The Exodus Road – Matt Parker and Laura Parker Exposed
The Exodus Road was started by Matt (LinkedIn profile was removed after we linked to his expensive consultation fees) and Laura Parker, they both moved to Thailand and wanted to stay long-term. So, they had an idea to start a charity to be able to stay there long term. Their financials say that Matt Parker, the current CEO, pays himself around 148,000 USD a year and his wife Laura Parker 130,000 USD a year (278,000 USD a year (9,839,760 THB) just from the charity) the average salary in Thailand is a lot lower, because the cost of living is probably 500 USD a month maximum. The Exodus Road also sends 347,367 USD to Thailand per year for “operation costs” (entertainment etc) and for the Freedom Home 160,306 USD per year in Thailand. It’s not a coincidence that the costs are very high in the country where Matt Parker and Laura Parker mostly reside.
How Much does Matt Parker (Jonathan Parker) Syphon off The Exodus Road?
“Celeste McGee, the executive director and founder of the anti-trafficking organization Dton Naam, which helps boys and transgender sex workers, pointed out that the Parkers together earned $23,000 a month.
“That feels staggeringly shocking,” said McGee. “Two people don’t need $23,000 a month,” even if they are living between Thailand and the U.S.”
Exodus Road Financials https://theexodusroad.com/financials/
This article will cover the following problems with The Exodus Road
- The encouragement of sexualized behavior with women in bars and brothels as part of going “undercover,”
- Several instances among office workers of sexually inappropriate language.
- Charity donations being used for drinking and partying with prostitutes
- Using charity donation money for sex with prostitutes
- Excessive gain, lavish salaries, and lifestyle for top management focused on personal gain as opposed to saving women
- Paying corrupt countries to throw innocent people into court
- Charging married volunteers 4500 USD to go to bars under the guise of helping charity
- The demeaning treatment of staff
- The size of the salaries paid to the two top employees, who are a married couple
- The methodology the organization uses to count the people it says it rescues.
- Visiting open-air beer bars looking for girls that used fake/friends’ IDs to get bar work and making them say they were forced to have sex. This isn’t rescuing anyone.
- Then, when unable to find trafficked girls, they try to plant 16- or 17- years olds using an older sister’s ID in unsuspecting bars to justify the charity’s existence. So, the only girls that they are rescuing are girls that they are planting themselves to continue collecting donations from unsuspecting good people.
- Not telling business owners if an underage girl has tricked their way into work, not rescuing them, just making sure they can get a solid conviction before they do anything months later.
Click here for – The Exodus Road Open Letter – The best evidence supporting our recent claims
Update January 2024, Sadly The Exodus Road got the 4 year expose on them deleted by threatening legal action against medium.com, we have a copy of the open later saved on here anyway with the above link
The Exodus Road Open Letter Thai Translation
Witnesses/co signers below (mostly ex-staff of The Exodus Road)
How does the Exodus Road make so much money?
The Exodus Road does not rescue people that want to be rescued, they sneak around bars at night time with illegal hidden cameras looking for easy targets using charityy donation money and having sex with prostitutes for undercover work. (links to other articles as evidence are further down and in the open letter ) In the sex industry, many women use fake/borrowed ID cards to try and get sex work, and occasionally business owners are fooled.
Instead of The Exodus road warning business owners about any underage girls working in their bars, they look for a girl that is willing to testify for gain. They target open-air bars in Thailand where women freely come and go. Once they find a slightly underage lady (that chose to work in the sex industry) they force them to say that they were forced to have sex and give them a generous salary while the trial is going on. They justify spending donation money in bars with prostitutes under the guise that they are looking for problems.
This method saves them a lot of money, no need to investigate or look in dangerous places where real women are in need of rescue. (Other charities said it’s very rare sex workers are forced to have sex, its mostly child labor they help with) This is why The Exodus Road uses corrupt countries, so they can work with law enforcement.
Then, when unable to find trafficked girls, they try to plant 16- or 17- years olds using an older sister’s ID in unsuspecting bars to justify the charity’s existence. So, the only girls that they are rescuing are girls that they are planting themselves to continue collecting donations from unsuspecting good people.
