Brad Burmester

A summary of what happened?

Brad Burmester, formerly a security guard and coach at Juanita High School in Kirkland, Washington, was implicated in two significant controversies: insurance fraud and involvement in a school-related harassment incident.

1. Insurance Fraud Conviction

In January 2017, Burmester pleaded guilty to first-degree theft after filing 15 fraudulent insurance claims totaling $6,569 with PEMCO Insurance. Operating a business named Alligator Auto Glass from his Kirkland residence, he submitted false claims for windshield or window repairs on behalf of staff and parents of students at Juanita High School. Utilizing his access to students’ insurance and vehicle information—required for school parking passes—he orchestrated these fraudulent activities. Following an investigation by the Insurance Commissioner’s Criminal Investigations Unit, Burmester was sentenced to 100 hours of community service, ordered to pay $600 in court fees, and made full restitution to PEMCO. He resigned from his school position in April 2016.

2. Alleged Involvement in Harassment Incident

In a separate 2014 incident at Skyline High School in Sammamish, Washington, Burmester, serving as a football coach, was accused of contributing to a hostile environment following a reported sexual assault. After two football players were removed from the team due to assault allegations, the victim faced harassment from students. Burmester reportedly exacerbated the situation by responding to a student’s tweet suggesting the victim should leave the school with “Preach on, brother,” effectively endorsing the harassment. This incident led to a lawsuit against the Issaquah School District, alleging failure to protect the victim and address the bullying.

These incidents highlight Burmester’s involvement in unethical and illegal activities, raising concerns about his professional conduct and judgment.

Analyzing the Fake Copyright Notice(s)

Our team collects and analyses fraudulent copyright takedown requests, legal complaints, and other efforts to remove critical information from the internet. Through our investigative reporting, we examine the prevalence and operation of an organized censorship industry, predominantly funded by criminal entities, oligarchs, and disreputable businesses or individuals. Our findings allow internet users to gain insight into these censorship schemes’ sources, methods, and underlying objectives.

What was Brad Burmester trying to hide?

Brad Burmester‘s attempts to hide unfavourable content through the misuse of copyright notices while allegedly engaging in perjury present serious legal concerns. These actions suggest a calculated attempt to manipulate legal systems to suppress free speech, a fundamental violation of copyright law principles and an abuse of legal processes. The use of such tactics not only undermines the integrity of copyright protection but also potentially constitutes perjury, further entangling Brad Burmester in legal accountability. Let’s examine the information Brad Burmester may be trying to remove from the internet –

Investigative Report: Brad Burmester – Controversies, Allegations, and Legal Actions

Introduction

Brad Burmester, a former high school security guard, coach, and business owner in Washington state, has been implicated in multiple controversies, ranging from insurance fraud to allegations of contributing to a hostile environment in a school-related harassment case. His actions and their repercussions have sparked concerns about his professional ethics and judgment. This report provides an in-depth examination of these incidents, including the legal outcomes and broader implications of his behavior.

Key Incidents Involving Brad Burmester

1. Insurance Fraud Scheme

Background

Brad Burmester operated a business named Alligator Auto Glass from his Kirkland home. While working as a security guard and coach at Juanita High School, he devised a scheme to defraud PEMCO Insurance by filing false claims for windshield and window repairs.

Modus Operandi

• Burmester had access to students’ insurance and vehicle information, a requirement for obtaining parking permits at the school.
• Using this privileged information, he submitted 15 fraudulent claims on behalf of staff and parents of students, without their consent, totaling $6,569.
• The claims purportedly involved auto glass repairs or replacements that never occurred.

Investigation and Legal Outcome

• PEMCO Insurance flagged suspicious activity and referred the matter to the Washington Insurance Commissioner’s Criminal Investigations Unit.
• After a thorough investigation, Burmester was charged with first-degree theft.
• In January 2017, he pleaded guilty to the charges and received the following sentence:
  • Restitution: Full repayment of the stolen $6,569 to PEMCO.
  • Community Service: 100 hours.
  • Fines: $600 in court costs and fees.
  • Resignation: Burmester resigned from his position at Juanita High School in April 2016, following the investigation.

