There was a lot of buzz over the weekend about the summer's surprise box-office success, "Sound of Freedom," after last Friday's Newsweek report that stated one of the film's 6,678 crowdfunders — 51-year-old Fabian Marta of Chesterfield, Mo. — was arrested and charged with felony child kidnapping by St. Louis police on July 23. According to Newsweek, the violation is a class A felony with a maximum jail term of 10 years to life.
The allegations against Marta were not mentioned in depth in the Newsweek article. According to the original article, a person with the same identity had made comments on Facebook, which have since been deleted, expressing delight in supporting the film. Marta's name appears on a long list of financing sources in the film's closing credits, according to Newsweek. The news headline now has over 227,000 results on Bing and over 2,880,000 results on Google, the Gateway Pundit stated.
Angel Studios, the company that owns the rights of the film, raised $5 million through a crowdsourcing effort to buy distribution rights to the film. They issued a statement on Friday in reaction to the news, though they did not specifically mention Newsweek. According to CEO Neal Harmon, his organization “adhered to the requirements of federal and state laws and regulations in allowing 6,678 people to invest an average of $501 each into the launch of ‘Sound of Freedom.’”
Harmon also stated, "Just as anyone can invest in the stock market, everyone who meets the legal criteria can invest in Angel Studios projects. One of the perks of investing was the ability to be listed in the credits.
“We’re grateful to brave law enforcement officials who have already arrested dozens of traffickers in the weeks following SOUND OF FREEDOM’s release. Our film speaks to this globally-pervasive problem, and it is our hope that perpetrators everywhere will be brought to justice no matter who they are, and that even more people will see the film to raise awareness.”
The statement also specifies that 6.678 people donated to the company for the purpose of buying distribution rights for "Sound of Freedom" and that the average donation was around $748.73.
All of the 6,678 people who donated are shown in the credits of the film, Jeffrey Harmon, co-founder of the company, posted last Friday:
Hollywood has never seen credits like these. Over 6600 Angel investors in Sound of Freedom P&A will be getting a return on their investment soon.
This is part of the secret sauce to @AngelStudiosInc successful theatrical runs like Sound of Freedom and The Chosen and His Only… pic.twitter.com/jYHjRHL3Rh
— Jeffrey Harmon (@JeffreyHarmon) August 4, 2023
The real story of Fabian Marta's probe:
A Chesterfield, Mo., resident named Fabian Marta was accused in July of being an accessory to the kidnapping of two children.
A probable cause statement against Marta, 51, according to KMOV, claims he assisted someone who had illegally abducted her children and obstructed their return to their rightful parent "by refusing to allow police access to the residence and impeding the kidnapping investigation."
In simpler terms, it turns out that Marta is a tenant of a woman who had a custody battle with her aunt. According to reports, Marta was giving the woman in question and her children—the former of whom is helping to renovate the rental property—a place to live.
According to Marta's lawyer Scott Rosenblum of Rosenblum, Schwartz & Fry in St. Louis, who was contacted by the news outlet Deadline, the criminal accusations against his client are "unfounded."
The attorney stated, "I don't understand how they're charging him with this. He has nothing to do with kidnapping anyone."
After the fact-checking by several media outlets, Newsweek added details including the Angel Studios statement. The headline remained unchanged.
