabbit holes, but you made progress fast.
[09:23] Yeah, I mean, he was very front and center on his site, so I knew who was behind it, but I didn't know the truth about him because he put forward so many lies that I had to really investigate to find out who he was, where he lived,
[09:35] and what avenue I could take to get her content down. Charlotte Lodge didn't set out to become an internet watchdog. That changed after an infinite image of her daughter Kayla was posted without consent on Hunter Moore's site, Is Anyone Up? Rather than dismissing it as just another ugly corner of the internet, Laws contacted the FBI, which launched an investigation.
[09:52] Absolutely. I mean, there were thousands of victims out there, and there are also no laws in place to protect victims against revenge porn. Which is so stunning to me. I know. Amazing. Absolutely amazing. It was a new thing back then. Nobody really knew about it.
[10:05] Laws found that many of the images on the site had allegedly been obtained through hacking. Moore threatened her and she received death threats, computer viruses, and even dealt with a stalker at her home. The FBI arrested Moore and hacker Charles Evans in January 2014.
[10:18] Moore later pleaded guilty to federal computer hacking and identity theft charges, receiving two and a half years in federal prison. How does it feel to be the most hated man on the internet? Do you have anything to say to those people whose pictures you posted online without their permission, nude, and ruined their lives?
[10:34] Rita Chatterton warned us about Vince McMahon. I was offered a half a million dollar a year contract. I was told that I was going to be so big, my name would be a household item. Everyone would know who I was.
[10:46] His exact words were, how are you going to feel the first time you walk past a newsstand and see your face on the cover of Time magazine? As Rita Marie Chatterton became the World Wrestling Federation's first female referee in 1984.
[10:59] Years later, she accused WWF promoter Vince McMahon of assaulting her in 1986, her final year with the company. In 1992, she publicly told her story on Geraldo Rivera's show. McMahon denied the allegation and sued Shatterton, Rivera, and the producers,
[11:12] though that lawsuit was later abandoned.
[11:34] For years, Chatterton's allegation received limited attention, partly because the WWF was surrounded by other scandals at the time. Then in 2022, her account resurfaced amid new misconduct allegations involving McMahon.
[11:46] Wrestler Leonard Insatari corroborated her story in New York Magazine, and Chatterton later filed a lawsuit seeking $11.75 million. McMahon settled while maintaining his innocence. When I couldn't complete his desires, he got really angry, started ripping off my jeans,
[12:04] told me on top of him, and told me again, if I wanted a half a million dollar a year contract, I had to satisfy him.
[12:16] He could make me or break me, and if I didn't satisfy him, I was blackballed. Marco Butkovich warned us about John Wayne Gacy. The final words of the serial killer, quote, Taking my life would not compensate for the loss of the others.
[12:28] This is the state murdering me. The prosecutor put it this way. He got a much easier death than any of his victims. Few stories on this list are as painful as that of Marco Butkovich. His son John Butkovich was an 18 employee of John Wayne Gacy PDM contractors who disappeared on July 31 1975 The day before John and two friends had confronted Gacy over two weeks of unpaid wages
[12:50] After John vanished, his car was found abandoned with his jacket and wallet inside. When questioned by police, Gacy claimed the wage dispute had been settled and that John had left. Over the next three years, Butkovich's parents reportedly called police more than a hundred times,
[13:03] urging them to investigate Gacy further. Gacy later confessed to killing John, whose body was identified after investigators uncovered the scale of Gacy's crimes. He had said that he was going to make an addition,
[13:15] but he was going to go upwards. And then he was going to cement the crawl space. And then when this came out, we thought, well, nothing would have been found if he had done that. Colleen Rowley warned us about the 9-11 terrorists.
[13:29] Everyone is loathe to tell the truth. No one is going to fully admit what they knew, why they didn't share information, why they didn't act on it. And so they come up with excuses and rationales.
[13:43] Well, the main quick early excuse was no one would have known planes would fly into buildings. A retired FBI special agent and whistleblower, Colleen Rowley, became known for documenting how FBI headquarters mishandled information
[13:55] from the Minneapolis field police before the September 11th attacks. After 9-11, she wrote to FBI Director Robert Mueller laying out how agents' efforts had been undercut and how the Bureau's internal structure had failed. The supervisor who was trying to get hit, there were 60-some emails and telephone calls,
[14:13] begging and pleading for them to take this at headquarters, the stovepipe. And in one of those telephone conversations, that supervisor said, don't you know this is a guy who could fly into the World Trade Center?
[14:28] In May 2002, she testified before the Senate and the 9-11 Commission about those lapses, arguing that the country needed to confront the mistakes to prevent them from continuing. Her warnings helped fuel pressure for reforms, including the creation of a new Office of Intelligence at the FBI.
[14:42] What did you achieve? Well, just this little bit and whatever. That might be the case. Maybe nothing has changed. However, by speaking out, you have actually, at least for yourself,
[14:57] made it possible to have your conscience allow you to continue. Martha Mitchell warned us about Richard Nixon. The wife of Attorney General John Mitchell, Martha's notoriously talkative nature made her a political reporter's dream.
