Hollywood May Be Asking "Does Crime Pay?" While Forensic Audit Reveals Criminal Activity at Disney's Reedy Creek in Florida

Uh oh, what is Disney going to do now? And what lessons do we find for the film industry now and into the future? How about... don't break the law for starters.

Bob Iger's strategic political battles with the Florida government (which has given The Walt Disney Corporation decades of favors in the form of their now former Reedy Creek District) turns out to have been a miscalculation on his part, for now obvious reasons. Any acts of meddling with what may be perceived as sole-state authority may have turned the eye of the law towards Disney's other dealings, and compelled it to pull out the "auditing microscope" to look closer at all of their business dealings locally as well as with the state. And, as it turns out, coming up against a conservative governor who has a belief in law and order (instead of looking the other way when powerful lobbyists can turn you into a corrupt yes-man) was another miscalculation as well.

Here is an introduction to this financial and corruption trouble Disney is now facing.

But this isn't just an anomaly of the rare law and order governor, in an age of lax governance. It's been a habit of Florida government to not deal generously with loose purse-strings.

Here is a live video where we see a lawyer (Legal Mindset) react to a live broadcast of the findings of the financial audit by three independent auditors & lawyers. Some of their reaction is priceless, but this is derived from a longer original livestream (which is given in show notes), which is much longer than this.

Looking at the history of how the state of Florida and the state of Georgia deal with the entertainment industry, for example, one can see that while Georgia may have benefitted financially from their state-wide incentives program, it has also led the state to innumerable compromises, and to continued loss of legal credibility and double-talking, while Florida has benefitted in the way of legal credibility. It is questionable which state has benefitted more financially from their governing policies, but now after DeSantis has engaged in a reform of state government, I think it has become unquestionable that Florida has benefitted far more from keeping a tight belt debt-wise. It appears to have benefitted the state in numerous, almost incalculable ways.

This points to the austerity principle of government, and economic policy, which has never become (as it is in many states) a temporary bandaid in Florida, but a way of life and a winning goal to which any government ought aspire.

This kind of outlook in government naturally leads to taking that extra bit of scrutiny as an auditor might use in their day-to-day job. But apparently this is all it took to uncover what is stated as the "worst corruption" the people involved in this audit have ever seen. This being a third-party report by renowned independent auditors, it presents the possibility of a mess of legal battles that will likely be upcoming.

Here is a longer breakdown of the implications of these audits and the potential criminal charges that may occur after this.

It's not looking good for the future of Bob Iger and the company, including the theme parks, and every other part of their multi-national corporation, along with the multiple media companies.

This isn't just a matter of bankruptcy, or of financial insolvency, but of potential criminal charges that may be levied against the corporate executives including Bob Iger himself. Additional charges may be applied to Disney Headquarters executives, including past executives, for an enormous amount of potential criminal charges.

Daily Wire reports here

And more reports also from...

The Federalist

The Orlando Sentinel

The Spectator

But there will always be a defense against any honest investigations levied just like there was against honest movies like Sound of Freedom. The idea here is to minimize (shrug off as unimportant), or politicize (attack reputation of attacker), or compartmentalize (admit fault, but work to reduce damage). The third is used when the attack has been fully sustained but must be recovered from. In other words, the attack can't be shrugged off (it is a strong attack), it is authoritative (the audit was done legitimately), but the damage can hopefully be compartmentalized, which amounts to a reorganization of the Titanic's deck chairs.

For example, some mainstream media weigh in here with what amounts to a compartmentalization of liability on Disney's part in order for them to limit damages and make it easy for Disney to weasel out of their criminal and financial crimes into the future. You can watch one example of this below.

This one turns a potentially billions-of-dollars of fines to both state and federal governments into only a 2 million dollar fee (which is chump change to Disney) and waiving criminal charges.

If justice exists in the state of Florida, taking this bait is an egregious attack on Americans and Floridians and must be scrutinized fully. Of course many will defend Disney in order to escape any level of scrutiny at all, and would prefer that we allow the multi-national corporation to do as it wishes to our children. These kinds of voices sound like they likely have no idea what it takes to run a government, and they likely would prefer that nobody looked into their own financial dealings, either.

The truth is, what it takes to run a government of laws, and not one ruled by authoritarians, is that all parties ought to be scrutinized equally, especially those who benefit from state favors, since this is the classic method in which corruption occurs. Many may be surprised by this, but I am not surprised whatsoever.

We stand with Hollywood reformers and the exodus out of Hollywood to make something new, better, and improved, instead of trying to rebuild an evil corrupt system in Hollywood. How we do this will be a subject of further discussion on our upcoming podcasts.

Did you enjoy this article? Do you like being informed on Disney's shady dealings? Do you think Disney ought to be investigated further, or do you think they should be free from scrutiny? Let us know on our socials or down below (with subscription).