Stanhope is the latest entity whose private documents were made public by WikiLeaks, the organization that previously published secret documents and emails from the U.S. Department of Defense, Turkey's ruling party, Hillary Clinton and several overseas government and business entities.
Stanhope is the first entity generally unknown to the public.
Since leaked emails are by nature a point of fascination, several media groups immediately began poring over the documents, looking for suspicious activities or connections – and Stanhope immediately fell under suspicion for his obsession with a local drug purveyor.
"I'll get our drugs on the way home," he wrote to someone known only as "Mrs. Brad" on July 8. "How many prescriptions do you have?" When she replied "two," (which legal experts suspect is a code word), he replied "OK. Got it," apparently agreeing to a deal.
Reporters who viewed the emails also noted an obsession with passwords, suggesting Stanhope may have a number of secret accounts. In the six months covered by the email release, Stanhope received customer support help from Sutter Health, Sprint, State Farm, Comcast and AT&T, each time claiming that he "forgot password." Several times, Stanhope followed with another similar email just a few weeks later.
"It's almost like he was trying to crack their security code," said one email expert, who wouldn't reveal his name, but insisted that it contained at least eight characters and at least one capital letter, one numeral and one symbol. "Either that, or he just kept forgetting his passwords. So he's devious or stupid."
Stanhope, who has a history in the local sports community, also routinely made absurd trade offers to other teams in his Yahoo fantasy football league, something that raised the eyebrows of sports observers.
"He offers three people I've never heard of for Tom Brady, Dez Bryant and Ezekiel Elliott," one expert said. "I find that highly suspicious. Either he doesn't understand football or he's hoping another team will accidentally accept his trade request. Neither of those options are particularly honorable."
There was no immediate reaction from the commissioner of Stanhope's fantasy football league, who reportedly works in a cubicle adjacent to Stanhope.
Perhaps most concerning is that Stanhope appears to have a longtime relationship with a significant foreign leader. He received several emails from a Nigerian prince, asking for money – which observers say suggests Stanhope has been a supporter of a foreign government that is hostile to American interests.
"This prince obviously knows (Stanhope)," said a law enforcement source. "The level of familiarity and the boldness of the prince's request for money makes that clear. . . . That Stanhope didn't reply from this account likely means that he used another method to communicate with the prince."
Investigators continue to sift through the emails, with reports that Stanhope also receives a significant number of emails for "male enhancement" and for money-making opportunities.
"You can learn a lot about people through their email," said one source. "This guy seems to be obsessed with picking up drugs, helping foreign governments, recovering passwords and swindling other fantasy football team owners. He's a bad egg."
Stanhope denied the accusations and said he would respond in the comments for this article, once he recovers his password to do so.
Brad Stanhope is a former Daily Republic editor. Reach him at bradstanhope@hotmail.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment