Fabian Marta Cleared Of Child Kidnapping Charges After Donating To Child Kidnapping Thriller 'Sound Of Freedom'

This story has been updated to reflect that Fabian Marta has been cleared of charges.

Fabian Marta, a financier who contributed to the $5 million crowdfunded production of the QAnon-linked child kidnapping thriller Sound of Freedom that was released last summer, has been cleared of child kidnapping charges in Missouri after being arrested over the summer.

The situation began unfolding following a July 10th thread by Twitter user and podcaster Jim Stewartson, saying he'd "heard" the film would face some controversy related to Marta soon. Over the course of a lengthy thread, Stewartson told a story about how Marta was an enthusiast of the "Sugar Daddy / Sugar Baby" lifestyle and held "boot camps" in which he and partner Jessica "Laurent" Clark would teach women how to "Sugar," meaning to enter relationships in which wealthy men would pay them in exchange for sexual services.

According to Stewartson, there was no age requirement for these "boot camps," meaning underage women could purportedly sign up. However, these claims appear to have been unsubstantiated.

Eleven days after Stewartson's thread, Marta was then charged with child trafficking. He was arrested two days later. Marta's name notably appears in Sound of Freedom's credits and he bragged about financing the film on Facebook, though he was one of thousands who donated a small sum.

On September 25th, USA Today reported that a grand jury determined there was insufficient evidence to support a conviction. The charges concerned a situation where Marta was housing a woman and her two kids amidst the woman's custody dispute.

His lawyer, Scott Rosenblum, told the press that Marta was "merely providing living space" to the group. The court decided that it was a "misunderstanding" between Marta and the group's relatives, and "there was no kidnapping."

At the time of the arrest, the irony of Marta being arrested for child kidnapping was not lost on those following the story, as conspiracy theories about child kidnapping are a hallmark of QAnon, which is part of what has fueled Sound of Freedom's popularity with those who follow the highly controversial movement.