[15:11] Mrs. Mitchell was famous for calling news reporters with political gossip. She got them spying on her husband. But her chatty habits eventually landed her in a nightmare. Her husband was a member of the committee to re-elect the president, CREEP for short,
[15:24] the party responsible for the Watergate break-in. Martha was talking to a reporter friend about the incident over the phone when she was suddenly silenced and the line went dead. Pretty soon I heard her saying, get away, get away. And I didn't know what was happening.
[15:37] And then there was a phone disconnect. For days, Martha was held captive in a country club to prevent her from exposing the political scandal. After she was released, the Nixon administration worked to discredit her story,
[15:49] blaming her so-called delusions on a nervous breakdown. Today, this misdiagnosis of paranoia is referred to as the Martha Mitchell effect. Turns out he was being truthful with what she was saying.
[16:01] As the big flower said on the grave, Martha was right. Francis Haugen warned us about Mark Zuckerberg. After working at Google, Yelp, and Pinterest throughout her early career, Francis Haugen joined the Facebook team with the hope of combating misinformation
[16:14] and doing good for Facebook's users. You've got one company and one man, influence the information environment for the world. After witnessing the internal workings of the tech company that clearly valued profit over people, Haugen decided to expose the company's wrongdoing.
[16:28] Haugen revealed Facebook's missteps in dealing with political misinformation, hate speech, human trafficking, and many more dangerous topics. She alleged that not only was Facebook aware of the hate, violence, and misinformation prevalence on the platform, but that Mark Zuckerberg should be held accountable as CEO.
[16:43] In 2021, Haugen testified before Congress against Facebook and released tens of thousands of internal documents to the SEC and media. The company's leadership knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer, but won't make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people.
[17:01] Barbara Boucher warned us about Keith Raniere. The founder of NXIVM, an alleged self-help multi-level marketing company, Keith Raniere was exposed by former members of his organization as a cult leader, human trafficker, and fraudster.
[17:13] They called him Vanguard, the founder of Nexium, a shadowy self-help organization described by federal prosecutors as cult-like. One of the individuals critical in bringing this master manipulator down was Barbara Boucher, a financial planner, Nexium member, and ex-girlfriend of Raniere.
[17:29] When I left, I was the first, I was the highest ranking person to ever leave, and a significant person, and that really threw a curveball and opened up Pandora's box. When Boucher became aware of the abuse prevalent within the organization, she left the cult and went to law enforcement.
[17:43] This was a brave risk, given that she had already received threats and harassment from members still active in Ranieri's cult. Thankfully, her risk paid off, and Ranieri was convicted of his crimes and sentenced to 120 years in prison. Ranieri, who describes himself as a self-help guru, was sentenced at a federal court in Brooklyn to 120 years behind bars.
[18:02] Rachel Denhollander warned us about Larry Nazer. An attorney, author, educator, and survivor, Rachel Denhollander was the first woman to speak out against Larry Nazer, a former doctor who sexually assaulted over 200 young girls.
[18:15] Speaking up is your best chance at hope and healing. If you are living in violence, if you're living in isolation, your ability to access resources and to find hope and healing after abuse just isn't there. As a teen gymnast, Denhollander was assaulted by Nazer under the guise of medical treatment for her lower back pain.
[18:31] So being able to raise my voice and to come alongside the work that's being done in the community is critical because we're not dealing with one person. We're dealing with a societal problem. We're dealing with a cultural problem. And the only way that that changes is through having a conversation.
[18:44] It took Jen Hollander 16 years to gather the courage to speak out against his abuse. Her bravery inspired hundreds of other victims to come forward in the aftermath. Jen Hollander delivered a powerful speech at Nazar's sentencing hearing, after which the disgraced physician was sentenced to life in prison.
[18:58] This is what it looks like when institutions create a culture where a predator can flourish unabated and unabated Joan Tarshish warned us about Bill Cosby For decades the Cosby Show creator maintained a squeaky clean image as America dad
[19:15] Yes, I saved your lives because I love my family and I'm a wonderful person. Behind the scenes, however, Bill Cosby was getting away with dozens of incidents of sexual assault. As an aspiring comedy writer, Joan Tarshish was drugged and assaulted by Cosby in 1969 and 1971.
[19:29] Tarshish initially kept quiet about the incidents due to shame and embarrassment, but when she felt ready to share her story with a reporter in the 1980s, the reporter refused to publish her claims. I didn't think anybody would believe me. It's me saying something about Bill Cosby, who's like a god to everyone in the world.