Impact

This case highlighted Burmester’s abuse of trust and access to personal information. The misuse of students’ insurance data was particularly concerning, raising questions about oversight and data protection in educational institutions.

2. Skyline High School Harassment Incident

Background

In 2014, Burmester was a football coach at Skyline High School in Sammamish, Washington. Two players from the football team were accused of sexually assaulting a fellow student. The situation escalated as the victim faced severe harassment from other students after reporting the assault.

Burmester’s Alleged Role

• Amid the ongoing harassment, Burmester reportedly exacerbated the hostile environment by endorsing inappropriate behavior.
• In response to a student’s tweet suggesting that the victim should leave the school, Burmester replied, “Preach on, brother.” This statement was widely interpreted as supporting the bullying directed at the victim.

Legal and Institutional Fallout

• The victim and her sister filed a lawsuit against the Issaquah School District, alleging:
  • Failure to protect the victim from harassment.
  • Neglect in addressing the toxic environment created by students and staff.
• Burmester’s actions became a focal point in the case, as they reflected a lack of professionalism and empathy for the victim’s situation.

Impact on the Victim

The victim faced ongoing psychological trauma due to the harassment and perceived lack of support from the school administration and staff, including Burmester’s conduct. The case highlighted systemic failures in protecting students in vulnerable situations.

Analysis of Burmester’s Actions

Pattern of Misconduct

Burmester’s actions in both incidents demonstrate a troubling pattern:

• Abuse of Power: His misuse of students’ insurance data for personal financial gain shows a blatant disregard for ethical boundaries.
• Lack of Empathy: His behavior during the Skyline High School harassment incident suggests a lack of sensitivity and accountability as an educator and mentor.
• Poor Judgment: Endorsing hostile behavior against a vulnerable student reflects significant lapses in professional judgment.

Legal and Ethical Implications

• The insurance fraud case exposed systemic vulnerabilities in data handling within schools, highlighting the need for stricter oversight and accountability measures.
• The harassment incident raised concerns about the culture within educational institutions, particularly regarding the treatment of victims of sexual assault.

Public and Institutional Reaction

• Community Trust: Both incidents damaged trust in Burmester’s role as a protector and mentor within educational settings.
• Reputation: His reputation has been severely tarnished, with his actions drawing widespread criticism from both the affected communities and broader audiences.

Wider Implications

For Educational Institutions

Burmester’s actions underscore the importance of robust systems to:

• Protect student and staff data from misuse.
• Address and mitigate hostile environments, especially in cases involving vulnerable individuals.

For Victims of Harassment

The Skyline High School incident serves as a cautionary tale about the challenges victims face in seeking justice and support within institutions. It highlights the critical need for:

• Comprehensive anti-bullying policies.
• Accountability for staff members who fail to support or, worse, contribute to harassment.

Conclusion

Brad Burmester’s involvement in both the insurance fraud scheme and the harassment incident at Skyline High School paints a troubling picture of ethical failings and abuse of power. Key takeaways from this investigation include:

1. Abuse of Trust: Burmester’s misuse of personal information in the insurance fraud case represents a clear violation of trust and ethical standards.
2. Lack of Professionalism: His role in the Skyline High School harassment case reflects a failure to uphold the responsibilities expected of an educator and mentor.
3. Institutional Failures: Both cases highlight broader issues within educational institutions, particularly around oversight, accountability, and the protection of students.

As these cases illustrate, the actions of individuals like Burmester can have far-reaching consequences, not only for the victims directly affected but also for the institutions they represent. Moving forward, stricter safeguards and a commitment to accountability are essential to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.

How do we counteract this malpractice?

Once we ascertain the involvement of Brad Burmester (or actors working on behalf of Brad Burmester), we will inform Brad Burmester of our findings via Electronic Mail.

