Nick Begich III claims big profits from father's books promoting conspiracies

Republican Congressional candidate Nick Begich III owns 17 percent of the Anchorage publishing company founded and run by his father, Nick Begich II.

Begich II is the brother of former Sen. Mark Begich and state Sen. Tom Begich. They are sons of the late Rep. Nick Begich.

Begich III lists his major source of income as his 69 percent share of FarShore Partners LLC, earning between $1 million and $5 million last year from his computer software company. His share of FarShore Partners is worth between $5 million and $25 million, according to his financial disclosure report.

State records list Begich III as the owner of 72.13 percent of FarShore Partners, with Nevada as its home state.

Begich III has so far put $650,000 of his own money into his campaign, while he has raised about $400,000. Here is his first-quarter financial disclosure report.

Of his father’s Anchorage publishing company, Begich III says his share of Earthpulse Press is worth between $500,000 and $1 million. He is a director, secretary and treasurer of the company.

(It’s not clear if his 17 percent share is worth from $500,000 to $1 million or if that is the value of the entire company. If the latter, the total company would be worth somewhere between about $3 million and $6 million. According to the instructions for the form, the candidate must report the asset value held by the candidate. See Page 15 of this document for how values of assets are to be reported.)

Earthpulse lists its products for sale as four old books by Begich II and five old DVDs, all of which are marked down.

Begich III said his income from Earthpulse business for 2021 ranged between $100,000 and $1 million. That’s a lot of Begich books and DVDs.

Begich III said his income from Earthpulse the previous year was between $15,000 and $50,000.

Two obvious questions that arise from this are whether Begich III accepts the debunked conspiracy theories promoted by his father and why Begich III’s posted such a big one-year increase in publishing income.

Begich II says he earned a doctorate in 1994 from the The Open International University for Complementary Medicines, Colombo, Sri Lanka. The university lists Begich as one of its prominent alumni. There are sources online claiming the place is a diploma mill.

Begich says his degree from Sri Lanka is a “Doctor of Medicine (Medicina Alternitiva), honoris causa, for independent work in health and political science.”

An “honoris causa” degree is one that is awarded without examination, sometimes an honorary degree.

Begich II’s website promotes the "Hidden Monks Master Class” and self-help: “Dr. Nick will address issues around self worth and healthy communication, relationships, and conflict resolution that can provoke love instead of anger. He'll also talk about how mind control, ESP and telepathy are tools that we can use for good instead of evil.”

In the late 1990s, Begich II was a regular on the Art Bell radio show, claiming that the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program near Gakona was started with nefarious purposes in mind.

According to Begich II, the HAARP facility, now run by the University of Alaska, featured technology that could be use to control the weather, control minds and change brain chemistry.

“The technology is designed to manipulate the environment in a number of ways that can jam all global communications, disrupt weather systems, interfere with migration patterns, disrupt human mental processes, negatively affect your health and disrupt the upper atmosphere,” Begich II says on his website.

Years after publication of “Angels Don’t Play this HAARP,” Begich II claimed hundreds of people had written to claim that they “were surgically implanted with communications devices to read their thoughts.” He also wrote that he didn’t know how many of those claims were real.

Begich II has long claimed that his intensive use of footnotes—1,650 in four books—equates to solid scholarship, but the quantity of footnotes has nothing to do with quality, as every person with publishing experience knows.

In a 2017 TV interview, Begich II said he made more than $1 million over a 20-year period on the sales of “Angels Don’t Play This HAARP,” the book that features his debunked conspiracy claims about the Gakona radio transmitter site.

HAARP’s technology cannot control the weather or control people’s minds.

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