[19:48] After Hannibal Buress's 2014 stand-up routine about Cosby went viral, Tarshish felt compelled to share her story again, this time with far more success. his criminal conviction was overturned after serving about three years in prison, Cosby's
[20:01] career and reputation would never recover. I'm just so relieved that the truth has come out. Harry Markopolos warned us about Bernie Madoff. He thinks having evidence exposing the biggest Ponzi scheme in history might pique the SEC's interest, but Harry Markopolos' experience was
[20:17] more like shouting at a wall. How many times did you send material to the SEC? May 2000, October 2001 October, November, and December 2005 Then again, June 2007
[20:31] And finally, April 2008 It took just minutes for the financial fraud investigator to notice that Bernie Madoff's books weren't adding up And with hours, Markopolos had irrefutable evidence of fraud
[20:43] Markopolos brought his findings to the SEC in 2000 And in 2001, and again in 2005 He had very few down months, only 4% of the months were down months And that would be equivalent to a baseball player in the major leagues batting 960 for a year.
[20:58] Clearly impossible. You would suspect cheating immediately. Maybe he was just good. No one's that good. Each time he was ignored. Madoff's $65 billion scheme wasn't exposed until his sons went to the FBI in 2008.
[21:11] The SEC's failure to investigate Markopolos' tips allowed Madoff to continue defrauding his investors of billions. Big as I told you so ever. So he turned himself in before anybody in a position of authority began a serious investigation.
[21:26] That's typically how the SEC does it. Virginia Giuffre warned us about Jeffrey Epstein. While working as a spa attendant at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, Virginia Giuffre was introduced to Jeffrey Epstein through Ghislaine Maxwell.
[21:38] Virginia is just remarkable. She put Epstein in prison. She put Maxwell in prison. She had Prince Andrew stripped of his titles. This fateful introduction would be the beginning of two and a half years of trafficking at the hands of Maxwell and Epstein.
[21:52] Giuffre eventually relocated to Australia with her husband, and the couple quietly settled and began growing their family. It was escaping to Australia that made Virginia most happy. This mum of three drawn to horses and the quiet life away from the big city.
[22:08] Thinking of her young children, Giuffre gained the courage to speak out in 2010. She began sharing her story with the media, aided the FBI's investigation into Epstein's crimes, and was crucial in exposing Prince Andrew's involvement.
[22:20] Virginia Giuffre passed away in April of 2025. Her work in amplifying the voices of sexual assault survivors will never be forgotten. We've had a pretty poignant statement from Virginia Giuffre's family saying that she was a heroic and courageous...
[22:35] John O'Neill warned us about Al-Qaeda. As an FBI agent in the 1990s, John O'Neill took a particular interest in studying the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the rise of terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda. John was regional focus from Al-Qaeda until somewhat of a moment.
[22:50] O'Neill became a leading expert on Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden and frequently warned of potential terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. After retiring from the FBI in 2001, O'Neill took on a new role as chief of security at the World Trade Center.
[23:03] He understood the symbolism. It had been Al-Qaeda's target. and he wanted to kind of take over and take them to the next level of security, something that would protect them from another terrorist attack. When a friend joked, at least they're not going to try to bomb it again,
[23:17] O'Neal replied, they'll probably try to finish the job. Just two weeks later, O'Neal's intuition was tragically proven right. O'Neal passed away during the September 11th attacks while he was helping people evacuate. Everything that he fought against came back and killed him.
[23:35] Glenda Cleveland warned us about Jeffrey Dahmer. If you've seen the chilling Netflix series Monster, The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, you're already familiar with the tragic and frustrating story of Glenda Cleveland. I knew you were up to something, Jeff Dahmer, and I called you.
[23:49] And I told you over and over a million times that something was going on, and you know what you did? Y'all did nothing. Living in an apartment building adjacent to Dahmer's, Cleveland frequently reported Dahmer's suspicious activity to the police,
[24:02] only for her reports to be completely ignored. Cleveland even saw and reported one soon-to-be victim of Dahmer's, Conorak Synthesumphone, attempting to escape from Dahmer's apartment while naked and drugged. Hers was the voice of insistence, the voice of concern, the voice that fell on deaf ears.
[24:18] Dahmer convinced police he and Synthesumphone were in a relationship and they allowed Dahmer to take the young boy back to his apartment. Cleveland's persistent call to police should have been all it took to stop Dahmer's heinous crime,
[24:30] if only they had listened to her. Did you feel they let that boy down that night? Yes, they did. yes, yes, it was definitely a letdown. Dorothy Thompson warned us about Adolf Hitler. As a foreign correspondent based in Berlin in the 1920s and 30s,
[24:43] journalist Dorothy Thompson witnessed Adolf Hitler's rise to power firsthand. In 1931, Thompson interviewed Hitler and wrote her impressions of the future German chancellor with scathing honesty in her book, I Saw Hitler.
[24:56] Thompson described Hitler as weak and insecure, the very prototype of the little man. This contrasted greatly with the popular image of Hitler and Germany as the strong, powerful leaders meant to save the nation. Because of her comments, Thompson became the first American journalist expelled from Nazi Germany.
[25:12] She then focused on educating the American public about the rise of fascism in Europe and the violent anti-Semitism of the Nazi party. Which ignored warnings still keeps you up at night? And who do you think history owes the biggest apology?
[25:24] Let us know in the comments.