As a Rising Political Star, Gabbard Paid to Mask Her Sect’s Ties to Alleged Scheme - WSJ

WSJ Jan 29, 2025 (excerpt)

To defend and burnish Tulsi Gabbard’s image as her political star was rising, her congressional campaign hired a public-affairs firm in 2017 that tried to suppress coverage of an alleged pyramid scheme connected to her Hindu sect, according to interviews, emails and Federal Election Commission records.

Gabbard, a former House member who is now President Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, was raised in the Science of Identity Foundation, a sect tied to a direct-marketing firm accused of running a pyramid scheme in several countries. Neither Gabbard, the sect nor the firm, QI Group, wanted the relationships scrutinized.

Gabbard’s campaign paid Washington, D.C.,-based Potomac Square Group for the PR cleanup, trying to mask the connections. But the operation was directed by a Science of Identity follower—and longtime Gabbard adviser—who sits on the board of a QI subsidiary. 

The revelations shed further light on Gabbard’s ties to the religious group—publicly described by some former followers as a cult that demands total loyalty to its founder—and to the Hong Kong-based QI, which has been a target of criminal and civil cases alleging fraud and racketeering in at least seven countries.

Lawmakers have looked closely at Gabbard’s connections with Science of Identity and QI ahead of her confirmation hearing Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee, according to people familiar with the matter. Gabbard’s ties raise questions about her judgment and loyalty, congressional staffers said.  

Gabbard and many of her former Capitol Hill staffers are followers of the sect, people with knowledge of the matter said. Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, has called Chris Butler, the sect’s leader, her “guru dev,” a Hindu term that is frequently translated as divine teacher.

Science of Identity is entwined with QI, according to real-estate and corporate records, as well as interviews with former followers. Sunil Khemaney, who serves on the board of one of QI’s subsidiaries, is a longtime political fundraiser for Gabbard. She has described him as an “uncle.” …

Butler, the sect’s leader, enforces a rigid hierarchy among followers, who are assigned a letter grade. A small number of people who work directly for Butler are designated with the letter A. They are the only followers allowed close physical proximity to Butler or to anything he touches, two former disciples said.

“It’s a cult,” said Lalita Mann, a former follower. “You’ve got a charismatic leader who is seen as a messiah figure…the only pathway to salvation.”

Science of Identity has described such characterizations as anti-Hindu bigotry.

Followers who attain a certain status in the group are initiated in a ceremony and given a new name, former disciples said. At least four former adherents said they believe that Gabbard was initiated and received the name Shraddha Dasi.

Science of Identity and QI have been linked since at least 2007, when QI purchased Healthy’s, the parent company of the sect-affiliated Down to Earth grocery store chain. 

Sect followers founded and operated the chain, which has six locations in Hawaii. Down to Earth didn’t respond to requests for comment.

QI was founded in 1998 by Vijay Eswaran and Joseph Bismark, a Filipino businessman who is a Science of Identity follower. In September, at QI Group’s annual convention in Malaysia, employees knelt to touch Eswaran’s feet, while he blessed them, according to videos Eswaran posted to Facebook.

QI began under a different name as an e-commerce portal that sold commemorative gold and silver coins in developing countries. It went on to sell luxury watches, air purifiers and nutritional products. The company is a member of the World Economic Forum and participates in the forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. A subsidiary sponsors the Manchester City Football Club.

Among the company’s enterprises is a multilevel marketing system. Customers can sign up to be distributors, buying gadgets, jewelry, beauty care and other products and then sell them for a share of the profits. Customers also are encouraged to recruit others to become distributors—earning money from their sales as well.

QI subsidiaries were banned in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Rwanda in the 2000s after being declared pyramid schemes, according to media reports at the time. 

In a January 2023 press release, Indian prosecutors called the India franchise of QI’s direct-selling business, Qnet, a “Ponzi scheme in the guise of a direct selling business” after conducting a raid on several of its locations. Indian authorities didn’t respond to inquiries about the status of the investigation.

In 2009, Indian authorities filed criminal charges against 25 people and entities related to Qnet’s local network, including Eswaran and Allan Tibby, a senior Science of Identity figure. The case involved more than 32,000 alleged victims in India’s Tamil Nadu state, according to police records. Qnet’s local network settled with about half of the complainants, and a court closed the case in early 2020.

“There are no related cases brought by authorities against me that remain active,” Tibby said.

A separate case sprang out of the 2009 investigation. Indian authorities alleged that Qnet’s local network had falsified its books for years. In August 2023, a district court in Chennai prosecuted company directors who signed falsified company statements. The case is ongoing, court documents show….

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