All language subtitles for Global.Eye.S2025E15.1080p.iP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-HiNGS_track3_[eng]

This programme contains
some scenes which some viewers
may find upsetting

Hello and welcome to Global Eye

from the BBC's headquarters
here in London.

Over the next half-hour,

we will bring you
an exclusive investigation.

I'm Simi Jolaoso,
an investigative reporter with

the World Service's
Eye Investigations team,

and for the last two years

I have been working on
an extraordinary story.

In October 2023,

I clicked on a YouTube advert
that took me

to a crowdfunding campaign
for a little girl with cancer.

Something about it
didn't feel right to me.

Now our investigation
has revealed desperate parents

searching for help
are being deceived by

a global network of scammers

exploiting children with cancer.

Here's our report.

I first discovered these
fundraising campaigns

in October 2023

when an advert on YouTube pops up.

It was just so moving,

so I did feel like at least I wanted
to know what had happened to her.

The video links to
a fundraising campaign for

a little girl called Alexandra.

It appears to have raised more
than $500,000.

Then I see another video
of a child...

..and then more videos,

all linked to
crowdfunding campaigns.

The children are
from all over the world,

yet all the campaigns look the same.

Something about them
just doesn't seem right to me.

Several organisations appear
to be behind these campaigns.

They're all registered in Israel.

The most active one is called
Chance Letikva...

..which in English means
Chance For Hope.

It's also registered
in the United States.

One of their campaigns is
for a little boy called Hector.

The campaign says
that he's five years old,

has cancer
and is fighting for his life.

Hector's campaign appears to have
raised nearly $1 million US.

I find a thread on social media
that claims it might be a scam.

I use it to track down
his family to Mexico.

LAUGHTER

Turns out Hector is real,
does have cancer

and does need treatment.

Hector's family tell me they were
approached by someone

to make this
crowdfunding video for him...

..but they only received $2,000
on the day of filming -

not enough to pay for
the bone marrow transplant

he desperately needed.

I arranged to meet him,

but in December 2024,

his mother tells me
that Hector has died.

Yet, after his death,

his campaign is still up

and accepting donations.

Almost $1 million has been raised,

but Hector's family
were only given $2,000.

Where's the rest of the money?

I want to know whether
other families and donors

are also being exploited.

While reviewing online campaigns,

I came across several featuring
a girl named Victoria.

They appear to be run by the same
organisation as Hector's -

Chance For Hope,

which is the English
translation of Chance Letikva.

Victoria's campaign is also
on a website

for another one called
Walls Of Hope.

There are multiple Facebook
pages promoting her campaign,

and on one of them there's
a photo of her with a woman.

After further research, we confirmed

that the woman is
Victoria's mother, Olena.

Olena and her husband Ihor
call their daughter Vikusa.

She's only five years old.

She was diagnosed
with brain cancer in 2021.

Since she was 18 months old,

Victoria has been
in and out of hospital.

A few months after her first
operation, the tumour spread.

Her family needed help.

THEY LAUGH

The woman told Olena
her name was Tetiana.

She said she worked for what she
referred to as sponsors abroad

who could raise money
for Victoria's treatment.

All they needed to do
was record a video.

In May 2024,
Tetiana organised the filming.

The filming took place
in a private clinic in Chernivtsi.

A cameraman called Oleh
was directing the shoot.

During the video shoot,

Olena realised
Oleh and Tetiana were working

under very specific instructions
from someone on the phone.

Did he ever tell you

where these sponsors were,
or where they were from?

What do you think he was
discussing with these sponsors?

By searching their phone numbers

and using
facial recognition software,

we find photos of who we believe
are Tetiana and Oleh.

Even what looks like
one of them together.

We discover Oleh also goes by
the name Alex Kohen.

Can you let me know
if you recognise

any of these people on the screen.

So that's Tetiana... Mm-hm.

..in both of these photos.

And that's Oleh... Mm-hm.

..who took the photos and videos
of you and Victoria.

They never contacted Olena
with an update on the campaign.

She only found out
about it through us.

There were also Facebook pages

for Victoria's campaign
in several languages.

Victoria's campaign appears to have
raised more than 280,000 euros,

which is more than $300,000.

