A Confluence of Cults and Multinational Corporations
Vance Boelter, alleged assassin of Minnesota lawmakers, worked in the DRC where Glencore operated, while Minnesota DFL opposed Glencore’s mining project in the state.
A Possible Motive
Vance Boelter’s Red Lion Group once operated in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where mining giant Glencore was also trying to operate. In 2022, Glencore faced a staggering $1.1 billion fine to settle the U.S. government’s investigations into bribery (violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act) and market manipulation. Glencore’s reach doesn’t just end there. The company also owns PolyMet Mining Corporation, which is pushing a controversial copper-nickel mining project in northeastern Minnesota.
What’s interesting is that several names on an alleged assassin’s target list—including Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman, Governor Tim Walz, and Congresswoman Ilhan Omar—are Democrats in the state’s DFL party who have backed legislation to block copper-nickel sulfide mining. These connections raise questions about the dangerous intersections of politics, mining, and foreign money in the state.
Glencore was founded by the late Marc Rich, who sold black market Iranian oil to Israel and spent years on the FBI’s most wanted list, until he was issued a controversial pardon by President Bill Clinton. Another key figure is former CEO Ivan Glasenberg, who retired in 2021 but remains the largest individual shareholder. A Jewish South African, he received the Order of Friendship from Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2017.
Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler’s Fiduciaire Afrique du Cobalt (FAC) partnered with Glencore in various copper and cobalt mining ventures in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The large multinational faced scrutiny for potentially violating sanctions when conducting transactions linked to Gertler's companies after his inclusion on the U.S. sanctions list in 2017.
Vance Boelter’s ties to the Church of the Nations Institute
According to an archived version of the Revoformation Ministries website, reviewed by WIRED, Vance Boelter served as the president of the non-profit. He was ordained in 1993 and attended the Christ for the Nations Religious Institute, founded in the 1970s by James Gordon Lindsay.
Lindsay, born in Zion, Illinois, came from a family of followers of evangelist John Alexander Dowie. A key figure in mid-20th-century American Pentecostalism, his beliefs were influenced by the British Israelite movement, which also had an impact on the Mormon church.
In 1940, Lindsay organized the Anglo-Saxon World Federation Convention in Vancouver, Canada. Among the event's speakers was Canadian minister Clem Davies, originally from England. Davies was not only a recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan but also an advocate for British Israelism, fascism, and an early form of Christian Identity Theology.
When British Israelism Becomes Israeli
In 2023, Illit Ferguson, a worship leader in Israel and great-granddaughter of James Lindsay, is serving in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). Illit's father, Kobi Ferguson, moved to Israel over 25 years ago after marrying Shani Sorko-Ram, a native Israeli and granddaughter of evangelical leaders Gordon and Freda Lindsay, founders of Christ for the Nations.
Kobi and Shani lead Maoz Israel Ministries, a Messianic Jewish nonprofit in Jerusalem, founded in 1976 by Shani’s parents. The organization has since expanded to eight countries.
CFNI’s Ties to January 6th
Cindy Jacobs is a key figure in the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), founded by C. Peter Wagner. Since 1999, she has served as a prophet on Wagner's Apostolic Council of Prophetic Elders, alongside Dutch Sheets. Sheets is the former director of the Church for the Nations Institute and a fellow organizer of the January 6th riot.
In addition, Jacobs is involved with several evangelical groups, including the Global Prophetic Consultation, Generals International, Christ for the Nations Institute, and the Latino Coalition for Israel.
A Convergence of Cults
I’ve written before about the unsettling presence of Mormon extremists during the January 6th insurrection. Deseret’s influence is global and tied to transnational criminal organizations. These same networks are active in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), moving alongside major players like Elon Musk, Silicon Valley investors, and the Israeli tech sector.
The New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) — a radical Christian movement — is gaining ground not just in Congo, but also in Haiti. They're joined by others like Opus Dei and private military contractor Erik Prince.
What are all these groups doing in the same places? Is this where the world's most extreme religious factions converge?
Let’s be honest, many of these operatives don’t truly follow the teachings of Jesus. Their real allegiance seems to be to multinational corporations, profit, and control. The cult’s devout followers are little more than pawns who are radicalized to serve agendas they may never fully understand.
This isn’t just about religion, but a transnational pursuit of power under the guise of faith.
If you have any tips, you know where to hit me up on X (@DCinTejas) or message me on Substack. A huge thank you to everyone who sent them in, which made this article possible.
-DeAnna Calderón
Additional Sources:
An American Mercenary Resurfaces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo | Inkstick | February 29, 2024
Humanitarian Adhocracy, Transnational New Apostolic Missions, and Evangelical Anti-Dependency in a Haitian Refugee Camp | Nova Religio (2013) | University of California Press
The charismatic Christian New Apostolic Reformation (or Spiritual Mapping movement) is a transnational network that created the conditions for post-earthquake, internally displaced Haitians to arrive at two positions that might seem contradictory.
Northeast Minnesota's fraught choice: Precious metals v. precious water | Minnesota Reformer | July 7, 2022
After Donald Trump was elected president, Antofagasta lobbied hard to bring the project back.
In January 2017, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner rented a stately D.C. mansion from Andrónico Luksic Craig, the head of the Luksic Group, which includes Antofagasta PLC. The Luksics are among the world’s 100 richest families.
Within a week of Trump’s inauguration, officials at the Department of the Interior were exchanging emails about reversing the Obama administration’s decision, according to documents obtained through a public records request by independent filmmaker Louis V. Galdieri, who posts the records online as they are released. Within months, Antofagasta representatives met with the U.S. officials at the American embassy in Chile and in Washington.
In 2018 the Trump administration reinstated the leases and canceled the environmental study Obama had commissioned. A draft of the nearly completed study was made public in 2020, but all 60 pages were completely redacted.
Was Boelter’s jobs in private security and proselytizing lucrative? He had a rural property outside of the Twin Cities where he and his wife raised 5 kids and he was apparently staying in a rental house when he was in the city. He had the means to travel to the Middle East and Africa? He doesn’t seem to be one of the elite in the religious business. Does Glencore pay private security well?