Vodafone sources say the man was hired for a sales position in 2014 and left after a year. Photo / YouTube
Vodafone sources say the man was hired for a sales position in 2014 and left after a year. Photo / YouTube
A man acting as a former Vodafone executive claiming to expose the truth about 5G and vaccines in a video widely shared online is actually an evangelical pastor from Luton, in the UK.
The Guardian has revealed the man's identity, adding that he is the same person who recently tried to convince people in Zimbabwe to use cryptocurrency in their economy.
A recording went viral worldwide at the end of March. In it, the supposed "Vodafone executive" claimed to reveal the truth about 5G and its role in the Covid-19 pandemic.
He claimed to let people on the secret that the pandemic was just a cover-up for a global plot to install 5G phone masts, track the world's population through vaccines and thus end society as we know it.
The man, who managed to reach millions of people with his outrageous claims is, the Guardian says, Jonathon James, a pastor who has preached at churches in Bedfordshire.
In his dangerous recordings, he claims Covid-19 is a fake disease to hide the 5G plot.
"It has nothing to do with biological warfare but is our bodies reacting to radiofrequency radiation," he says in the 38-minute recording that has been shared by millions of people.
His ridiculous claims include saying that the real cause of deaths is not Covid-19 but rather a new mobile technology causing cell poisoning.
"They are using coronavirus to try to hide the fact that people are dying from the 5G frequency."
James, a pastor, also claims that Bill Gates is involved in a plot to produce vaccines that will chip and track individuals so he can control the population and take over the world.
"The coronavirus is not what's killing people, it is clearly, categorically, unequivocally proven that the radio frequencies we are being exposed to are killing the people," he says in his recording, even though there is zero evidence to back his claims.
He says he managed to put all the information together thanks to a blessing from God.
"God has blessed me with the ability to bring disparate pieces of information together that puts the puzzle together and makes sense of it."
His recording has been spread widely and coincided with reports of people burning down phone masts and other telecommunications equipment.
YouTube has deleted many versions of his recording for breaching the policy on dangerous disinformation, but new uploads continue to emerge. It has also been shared widely via WhatsApp.
In the clip, he claims to have been the head of the largest business unit at Vodafone, which gave him inside knowledge on these supposed tracking technologies.
However, the Guardian found that while James did work for Vodafone, he was not a top executive but a sales person. Additionally, he only worked there for less than a year and in 2014, when 5G was not even a priority for the telco yet.
Many online anti-5G groups have been spreading the conspiracy theory by the "former Vodafone boss", without realising he was a Vodafone salesperson for less than a year and is actually an evangelical pastor who thinks God blessed him with this power.
Fact-checking startup Logically, working with the Guardian, unmasked the man's true identity.
James has now claimed that "for the record", he "certainly wasn't trying to vilify, incriminate or implicate any mobile network operator for their commercial endeavours to roll out their unified telecoms and next generation of mobile topologies in this regard", which is far from what his 38-minute viral recording says.
"Had I known my voice note would have gone to a wider audience I certainly would have contextualised my thoughts, been more specific on what I was sharing citing references, and far less explicit. I was simply trying to summarise what the 'perceived truth' was behind this bizarre pandemic in the interest of serving my community."
He also ended by claiming he had "some rather pressing head of state engagement necessitating my full attention and time [for the] last 48 hours".
More than 200,000 people have died of Covid-19 worldwide and the death toll continues to climb.
