A CEO’s Murder Shows That Americans Do Not Know We Are An Oligarchy

But we sure love our tales of the lone vigilante gunman

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Not only 24 hrs after Brian Thomson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was gunned down, MAGA-X was flooded with theories of a lone gunman pissed off at our insidious healthcare system. The most popular theory was that Thompson was murdered by a disgruntled customer seeking justice for a family member denied insurance.

I get why these tales are so seductive. Insurance almost killed me.

Last year, the biological medication I had been on for 10 years, Remicade, was suddenly dropped by my insurance company, Aetna. They gave me no reason. I was switched to a “biosimilar,” which, it turns out, wasn’t so similar. I immediately got sick. Really sick.

At the time, my doctor explained that I had to fail the biosimilar to get insurance coverage again. For six months, I called Aetna almost daily, threatening legal action. Eventually, they relented. But it took a year for me to regain my health.

I had the resources and money to fight. Many Americans do not.

The trail of insurance tears is long. In 2022, UnitedHealthcare was ordered to pay $10 million in unpaid mental health medical claims. And a recent congressional investigation found that in 2022, UnitedHealthcare denied prior authorization requests for post-acute care at approximately three times higher rates.

It doesn’t stop there. UnitedHealthcare is also embroiled in several lawsuits claiming it used an AI system with a 90% failure rate to deny the insurance claims of elderly patients. Allegedly, UnitedHealthcare knew its AI system was crap. Some of those patients died.

You might have seen this graphic circulating.

Let’s just say UnitedHealthcare isn’t exactly getting glowing customer service reviews.

So, when a gunman murders the CEO of the most shady insurance company in America, I understand why people are angry.

Most Americans are hoping Thomson’s murder is a tale of vigilante justice. It smacks of “Vive la résistance" and all those Little People rising up against rich billionaires. Unfortunately, it also feels like a plot twist from a particularly bad episode of Law & Order: Insurance Crimes.

Let’s set the record straight. Professional assassinations don’t happen because someone’s dental claim was denied. They happen because powerful people — those who can move billions with a signature — step on the wrong billion-dollar toe. And Americans, bless their optimistic hearts, still think this country runs on democracy instead of dollars.

What We Know So Far: Thomson’s Death

While the details are still unfolding, the background surrounding Thomson’s death suggests a motive far more lucrative than a denied claim. Thomson was shot and killed in broad daylight on a Manhattan street . He then escaped on an e-bike wearing a $350 backpack. Many claimed that an e-bike is a sign of a rookie hit because a trained assassin would have used a “getaway car.”

A getaway car on one of the busiest streets in New York City? Have you all driven in New York? Unlike a car, an e-bike is virtually untrackable. Just tear out the tracking device, and you will be invisible.

Others point to the water bottle left behind. I agree that any forensic evidence left behind points to an unprofessional hit. But so far, investigators are uncertain if that water bottle belonged to the killer. If it turns out the killer did leave forensic evidence behind, I will eat my words and stop watching so much Dateline.

The killer also got a hankering for some Starbucks right before he went to work assassinating. Again, many have pointed out that this is a move of someone who failed assassin school.

I disagree. It is a move of someone so brazen that they know they won’t be caught.

More mysteriously, the killer left behind bullet casings with the words, “deny, defend, depose.” Supersleuthers claimed those words echo a phrase commonly used to describe insurer tactics to avoid paying claims — “delay, deny, defend.”

While those words are most likely a not-so-subtle reference to unscrupulous insurance tactics, the key word here is depose — to testify to or give (evidence).

Someone was sending out a warning — You better not give that deposition.

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Have we learned nothing from JFK’s assassination?

UnitedHealthcare, under Thomson’s leadership, was being investigated by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for accusations of insider trading, fraud, and monopoly practices.

Thomson was reportedly aware of the DOJ’s ongoing probe into his company, yet he didn’t think twice about unloading over 31 percent of his stock just before the news went public. A strategic move, certainly — but a move that probably cost other investors an astronomical amount of money. This reeks of corporate maneuvering on a level that makes Gordon Gekko look like a low-tier hustler.

