Late yesterday, it was revealed that Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, alias Sam Bacile, may have to face the music after all for his role in creating "Innocence of Muslims," the film that may have resulted in four of our diplomats being killed. Seems that when he uploaded it, he was in violation of the terms of his probation. AuroraDawn mentioned this in an update yesterday, but this is so explosive it merits a diary of its own.
Nakoula pleaded no contest in 2010 to federal bank fraud charges in California and was ordered to pay more than $790,000 in restitution. He was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison and ordered not to use computers, the Internet or online user or screen names for five years without approval from his probation officer. He is still on probation, according to court records.
The YouTube account under the username "Sam Bacile," which was used to publish excerpts of the provocative movie in July, was used again as recently as this week.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Administrative Office of the Courts, which oversees federal probation offices, and a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles, which prosecuted Nakoula, declined to discuss his case Thursday. Under court rules, the government may ask a judge to send a convict back to prison if there is probable cause to show that probation conditions were violated.
Well, well. Seems that until 2015, Nakoula wasn't supposed to be doing things like going on YouTube and uploading trailers. In hindsight, he'd have to be delusional to think he wouldn't have been unmasked. Even without the press the trailer got internationally, it's pretty much a gimme that a member of the cast, or a friend or family member of the cast, would have seen it. And in my view, the cast and crew have really good grounds to sue Nakoula. He not only lied to them about what the film was about, but he also put them in grave danger.
The Smoking Gun obtained more details on the federal charges. Seems that Nakoula opened several fraudulent accounts at Wells Fargo. He then deposited money into them from other fraudulently opened bank accounts and credit card accounts, and then overdrew the Wells Fargo accounts. It also reveals another wrinkle--Nakoula had actually made plans to do this film in May 2009, but was arrested for the bank fraud scheme a month later. Almost as soon as he was released from a Long Beach halfway house, he ramped up plans for the film. Which may mean that he was planning to flout the terms of his probation right from the start.
Based on this, hopefully Nakoula will be in an orange jumpsuit sometime next week. It looks like an open-and-shut probation violation. Throw in the fact that he was apparently planning on this while he was still in a halfway house, and it's pretty much a slam-dunk that Nakoula should be on his way back to prison.
As we now know, the film was bankrolled by prominent Islamophobe Joseph Nasralla. Sounds like Nasralla was pretty desperate to get this garbage out to screens if he was willing to deal with a convicted fraudster.