FOLLOW THE MONEY PART III

What Shapes the Protests You See, and Why They Seem to Appear Overnight

By FactsFirstUS.com Investigative Unit, Staff Writer
With significant investigative reporting and analysis attributed to Asra Q. Nomani
March 30, 2026

Editor’s Note

Most people do not notice the shift when it starts.

They notice it when it is everywhere.

A protest appears. A crowd gathers. A message spreads across social media and into everyday conversation. It feels immediate. It feels real. It feels like people reacting in the moment.

And many times, they are.

People show up because they believe in something. That part is real.

But how those moments form, how they spread so quickly, and how they grow to scale is a different question.

That is the purpose of this series.

In Part I, we followed the money and showed how protest movements are funded, often through structured pipelines already in place before events unfold.

https://factsfirstus.com/post/follow-the-money-part-1-paid-protests

In Part II, we examined how messaging, logistics, and coordination can turn a single headline into demonstrations across multiple cities within hours.

https://factsfirstus.com/post/follow-the-money-part-ii-the-protest-machine

Now, in Part III, we connect those pieces.

This installment builds on the investigative work of Asra Q. Nomani, whose reporting has focused on global networks of influence, narrative building, and information flow.

What emerges is not a single cause or a single group.

It is a system.

Part III

If you were in Illinois, you may have seen it yourself.

Crowds forming in Chicago. People gathering quickly. Signs appearing as if they were ready before the moment fully arrived.

At the same time, in Minnesota, tens of thousands filled the Capitol grounds in St. Paul. In other states, similar scenes unfolded in places that rarely see that kind of turnout.

Different locations. Different people.

But something about it felt familiar.

The same language.
The same tone.
The same message, arriving all at once.

From inside the crowd, it felt like a moment unfolding in real time.

From the outside, it raised a different question.

How did all of this come together so quickly?

That is where most people stop.

But it is also where this story begins.

Because to understand how these moments form, you have to step outside of them.

By the time a crowd gathers, something else has already happened.

The message has already been built.

The narrative has already been shaped.

And in many cases, that process begins long before anyone takes to the streets.

Sometimes, it begins thousands of miles away.

To see how, you have to look beyond the protest itself.

In Havana, under the cover of night, a boat approaches a dock.

Activists raise their fists beneath a banner that reads, “Let Cuba Live.” Cameras are already in place. A reporter from BreakThrough News films the arrival with precision. Other outlets, including the Cuban News Agency and Brasil de Fato, stand ready to distribute the footage before dawn.

The boat has been renamed “Granma 2.0,” a deliberate echo of revolution.

At first glance, it looks like activism.

But it is also something more.

It is a message being constructed in real time.

Framed. Captured. Prepared.

Before it ever reaches an audience.

The narrative is not forming as the moment unfolds.

It is already in place.

Cuba is presented as under pressure from United States policy. Its alliances are positioned as sources of strength and stability.

The moment becomes a message.

And that message moves quickly.

It travels across digital platforms. It crosses borders. It reaches audiences far removed from where it began.

Including here, in the United States.

When investigators began following how messages like this move, they found something larger behind them.

Not a single organization.

Not a single campaign.

But a network.

Between 2017 and 2025, more than 591 million dollars moved through a system of nonprofits, media platforms, and advocacy groups connected to Neville Roy Singham, an American tech entrepreneur who sold his company for 785 million dollars before relocating to Shanghai.

The money did not move in simple ways.

It flowed through donor advised funds, pass through organizations, and layered nonprofit structures.

Records show that three Singham linked entities transferred 278 million dollars into six core United States nonprofits between 2017 and 2023. From there, funding extended outward to an estimated 2,000 organizations worldwide.

Organizations producing content.
Organizations organizing activism.
Organizations amplifying messaging.

All operating within the same broader ecosystem.

Part of that funding supported content creation overseas.

Financial records indicate that United States based nonprofits directed 9.1 million dollars in payments to a Shanghai based media company aligned with pro-China messaging.

That content followed consistent themes.

Criticism of United States foreign policy.
Emphasis on inequality within the United States.
Narratives portraying China and its allies as stabilizing forces.

On their own, these ideas are not unusual.

But within a system, repetition changes their impact.

A message appears.

Then it appears again.

And again.

Across different platforms.
Through different voices.
In different formats.

Over time, it begins to feel familiar.

And familiarity can feel like truth.

Psychologists describe this as the illusory truth effect.

When something is repeated often enough, it becomes easier to accept, not necessarily because it has been proven, but because it has been seen before.

That is how narratives take hold.

Not all at once.

But gradually.

Until they feel established.

Until they feel widely understood.

Until they feel like common sense.

This system is not built only on funding or content.

It is also built on relationships.

In 2017, Neville Roy Singham married Jodie Evans, co-founder of CodePink, an activist organization known for its opposition to United States military and foreign policy.

Their wedding brought together activists, organizers, and media figures who would later appear across interconnected efforts.

At the time, it appeared to be a private gathering.

In hindsight, it marked a point of connection.

Relationships formed there continued.

Networks expanded.

Over time, those connections became infrastructure.

That infrastructure extends across borders.

Organized trips linked to this network have taken participants to countries such as Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, and China.

Participants return with more than experiences.

They return with messaging.
With framing.
With strategy.

And with an understanding of how to turn a moment into something larger.

Those messages do not remain isolated.

They are shared, repeated, and reinforced across platforms such as BreakThrough News, People’s Dispatch, and Tricontinental.

Over time, patterns begin to emerge.

Not suddenly.

But gradually.

Then, back in the United States, those patterns become visible.

After major events, messaging appears quickly.

Calls to gather follow.

Protests take shape.

What appears spontaneous often reflects preparation beneath the surface.

Frameworks that have been tested.
Messaging that has been refined.
Networks that are already in place.

Organizations such as The People’s Forum, CodePink, the ANSWER Coalition, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation operate within this broader ecosystem.

Media platforms amplify the message.

The message repeats.

The message spreads.

And people respond to it.

Many of those people genuinely believe in what they are supporting.

That belief is real.

But belief does not form in isolation.

It forms over time.

Through repetition.
Through familiarity.
Through exposure to the same ideas from multiple directions.

That is how movements gain momentum.

That is how they grow quickly.

And that is why they can feel sudden, even when they are not.

Because by the time the crowd gathers, much of the work has already been done.

Messages repeated.
Ideas reinforced.
Networks activated.

Some describe this as a modern battle over influence.

Not through force.

But through perception.

Through what people see.
Through what they hear.
Through what they come to believe.

Once you begin to look at protests through this lens, they can appear differently.

Not as isolated events.

But as visible moments within a larger process.

That is the central realization of Part III.

A protest may feel like the beginning.

But in many cases, it is where everything else becomes visible.

And that leads to a final question.

When you see a crowd gather, how much of that moment was already in motion long before it appeared?

Coming Next: Part IV

China’s American Mao. Inside Singham’s blueprint and the global network behind it.

Sources

Fox News Digital investigative reporting by Asra Q. Nomani on Singham network and financial flows
Fox News Digital reporting on global activist networks and organized travel programs
United States House Ways and Means Committee materials on nonprofit funding and foreign influence
Internal Revenue Service Form 990 nonprofit filings, 2017 to 2025
Network Contagion Research Institute research on narrative influence and information spread
Reporting and analysis by Asra Q. Nomani and The Pearl Project