People are going around offering staff at nightlife venues in Thailand 20,000 baht to employ underage women, this is around the time that the exodus road is causing raids on innocent bar owners. They save money by setting people up so they can get large salaries but then innocent people go to jail.
Why do they mask identities and don’t seem to have any addresses online?
Most human trafficking organizations have real rescue homes, CEOs and staff do not hide their names, and they have real social media accounts. Check out this genuine charity in Thailand. https://thefreedomstory.org/ They rescue children from labor camps and it costs a lot more money to investigate and look after them. One of the tragedies of The Exodus Roads’ existence is that it’s taking money away from genuine charities that do a good job. The Freedom Story is how human trafficking charities should act, fixing problems instead of creating them.
The Exodus Road’s undercover staff are all sneaking around in Thailand’s girly bars having fun and sex and sending innocent bar owners to jail, of which none of them knowingly employed an underage girl. The charity knows this but the conviction results on paper are more important than real rescues.
What does the religion they hide behind say about these acts of setting innocent people up?
‘Jeremiah 22:3 (NIV) “This is what the LORD says: ‘Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.”
“Proverbs 17:15 New International Version (NIV)
Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent— the LORD detests them both.”
Why are they unethical?
They should be rescuing genuine human trafficking cases because that is what the donators think they are paying for. But, they are doing it the cheap way, using donators’ money to pay for sex, paying corrupt countries/people to create problems for them, and using donators’ money to hang around in bars all day talking to many attractive girls, so they can stumble across an underage girl. (The girls use friends/fake IDs to get jobs, so how do the volunteers find out??). We have been informed that some informants have sex while undercover to get more information.
Matt Parker says that even though the girls freely worked in bars by themselves, that because they are 16/17 years old, that is therefore against their will, therefore the Exodus Road is creating dishonest human trafficking cases for more donations. Then the underage girls (they plant) are threatened with the law for using fake/friends’ IDs and paid a salary to say that they were forced to have sex even in the face of all the evidence that they tricked the business owner with someone else’s ID and sought out clients by themselves. Most of the volunteers are using it as an excuse to get away from the family for some fun.
A few people asked why The Exodus Road does not rescue people in the USA, because investigations are way too expensive and there is less money left over for high salaries and bar/brothel expenses. Also, it’s not as much fun as hanging around in bars and running up undercover bar operation expenses. This is the exact reason why they don’t go after genuine human trafficking cases in other countries because it’s expensive. So, they would rather throw innocent business owners in jail in corrupt countries while hiding behind religion to get all the donations in with good faith that they are doing a good job.
Matt complains about working with corrupt countries like Thailand but says this online to force them to throw innocent people into court. Because officials are scared of being accused of receiving bribes, however, he pays people at lower levels to create problems. But at the same time he takes advantage of corruption to get results for good online stats for more donations.
We are looking for whistleblowers and more people to help us stop this evil force. Other human trafficking charities that do ethical work have much better use for the money that they are blowing in bars and on a lavish lifestyle in Thailand.
Matt Parker is charging charities 250 USD an hour to teach them how to raise money for their charities, does this sound like a charitable man?
https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-parker-ab98a255/
In the following paragraph below taken from Matt Parker’s interview, he admits to looking for ways to stay in Thailand after falling out with other NGO’s and he pretends that the Thai police want his help. They do not want his help and some police told us he’s creating a lot of problems, Thai people do not want to create problems for innocent people but Matt uses the American charity, and all the names that he has behind him that are unaware of his shady practices, the Thai police and prosecutors feel like that they have to throw innocent people into court to fend for themselves, all so Matt can get another conviction to brag about. You can read his interview here, but I have a screenshot below. He also states he was deputized by Thai police which is not true. You can only be police if you are born in Thailand and are a Thai person by birth.
Who is Amber Van Esseveld ?
Amber has written several books and stands behind The Exodus Road as a key supporter and player. She was contacted several ways by our team asking her to respond to the many allegations about Matt Parker and the way The Exodus Road operates, but she hasn’t replied, and hasn’t answered any questions. It is funny how they all seem genuine online hiding behind glossy interviews and books simply to amass donations, but when they are asked for answers to genuine allegations, not one of them is concerned or addresses it. Amber Van is one of the worst pretenders backing this unethical charity. https://www.instagram.com/ambernvan/
Matt charges guys 4500 USD to go on nights out!
