AAP FACTCHECK – The shooting of an American healthcare chief executive has sparked a slew of conspiracy theories that have spread around the globe.
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot in New York on December 4, 2024, with police arresting and charging 26-year-old Luigi Mangione on December 9.
The various falsehoods to emerge in the days since include faked social media posts, misrepresented videos and even suggestions of shady links to the Democrats.
One viral post includes a video supposedly of Mr Thompson boasting about company connections to former speaker and Democratic representative Nancy Pelosi, who is a common subject of conspiracy theories.
In the clip, the man said to be Mr Thompson says Ms Pelosi was “working for us”.
However, this is not the same Brian Thompson.
The original video is from an entrepreneurial workshop held at the Wharton University of Pennsylvania in March 2012.
The speaker in the video is also named Brian Thompson, but LinkedIn reveals he’s a Wharton graduate, and currently an independent director and “innovation partner” at companies named Alpha Studio and Bridge to Renewables respectively.
Other false posts claim UnitedHealthcare listed a job advertisement for the CEO position shortly after Mr Thompson died.
In a screenshot shared on Instagram, the job appears to have been posted on LinkedIn promising a salary of $US300,000-450,000.
However, there is no such listing on UnitedHealthcare’s LinkedIn page or on its website, and a spokesperson confirmed to AAP FactCheck the screenshot was fake.
Other posts show New Yorkers supposedly celebrating and dancing in the streets over the shooting.
A video on Instagram shows people dancing and singing to the song Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield with the caption: “NYC coming together to dance in the streets over the universal American love of [dead] CEOS.”
One user commented: “How dare you celebrate this!”
But the video was posted on Instagram in November, more than a week before the shooting, and shows a wave of fans dancing in the streets after attending a Bedingfield concert.
Users have also shared an X post, allegedly from Burger King, captioned “We don’t snitch” in reference to the McDonald’s employee who notified police that Mangione was seen in the restaurant in Altoona.
The post is bogus, however.
A spokesperson for Burger King told Verify the post is not from the official Burger King X account.
The image contains errors that suggest it’s a fake screenshot, including the presence of “Retweets” and “Quote Tweets”, terminology that was removed when the platform was rebranded as X.
The Verdict
False – The claims are inaccurate.
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