In February, in the wake of the organization’s biggest release with the Jordon Walker Pfizer “mutating viruses” story, the Project Veritas board confronted James O’Keefe about how he treated staffers and demanded that he submit to changes. He declined and went off to start his own successful O’Keefe Media Group. The confrontation with the board started from when O’Keefe tried to fire his Chief Financial Officer Tom O’Hara. The main effort against O’Keefe was led by then-board member Matthew Tyrmand. Tyrmand organized a group of employees to sign a letter threatening to resign unless their concerns were heard and O’Keefe reprimanded.

Tyrmand had claimed to be O’Keefe’s best friend for a decade, and the planned ‘best man’ at O’Keefe’s wedding. Steve Bannon and other conservative groups banned Tyrmand for leading the anti-O’Keefe coup.

Project Veritas brought on former O’Keefe ACORN partner Hannah Giles in May as their new CEO. A lawsuit was filed against O’Keefe by the organization he founded shortly thereafter, a suit that insiders say was pushed aggressively by Tyrmand. And within a month, Matthew Tyrmand quit or was ousted/pushed out as a board member, according to insiders.

And 6 months after the coup plotters and staff got O’Keefe to quit the group he founded, many of those complaining staffers have been laid off. The CFO that O’Keefe was trying to fire, Tom O’Hara, quit in protest yesterday.

This week it was revealed in a now-deleted and suppressed article, that board member Matthew Tyrmand is a paid financial advisor to a medical supply firm that does regular business in China, and is seeking patents in China related to biomedical surveillance state implants.

It was rumored at the time by O’Keefe fans that Tyrmand was paid off by Pfizer. There’s no known proven connection between Tyrmand and Pfizer, but Tyrmand’s own social media brags about his connections to ‘healthcare equities across biotechnology, medical technology’ and more. Tyrmand was known in private to obsess about “decapitating” James O’Keefe and “carving out his heart and eating it in front of him” in the most grotesque ways, according to those who worked with him.

After being ousted, Tyrmand was discovered to be encouraging donors and staff to stop contributing to Project Veritas and was conducting a campaign to divide and promote infighting within the organization.

It would appear that CEO Hannah Giles has couped the coup leaders after only three months.

O’Keefe has been the target of the elite left ever since his investigations started in 2009. O’Keefe has also been the target of many establishment types who complained about his methods. But the anti-O’Keefe plotters laid still additional traps for O’Keefe and conservative investigative journalism.

Many of them appear to be talking to the far-left rag, the Nation, which published this hit piece on O’Keefe and Project Veritas this week. In it they complain that O’Keefe spent money on music and dancing.

But it also mentions that Project Veritas CFO Tom O’Hara leaked information to the far-left Westchester District Attorney in order to start a criminal investigation against both O’Keefe and the organization he was still working for: Project Veritas.

No doubt that Tom O’Hara will escape unscathed for betraying both O’Keefe and Project Veritas, but that both courageous O’Keefe and Project Veritas will spend millions dealing with this investigation for the next few years.

The Intelligencer reported:

It’s been a tough year for conservative provocateur James O’Keefe. In February, he was ousted from his role as CEO at the Project Veritas for allegedly bilking the non-profit conservative media company he founded and for cruel behavior toward employees.

Now, he is being investigated by the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office.

Prosecutors north of the city told The Nation that O’Keefe is facing a probe, though they did not confirm what they are investigating or when they began. But The Nation said the timing of the inquiry suggests that they are looking into O’Keefe’s profligate spending of donor money on what the Project Veritas board called his “personal luxury.” After his departure, the media outlet known for liberal sting operations published the results of a third-party audit claiming that O’Keefe was spending recklessly. He dropped $14,000 on a charter flight to get his boat fixed — a trip he covered up by allegedly claiming he was meeting a donor. He spent thousands on personal DJ equipment and some $60,000 for “dance events.” In the 18 months leading up to his removal, he also spent $150,000 on limo rides.

As The Nation notes, these “self-indulgent expenditures would be what’s known within the Internal Revenue Code for tax-exempt 501(c)3s as inurement.” Tax code explicitly prohibits non-profits from using income or assets to “excessively benefit an individual” working at that non-profit.

While O’Keefe’s home was raided by the FBI after Project Veritas acquired Ashley Biden’s stolen diary, this is the first time O’Keefe is the target of a criminal investigation.