Matt from The Exodus Road has been told several times to stop bringing volunteers into this night life world, to use them as spies and informants, taking them on nights out in bars in Thailand in the guise that they are doing charity work. Matt charges 4500 USD per volunteer, so it’s a good source of income, no arrests have been made thanks to these extra volunteers. Most of the married men signing up to this are using it as an excuse to go to lady bars.
“The volunteers’ work was a sham, said Eric Shark, a former senior investigator with Exodus Road who has been sparring with the organization over this and other issues, many of them detailed in the open letter. (Exodus Road said Shark is “not a credible source of information.”)
Shark said the training for the volunteers was thin. Between 2015-2017, he said he worked with six to eight deployments, with four to eight volunteer investigators each time. Most were men, with backgrounds as pastors, police, and NGO workers.“
None of their work led to any raids that he was aware of, he said.
He told CEO Parker to stop using the volunteers because many were liabilities. At least once he threatened a nearly out-of-control volunteer with dismissal. But, Parker refused to stop. “He loved bringing people over because it helps raise money for the organization,” Shark said.
People pay $4,500 to be a volunteer, which includes airfare and expenses, according to the website. Volunteers must be at least 30 and pass a background test and psychological evaluation. A day of in-person evaluations and testing follows. About 30% of those who apply are accepted. They also claim there is training on how to collect evidence, operate gear, and conduct intelligence gathering, according to the site. Shark said most of that was on the job.”
Further noted in the article referenced above, Matt Parker, The CEO of The Exodus Road, has found underage girls several times and has not acted, helped, or informed any of the business owners. He chooses his victims wisely, such as western bar owners that he thinks won’t make him any issues. He only works with girls that he can pay to make false statements about their bosses, also he speaks down to Thai women, as this ex-staff member said
“ A Thai-American woman, who asked to remain anonymous because she now does similar work in the U.S., cited a trip to a red light district where a lead on a vulnerable woman was never followed up.
The woman, then 24, was asked to accompany Parker and pretend to be his girlfriend on an undercover trip to a bar in Pattaya. It was awkward because she worked in the office and was not trained to do undercover. The trip was supposed to be … what? Investigative? She wasn’t sure and said it was never explained.
In the bar, she spoke with a 16-year-old girl named Man, in a haunting conversation. The girl said she was supposed to sell her virginity. The employee was appalled. Man wasn’t scared, depressed or drugged, she said. “She was just kind of resigned that this is what my job is now.”
The woman, Parker, and another investigator left, doing nothing to help Man. What are we going to do for her?, she asked. We can’t help every girl, she was told. And that was that.“
“On another occasion, while serving as Parker’s interpreter for a group of lawmen, the woman had a side conversation in Thai with an attendee. That caught Parker’s attention, but not in a good way. He later told her she should not speak to the others, but should be a “submissive Thai girl.”
“I said, ‘What?’ I am a Thai girl, but also an American girl.” She found the remark deeply upsetting. Her then boyfriend, now husband, confirmed they spoke about both incidents. “
Further Reading.
Please please read the following articles
Remember leopards don’t change their spots, money can cover tracks and buy silence but good people will stand up eventually.
Key comments from the linked Global Observer expose. (Nothing has since changed in the way Matt operates)
“The red flags started for Allison Weber even before she started work with Exodus Road. At a supper in Thailand with the CEO, Matt Parker, and a few other couples, Parker suggested a tour of the red light district in the city of Pattaya, to show everyone how bad it was.
She had no interest in going. She’d visited go-go bars and brothels as part of her other job, which involved helping women in prostitution. It’s not pleasant. “It’s men groping women. It’s intense,” she said. She was surprised a man who ran a nonprofit fighting sex trafficking wanted to do this.
Parker pushed the men to go. He said something like: How small a man do you have to be to not go to these places? “My husband was really offended,” she said. “That felt out of line to me.”
