Fact Check: Viral ‘news report’ does not show FBI arresting CEO for causing Los Angeles wildfires
Video of unrelated events and persons is being shared on social media claiming the FBI has arrested a CEO Richard Graves for intentionally igniting Los Angeles wildfires;
The administration of Los Angeles County is struggling to control the raging fire that has consumed the neighborhoods of Pacific Palisades and Eaton. The improvement in weather conditions has helped the firefighters make some progress in containing the Los Angeles wildfires, however, the city Mayor Karen Bass said, “we are not out of the woods yet.”
The Los Angeles fires are said to be the costliest blaze in United States history. Even as the government is assessing the damages, the AccuWeather, a firm that provides data on weather and its impact, has said that the wildfires have resulted in the damage and economic losses of $250bn - $275bn.
Amidst the raging fires, Telugupost Fact Check team received a TikTok video claiming “Breaking News: FBI arrests CEO behind Los Angeles wildfire” on its WhatsApp tipline. The purported news video clip is going viral on social media platforms including WhatsApp claiming that the USA's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has arrested one Richard Graves, the CEO of Westland Developments firm, who was behind the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles.
The voice over in the viral video clip further claims that the footage obtained from the security cameras caught the ‘employees of Westland Developments intentionally igniting the fire’ which consumed thousands of acres of land and killed 24 people. It goes on to claim that Graves “had millions of dollars in interest tied to the scorched lands” and wanted to convert the land into a real estate project.
Here’s the claim link and its screenshot.
Fact Check:
During the investigation, the Telugupost fact check team found the viral claim of arrest of a CEO Richard Graves to be false.
When we searched with appropriate keywords, we did not find credible media reports which can confirm the arrest of Richard Graves.
As the video clip mentions his company, we looked up for “Westland Developments” and we found this to be a property development company. During the search of the company's profile, we found that one Abraham Assil is the CEO of the firm and not Richard Graves as it is claimed in the viral post.
Since the viral video contains the visuals of the arrest of a young man and stock footage of wildfires, so extracted the initial frames and then ran a couple of reverse-image searches for the purported photo showing FBI agents arresting ‘Richard Graves’ which led to a few news reports and videos including Hindustan Times which said US Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, who is accused of leaking classified military documents, was taken into custody by armed tactical agents on Thursday, April 13, 2023. He was arrested after he released “highly classified information on allies and adversaries, with details ranging from Ukraine's air defenses to Israel's Mossad spy agency.”
As we continued our search, we came across a news report on Santa Monica Daily Press which stated over 40 people have been arrested in connection with the LA wildfires. The publication carries a photo of a few accused who were detained by the Santa Monica police, however, the report made no reference to the one ‘Richard Graves’.
The video clip is a mash-up of unrelated and stock footage and it is being falsely claimed that the FBI arrested Richard Graves, who is responsible for igniting a fire which has turned into a deadly inferno affecting thousands of residents in Los Angeles. Hence, the viral claim is false.