Multiple senior executives at UnitedHealthcare had been under investigation by the DOJ, though it’s still unclear whether Thomson himself was directly involved before his death. Last year, the DOJ began looking into whether UnitedHealthcare was unfairly restricting competitors, and just last month, they filed a lawsuit to block the company’s $3.3 billion acquisition of Amedisys, a rival home health and hospice provider. The lawsuit claimed that the merger would eliminate competition, hurting not just patients and their families but also insurers and healthcare workers.

And it most certainly would. Aren’t we all sick of having to donate a kidney to afford a goddamn EpiPen? I certainly am.

Now, consider this: a multi-billion-dollar corporation faces legal scrutiny and public outrage over monopoly practices. CEO Brian Thomson, possibly sitting on insider knowledge of a coming investigation, decides to sell a significant portion of his shares in the company. The move was shady enough to raise eyebrows, but it wasn’t just ethically questionable — it was potentially financially devastating for the shareholders who didn’t have the insider scoop.

And that’s the kind of maneuver that gets people killed.

The Real Reason People Like Thomson Get Whacked

First off, a wife lost a husband, and two children no longer have a father. However you feel about rich CEOs profiting off of sick people, there’s a family mourning. I have every right to hate insurance companies, but I still do not want to see America turn into a bunch of thugs.

But this murder was not thuggish. Sorry, insurance haters, but it’s not a leap to imagine someone vested in UnitedHealthcare’s billions deciding that Thomson’s continued existence was bad for business. Powerful people who control entire industries don’t die because of some lone gunman’s grudge. They die because of one reason — money.

And in a country where the wealth gap is wider than the Grand Canyon, oligarchs don’t just threaten each other with stock market maneuvers — they eliminate the threat, permanently and discreetly. In the world of the ultra-wealthy, when a fortune teeters on the edge of collapse because one CEO failed to disclose a probe into their company, those fortunes are protected.

And that’s where the real killers come in. The theory that Thomson’s murder was a simple act of rage by someone who couldn’t get insurance is not just misguided; it’s naive. Professional hitmen aren’t hired to resolve personal disputes; they’re hired to protect money — lots of it. And when the stakes are this high, it’s not a one-man job; it’s a well-coordinated, professional operation.

The Oligarchic System: Why America is Slowly Becoming a Feudal State

While Americans debate whether Thomson’s murder was about insurance coverage, the real issue is glaringly obvious: America is slipping into oligarchy territory faster than a yacht chase in Succession.

Consider:

1. Campaign Finance: The 2010 Citizens United ruling opened the floodgates for unlimited corporate money in politics. Billionaires effectively buy elections, ensuring policies favor their interests over the public good.

2. Economic Inequality: The top 1% of Americans control more wealth than the bottom 90% combined. The rich not only own the game; they write the rules.

3. Corporate Consolidation: Industries from media to healthcare are increasingly dominated by a handful of players. UnitedHealthcare, embroiled in monopoly accusations, epitomizes this trend.

4. Justice for Sale: White-collar crimes like insider trading are prosecuted lightly, if at all, for the ultra-wealthy. When a billionaire commits fraud, the system debates whether to bother.

Thomson’s stock unloading — 31% right before a DOJ investigation — is a glaring example of this elite impunity. When billions are at stake, justice is often handled internally, not in courtrooms but through quieter, darker channels.

When Money Talks, People Die

Throughout history, oligarchs have resorted to violence to protect their empires. While overt assassinations are rare in modern America (unlike Russia, where defenestration is practically a job hazard), the mechanisms of power remain the same.

Billion-dollar losses or threats to monopolies aren’t handled with sternly worded memos. They’re handled by ensuring the problem — be it a whistleblower, competitor, or inconvenient CEO — goes away permanently.

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Brian Thomson’s death wasn’t a random act of violence. It was a reminder that in America’s upper echelons, power is consolidated, ruthlessly maintained, and utterly opaque to the public. The question isn’t whether America is an oligarchy — it’s whether we’ll admit it before it’s too late.

Carlyn Beccia is an award-winning author and illustrator of 13 books. Subscribe to Conversations with Carlyn for free content every Wednesday, or become a paid subscriber to get the juicy stuff on Sundays.