“Other allegations about Exodus Road include:
— The encouragement of sexualized behavior with women in bars and brothels as part of of going “undercover,”
— A number of instances among office workers of sexually inappropriate language,
— The demeaning treatment of staff,
— The size of the salaries paid to the two top employees, who are a married couple, and the methodology the organization uses to count the people it says it rescues.
“This is a really toxic organization and it’s harming the anti-trafficking sector as a whole,” said Weber, whose dinner with Parker was in 2014, and who had worked an another anti-sex-trafficking nonprofit for two years prior. “Their behavior is really damaging to that work.” Please read the entire article for all the info
More damming evidence from the past (but still being done to this day)
https://gobserver.net/4822/global-diaries/thailand/allegations-of-sexual-misconduct-at-exodus-road/
Below are screenshots from the Wikipedia page about The Exodus Road, we urge all readers to contact the good people they have fooled to be behind them. We will contact them later and if they are silent like Amber Van Esseveld, we will know they are getting paid to look the other way.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exodus_Road
Below is a screenshot taken from Wikipedia.
We have included the latest screenshot below and a previous one that was changed.
Criticism and accusations[edit] (copied and pasted from Wikipedia)
Past employees have accused The Exodus Road of allowing sexualized interactions between its personnel and young women, under the guise of being undercover.[26] The Exodus Road engaged an outside law firm, Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie, which conducted investigations. The investigations did reveal inappropriate behavior, including drunkenness and nudity at work-related events,[27] and the organization implemented the recommendations from the law firm, which included termination of certain individuals and other disciplinary actions.[28] The summative statement from the investigation has been published publicly by the legal firm.[29]
The Exodus Road has also been criticized for being religiously influenced to use trafficking as a pretext to intervene against sex workers and remove their sources of income.[30] The organization has on several occasions clarified the difference between fighting human trafficking and sex work, stating that they are looking for those who are in sex work due to “Force, abduction, fraud, or coercion,” or those who are underage (which legally qualifies them as human trafficking victims).[31] Specifically, TER functions under the United Nations‘ definition of human trafficking: “Recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit.”[32]
The organization has also been criticized for their use of military jargon, such as describing volunteers as “covert operatives” to carry out their mission.[33]Critics of The Exodus Road state that the organization has invited television crews and supporters to watch and film its raids of brothels for the “shock value” and to raise funds.[34]
Below is the Corrupt Team That Are Active in Pattaya, (around when raids were started) Thailand – making millions from sending innocent people to jail for donations – they have all been contacted asking what their thoughts are to the underhand tactics the the exodus road use, none of them replied.
Matt Parker, Laura Parker, Hollie Smith, Amber Van, Preston Goff, Mary Nikkel, Edwin and Rickson D’souza. (listed below are all informants)
https://www.instagram.com/iamlauraparker/
https://www.instagram.com/holliedsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/prestongoff/
https://www.instagram.com/marynikkel/ https://bio.site/marynikkel
https://www.instagram.com/ambernvan/
Edwin https://www.instagram.com/edesamour/
https://www.instagram.com/askrickson/ https://www.facebook.com/ricksondsouzafinance/
(We think this guy is one of the guys hanging with bargirls using donations and the others definitely work for The Exodus Road) see picture below
The Exodus Road team (above) lead a lavish lifestyle and informants hide because they put innocent people in jail. Criminals don’t go after informants and they are unlikely to check websites, but if you put innocent people into jail, then you need to hide your faces.
What other laws do The Exodus Road break while they are working in Thailand?
Exodus Road Informant, Preston Goff made a Facebook post asking for funding for covert cameras for use in private bars around Thailand. Thailand has laws on covert filming in private places where there is an expectation for privacy, and Thais do not like to lose face.
(screenshot below)
Freedom Home in Thailand – 433 USD a month rent and 4 Thai salaries 2000 USD a month.