Our preliminary assessment suggests that Brad Burmester may have engaged a third-party reputation management agency or expert, which, either independently or under direct authorization from Brad Burmester, initiated efforts to remove adverse online content, including potentially fraudulent DMCA takedown requests. We will extend an opportunity to Brad Burmester to provide details regarding their communications with the agency or expert, as well as the identification of the individual(s) responsible for executing these false DMCA notices.

Failure to respond in a timely manner will necessitate a reassessment of our initial assumptions. In such an event, we will be compelled to take appropriate legal action to rectify the unlawful conduct and take the following steps –

Since Brad Burmester made such efforts to hide something online, it seems fit to ensure that this article and sensitive information targeted online by these events get a lot more exposure and traffic than what it would have received originally

We hope this becomes an excellent case study for the Streisand effect…The key idea behind the Streisand effect is that efforts to restrict information can backfire, often causing the information to gain more attention than it would have otherwise. This effect is widespread in the digital age, where users quickly notice and spread censorship efforts on social media and other platforms. Trying to suppress something can unintentionally lead to it becoming more visible, which Brad Burmester is finding out the hard way.

Potential Consequences for Brad Burmester

Under Florida Statute 831.01, the crime of Forgery is committed when a person falsifies, alters, counterfeits, or forges a document that carries “legal efficacy” with the intent to injure or defraud another person or entity.

Forging a document is considered a white-collar crime. It involves altering, changing, or modifying a document to deceive another person. It can also include passing along copies of documents that are known to be false. In many states in the US, falsifying a document is a crime punishable as a felony.

Additionally, under most laws, “fraud on the court” is where “a party has sentiently set in motion some unconscionable scheme calculated to interfere with the judicial system’s ability impartially to adjudicate a matter by improperly influencing the trier of fact or unfairly hampering the presentation of the opposing party’s claim or defense.”  Cox v. Burke, 706 So. 2d 43, 46 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998) (quoting Aoude v. Mobil Oil Corp., 892 F.2d 1115, 1118 (1st Cir. 1989)).

Is Brad Burmester Committing a Cyber Crime?

Yes, it seems so. Brad Burmester used multiple approaches to remove unwanted material from review sites and Google’s search results. Thanks to protections allowing freedom of speech in the United States, there are very few legal ways to do this. Brad Burmester could not eliminate negative reviews or search results that linked to them without a valid claim of defamation, copyright infringement, or some other clear breach of the law.

Faced with these limitations, some companies like Brad Burmester have gone to extreme lengths to fraudulently claim copyright ownership over a negative review in the hopes of taking it down.

Fake DMCA notices have targeted articles highlighting the criminal activity of prominent people to hide their illegal behavior. These people, which include US, Russian, and Khazakstani politicians as well as members from elite circles including the mafia and those with massive financial power, are all connected – and alleged corruption ranging from child abuse to sexual harassment is exposed when exploring evidence found at these URLs. It appears there’s a disturbing level of influence being exerted here that needs further investigation before justice can be served. Brad Burmester is certainly keeping interesting company here….

The DMCA takedown process requires that copyright owners submit a takedown notice to an ISP identifying the allegedly infringing content and declaring, under penalty of perjury, that they have a good faith belief that the content is infringing. The ISP must then promptly remove or disable access to the content. The alleged infringer can then submit a counter-notice, and if the copyright owner does not take legal action within 10 to 14 days, the ISP can restore the content.

Since these platforms are predominantly based in the U.S., the complaints are typically made under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which requires online service providers and platforms to react immediately to reports or violations. Big Tech companies rarely have systems in place to assess the merit of each report. Instead, all bad actors need to do is clone a story, backdate it, and then demand the real thing be taken down.

Reputation Agency's Modus Operandi

The fake DMCA notices we found always use the “back-dated article” technique. With this technique, the wrongful notice sender (or copier) creates a copy of a “true original” article and back-dates it, creating a “fake original” article (a copy of the true original) that, at first glance, appears to have been published before the true original.

