Nick Begich the Third is running as a generic Republican candidate, a friend of mine likes to say, with prefab promises and positions suitable for any campaign.
This is his second attempt to gain Alaska’s U.S. House seat, but we have yet to see specifics from the generic candidate about his financial situation, except vague claims about his success creating jobs around the world.
He reports holding assets that he says may be worth anywhere from $8 million to more than $30 million—the financial report required for the U.S. House allows candidates to put a range of values on their assets. In 2022, the upper limit of his estimate was in excess of $40 million.
Begich’s biggest holdings are in three limited liability companies and one limited partnership that he says are worth in total between $4 million and $20 million—FarShore Partners LLC, FarShore Ventures II LLC, FarShore Ventures III LLC and Listen Ventures III, LP.
In 2023, he said he received no income from those companies.
The value of those software and consulting companies has changed in recent years. Begich said his 69 percent piece of FarShore Partners LLC was worth between $5 million and $25 million in 2022. Now he values it at between $1 million and $5 million. The reduction may be linked to him taking between $1 million and $5 million out of the company in 2021-2022.
He also reported making a loan of between $250,000 and $500,000 to FarShore Partners, but reported no interest payments in 2023.
In 2022, he said his 33 percent stake in Begich Capital Partners was worth between $100,000 and $250,000. In 2023, he said it was only between $1,001 and $15,000. His uncle, former Sen. Mark Begich, also owns a third of that company.
His largest other asset is his share of a Begich family business owned mainly by his father, Nick Begich Jr., that has long promoted conspiracy theories and peddled pseudoscience.
Begich Jr. is the brother of former Sen. Mark Begich and former state Sen. Tom Begich. They are sons of the late Rep. Nick Begich.
Nick Begich Jr., claims to be a “subject matter expert in the area of mind control.”
The mediabiasfactcheck.com website says the Begich company, the website for which has been taken down, ranked in the “tinfoil hat” level for conspiracy claims and “strong” on pseudo-science, one step short of quackery.
The Begich company once sold a $99 “USB thought stream” device for enhancing consciousness.
In the most recent financial report available, Begich III says his biggest source of income in 2023 was from Earthpulse Press, the company founded by his father, Begich Jr.
Begich III owns 16.33 percent of Earthpulse Press and said he earned between $50,000 and $100,000 from that company in 2023. He said he earned between $100,000 and $1 million from Earthpulse Press in 2022. He lists the value of his 16 percent share of the company at between $1 million and $5 million.
Begich III is treasurer and secretary of Earthpulse Press. His father is 75 percent owner.
The Earthpulse Press website may have vanished since the 2022 campaign, but Begich Jr. now sells his books and DVDs on his “hidden monks” website. He invites people to “join the great awakening.”
Begich III reported earnings of between $31,000 and $86,000 from a wide variety of other sources. Here is the financial report filed November 10, 2023.
Begich II is not running for Congress. But since the candidate is an official and major beneficiary of Earthpulse Press, Begich III should reveal to Alaskans if he buys into his father’s debunked conspiracy claims and beliefs.
Begich II says he earned a doctorate in 1994 from the The Open International University for Complementary Medicines, Colombo, Sri Lanka. The university lists Begich II as one of its prominent alumni. There are sources online claiming the place is a diploma mill. Begich calls himself Dr. Begich.
Begich says his degree from Sri Lanka is a “Doctor of Medicine (Medicina Alternitiva), honoris causa, for independent work in health and political science.”
An “honoris causa” degree is one that is awarded without examination, sometimes an honorary degree.
Begich II has a website that promotes the “Hidden Monks Master Class” and self-help: “Dr. Nick will address issues around self worth and healthy communication, relationships, and conflict resolution that can provoke love instead of anger. He’ll also talk about how mind control, ESP and telepathy are tools that we can use for good instead of evil.”
In the late 1990s, Begich II was a regular on the Art Bell radio show, claiming that the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program near Gakona was started with nefarious purposes in mind.
According to Begich II, the HAARP facility, now run by the University of Alaska, featured technology that could be use to control the weather, control minds and change brain chemistry.
“The technology is designed to manipulate the environment in a number of ways that can jam all global communications, disrupt weather systems, interfere with migration patterns, disrupt human mental processes, negatively affect your health and disrupt the upper atmosphere,” Begich II says on his website.
Years after publication of “Angels Don’t Play this HAARP,” Begich II claimed hundreds of people had written to claim that they “were surgically implanted with communications devices to read their thoughts.” He also wrote that he didn’t know how many of those claims were real.
Begich II has long claimed that his intensive use of footnotes—1,650 in four books—equates to solid scholarship, but the quantity of footnotes has nothing to do with quality, as every person with publishing experience knows.
In a 2017 TV interview, Begich II said he made more than $1 million over a 20-year period on the sales of “Angels Don’t Play This HAARP,” the book that features his debunked conspiracy claims about the Gakona radio transmitter site.
HAARP’s technology cannot control the weather or control people’s minds.
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(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