The Exodus Road says they have a location called Freedom Home in Thailand – Check the cheap 433 USD a month house that they have https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8uxAcMWXzQ
but there is no address for this place anywhere in Thai or English. There are several references to this place on their website and there are several other places that are for real child victims that are publically listed, so they cannot use privacy/safety as an excuse. The truth is, The Exodus Road relies on the government places to look after the “victims” they rescue because they want to save costs. The government places let them go out again after 2-4 weeks. Where is the 5m USD a year going? apart from 280,000 a year salaries to Laura and Matt plus “undercover” work in seedy bars. (evidence shown on another page)
This type of place is 15,000 baht a month rent, which is 433 USD a month and 4 Thai salaries is around 2000 USD a month max. The Exodus Road sends 347,367 USD to Thailand for operation costs and for the Freedom Home 160,306 USD per year in Thailand. It’s not a coincidence that the costs are very high in the country where Matt Parker and Laura Parker mostly reside. But Freedom House isn’t really used much because The Exodus Road just dump the victims into a government facility.
Exodus Road Pretends it rescues trafficked children, but they just set people up, let the police arrest them, then the victims are in a government home for 2-4 weeks. Read what experts have to say.
“Lauren Pinkston, who has studied and written about faith-based, anti-trafficking organizations, said more transparency is needed by Exodus Road and many other nonprofits in the field before their numbers can be trusted. Many “rescued” women often end up back in the sex trade because they lack needed aftercare. How are those women counted? How much money, she wondered, would be spent rescuing the same women again? ”
Here is a classic example of many cases right now in Thailand. A girl uses a friends ID card, found by the exodus team in November, business was raided 6th of April. News link here.
The girl was found in a local nightclub drinking with male prostitutes around 10th of April. How did they know without really getting to know her?
Then the rescue post was magically deleted from linkedin/facebook and The exodus road website when someone questioned their ethics.
Screenshot below was from LinkedIn but deleted as they were caught out
129 USD wasted on a photo for social media of a girl that looks far younger than the tall 16 year old they didn’t actually rescue. (who is currently back working in gogos)
Here is the “rescued” girl on her realise from a Government home May 10th 2023. (a month later from her rescue) She is currently back working as a prostitute using someone else’s ID card again.
Another 17 year old using a friends ID, working by choice which the exodus road happened to have “found” and they have done an elaborate story on a girl that chose to work and lied to the business owner – please read
https://theexodusroad.com/operation-manipulate/
Further Reading
How Much does Matt Parker (Jonathan Parker) Syphon off The Exodus Road?
These Human Trafficking Charities Make Me Sick To The Stomach
Reasons why The Exodus Road has caused more human trafficking
https://linktr.ee/theexodusroadtruth
Charity Navigator has given top marks for this 5m USD a year charity that spends more money on raising money, looking good and paying their top staff as opposed to rescuing anyone. When we questioned charity navigator why they would list an unethical charity, they said they only aggregate data from the IRS and do not support it.
https://www.charitynavigator.org/ein/461384815
The Exodus Road donators are listed below (Who need to be contacted and informed of their ill practices) (Let’s assume they don’t know).
Racecar driver Rob Hodes supports Exodus Road.
Donators (smaller ones)
https://www.aefonline.org/
https://about.bankofamerica.com/en/making-an-impact/charitable-foundation-funding#fbid=DOLyNqlzi4g
https://www.blueridgenissan.com/
Larger donators
https://www.aidtochildren.org/our-members.html
https://carlsonfamilyfoundation.org/
https://www.hendrickcars.com/hendrick-cares/caring-for-community.htm
https://www.hydrationmedia.com/
https://passionconferences.com/
https://www.pentrustmortgage.com/
https://samteccares.samtec.com/
https://www.seattlefoundation.org/
https://www.somethingnewboutique.com/
https://colorado-corp.com/co/st-aubyn-family-foundation
https://storehouse310turnkey.com/
https://www.valkyrieracing.com/valkyrie-gives
2nd largest donators
https://cellebrite.com/en/home/
https://www.fidelitycharitable.org/
https://www.regencywealth.com/
Top Donators – These all need to be informed asap
https://acceleratedwealth.com/
https://messengerinternational.org/
https://www.mdrtfoundation.org/
https://www.ncfgiving.com/solutions/charities-and-churches/
https://merchlogix.com/careers/
If you are a donator to The Exodus Road charity scam, please consider giving to many of the other better human trafficking charities with good reviews. such as
The Freedom Story has spoken out against Matt Parkers unethical practices because the bad reputation also affects them in Thailand as people assume they are all the same.