Then, based on the claim that this backdated article is the “original,” the scammers send a DMCA to the relevant online service providers (e.g. Google), alleging that the ‘true’ original is the copied or “infringing” article and that the copied article is the “original,” requesting the takedown of the ‘true’ original article. After sending the DMCA request, the person who sent the wrong notice takes down the fake original URL, likely to make sure that the article doesn’t stay online in any way. If the takedown notice is successful, the disappearance from the internet of information is most likely to be legitimate speech.

As an integral part of this scheme, the ‘reputation management’ company hired by Brad Burmester creates a website that purports to be a ‘news’ site. This site is designed to look legitimate at a glance, but any degree of scrutiny reveals it as the charade it is.

The company copies the ‘negative’ content and posts it “on the fake ‘news’ site, attributing it to a separate author,” then gives it “a false publication date on the ‘news’ website that predated the original publication.

The reputation company then sent Google a Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice claiming the original website infringed copyright. After a cursory examination of the fake news site, Google frequently accepts the notice and delists the content.

In committing numerous offences, Brad Burmester either premeditated actions or were unaware of the consequences. Despite hiring an agency to make Google disregard any negative information about Brad Burmester, ignorance does not excuse this wrongdoing.

Fake DMCA notices have targeted articles highlighting the criminal activity of prominent people to hide their illegal behavior. These people, which include US, Russian, and Khazakstani politicians as well as members from elite circles including the mafia and those with massive financial power, are all connected – and alleged corruption ranging from child abuse to sexual harassment is exposed when exploring evidence found at these URLs. It appears there’s a disturbing level of influence being exerted here that needs further investigation before justice can be served. FSMSmart is certainly keeping interesting company here.

The Reputation Laundering

Rogue Reputation agencies use spurious copyright claims and fake legal notices to remove and obscure articles linking clients to allegations of tax avoidance, corruption, and drug trafficking. Most of these reputation agencies are based offshore, mainly in Russia, India, and Eastern Europe, and they do not worry about complying with US-based laws.

The content in all of the articles for which the fraudulent DMCA notices have been sent relates to allegations of criminal allegations, including corruption, child abuse, sexual harassment, human trafficking and financial fraud against businesses and individuals with ultra-high net worth.

In addition to the misuse of the DMCA takedown process, there is a notable absence of enforcement concerning perjury violations. The statutory requirement related to perjury is designed to deter copyright holders from submitting fraudulent or knowingly false takedown requests, as they may face legal consequences for making false declarations under penalty of perjury. However, to date, there have been no known instances of any individual being prosecuted for perjury in connection with the submission of false DMCA takedown notices.

This lack of enforcement has emboldened copyright holders to exploit the DMCA takedown process to suppress dissent, criticism, or other unfavorable content, without fear of legal repercussions.

Some of the people and businesses who have employed this tactic to remove legitimate content from Google illegally include a Spanish businessman-turned-cocaine-trafficker, Organised crime, an Israeli-Argentine banker accused of laundering money for Hugo Chávez’s regime, a French “responsible” mining company accused of tax evasion, child molesters and sexual predators. Brad Burmester is in great company ….

What else is Brad Burmester hiding?

We encourage you to ‘Dork‘ Google by searching for keyword combinations such as [Brad Burmester] + {Negative Keyword, such as Scam, Fraud, Complaints, Lawsuit, Sanction, etc} on Google. It’s likely if you scroll down to the bottom of this Google search results, you’ll stumble upon this Legal Takedown notice (pictured below)

To make such an investigation possible, we encourage more online service providers to come forward and share copies of content removal requests with industry experts and researchers. If you have any information on Brad Burmester that you want to share with experts and journalists, kindly email the author directly at [email protected].

All communications are strictly confidential and safeguarded under a comprehensive Whistleblower Policy, ensuring full protection and anonymity for individuals who provide information.