UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was a White Collar Criminal
The criminality and fraud by UnitedHealth Group spans decades | By Kimberly J. Soenen April 1, 2025
(READER TRIGGER WARNING // GUN VIOLENCE: This still image from surveillance video shows United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, outside the Manhattan hotel where the Commercial Health Insurance company CEO was murdered onWednesday, Dec. 4, 2024.)
Today, the attorney general of the United States of America said the decision to seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, who is accused of murdering Minnesota UnitedHealthcare Commercial Heath Insurance CEO Brian Thompson “was in keeping with an executive order by President Trump.” Bondi added: “Luigi Mangione’s murder of Brian Thompson — an innocent man and father of two young children — was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America. After careful consideration, I have directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in this case as we carry out President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again.”
Why was Thompson targeted? That is now been published widely. However, the murder did not seem to “shock” the electorate, as Ms. Bondi suggests, but rather emboldened many citizens across the country to voice solidarity, not in support of murder, but rather against the Denial of Care business model (which is still legal as of this writing.)
“Luigi Mangione’s murder of Brian Thompson — an innocent man and father of two young children — was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.’
-Attorney General Pam Bondi
What we can reconsider is what the estranged wife of Brian Thompson revealed in December. She said on the record that her husband had received “some threats” before being murdered in December of 2025.
“There had been some threats,” she said. Basically, I don’t know, a lack of coverage? I don’t know details. I just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him.” Paulette Thompson told NBC News.
What did not get as much attention after Thompson was killed in broad daylight, is months before Thompson's murder, he and two other UnitedHealth Group executives were named in a 20-page complaint filed by the Hollywood Firefighters' Pension Fund. The lawsuit, dated May 14, 2024, alleges Brian Thompson sold more than $15 million of his personally-held UnitedHealth shares — just as the Department of Justice reopened an antitrust investigation into the company. (John Tozzi at Bloomberg News broke this story.) Brian Thompson, along with the two other executives, Andrew Witty and Stephen Hemsley (Executive Chairman of UnitedHealth Group), didn't disclose the information to investors or the public, which is a crime.
“The truth emerged on February 27, 2024, when the Wall Street Journal reported that the DOJ had re-opened its antitrust investigation into UnitedHealth. In that article, the public learned for the first time that the DOJ was investigating the relationships between the Company’s various segments, including Optum," according to the lawsuit. "As a result of this disclosure, the price of UnitedHealth stock declined by $27 per share, erasing nearly $25 billion in shareholder value."
That crime harmed fathers, mothers, children, financial health of families and entire communities.
The lawsuit went on to allege that UnitedHealth was aware of the DOJ investigation since at least October 2023. Around that time, the lawsuit alleges, Brian Thompson sold his $15 million in shares, while UnitedHealth’s Chairman Stephen Hemsley sold at least $102 million of his personally-held company shares.
Andrew Witty, who is the CEO of UnitedHealth Group, which is the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, was also named in the lawsuit for the crime. The documents allege he knew that the information wasn't properly disclosed to the plaintiff "and that the positive representations which were being made were then materially false and/or misleading."
That is a crime.
Witty has been mired in lawsuits and investigations since he worked fo GSK in the United Kingdom. He is a lifelong white collar criminal who surfs above the law. Time after time, crime after crime, he and his company pay settlements that allow them to evade incarceration.
(Andrew Witty, Chief Executive Officer of UnitedHealth Group, testified at a Senate Finance Committee hearing Wednesday, May 1, 2024, Capitol Hill in Washington, examining the Change / Optum cyber attacks that harmed clinicians and patients. He denied accountability and responsibility. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin.)
The plaintiff, the documents note, is a pension fund that manages more than $300 million in assets for current and retired firefighters of Hollywood, Florida. The lawsuit alleges the plaintiff "purchased UnitedHealth common stock at artificially inflated prices" and later suffered damages as a result of the violations.
Brian Thompson, Andrew Witty and Stephen Hemsley are white collar criminals. They, too, should be convicted and incarcerated for their crimes.