The donation options span from
40 to 5,000 euros,

all specifically stating
it's for Victoria.

But Olena says they were
only given $1,500 in cash

on the day of filming.

The contract is from Chance Letikva.

It says the family would get
an additional $8,000

once the fundraising goal was met...

..but the field
for the goal is empty.

When back at work,
Olena decides to confront Oleh.

While we wait for Oleh to get
back in touch with Olena,

we take a closer look
at the contract between her

and Chance Letikva.

The address for Chance Letikva
on Olena's contract

was in Brooklyn, New York.

We sent someone to check it out...

..but there was no sign of them,

just a residential building.

When you scroll down
on their website,

there's an address in Israel.

So I flew to Israel
to investigate further.

The address on
Chance Letikva's website is

in a city called Beit Shemesh,

about an hour away from Jerusalem.

I'm working with a local journalist.

She's asked to remain anonymous.

Yeah, it looks like just
a residential building.

I don't see any signs
that say Chance Letikva.

It is very odd
that this international charity,

doing campaigns all over the world,

like, we've literally come
all the way and there's nothing.

I received an update about Olena
from our Ukrainian producer.

According to charity experts
I've consulted,

advertising should not amount to
more than 20% of the total raised

in a campaign.

Walls Of Hope is
another organisation

that featured Victoria's
campaign on their website.

When we looked into
this organisation,

this name, Erez Hadari,

was on a database
as the director in Canada.

When we run facial recognition
on Erez,

we find photos of him
at religious community events

in the Philippines, New York
and Miami.

And one video, from December 2022,
is of him speaking at

a Hanukkah celebration
in Cebu, Philippines.

Because a little bit of light
pushes a lot of darkness away,

and that's the message of Hanukkah.

We found a Chance Letikva campaign
filmed in Cebu

around the time Erez was there.

..and help me.

It's for a boy called Kahlil,

who sadly died from
leukaemia in 2023.

We asked his mother, Aljin,
to identify who directed

her son's campaign video.

She confirmed it was Erez Hadari.

Is this the person?

She has more photos of him.

Is this one of him in first class?

Aljin says Erez subjected
the family to 12 hours of filming.

They agreed because they desperately
needed money for Khalil's treatment.

They put something spicy
under his eyes to make him cry?

Mm-hm.

In the year following
Khalil's campaign release,

it appeared to have raised
more than $27,000.

But Aljin was unaware.

Khalil's campaign
was under Chance Letikva,

but organised by Erez Hadari,
the director of Walls Of Hope.

We need to understand
if Erez could be involved

in Chance Letikva campaigns
on a global scale.

I've been travelling over
the last two days by plane,

and spent hours on the road to get
to this remote area

in north-western Colombia.

I just can't wrap my head
around how these people

were able to find a child
all the way here.

Ana is now ten.

Her mother died
when she was just a baby.

She lives with her uncle, Vidal,
and her father, Sergio.

She has recovered
from a brain tumour

after receiving chemotherapy
and surgery

through Colombia's
public health system.

Sergio took Ana to a hospital

four hours away
in the city of Cartagena.

It was during this difficult time

that the local
Chance Letikva recruiter

contacted Sergio.

Isabel organised to meet up
with Sergio and Ana.

She wasn't alone.

What was his name?

What did he
introduce himself as to you?

Do you recognise this person?

This person?

Erez Hadari - again.

I'm just thinking back
to when Aljin pointed him out.

And this was all the way
in the Philippines

and now I'm all the way here
in north-western Colombia,

and it feels like I'm kind of
chasing this guy around the world.

Within a week of them meeting Erez,

Isabel turned up again,
this time with a camera crew.

She took Ana and Sergio
to a private clinic for filming.

Ana and Sergio were given a script

telling them exactly what to say

and even when they should cry.

Ana's Chance Letikva campaign went
live just before Christmas 2023.

Within four months,

it appeared to have raised
nearly $250,000.

Ana's dad, Sergio,

says they only ever received $260

on the day of filming.

Sergio and Ana did not know about
the campaign or the money it raised.

PHONE RINGS

Erez! Hello. How are you?

Can I ask you something? Yes.

VOICE-In the Philippines,

after months of trying to
get a hold of Erez,

Aljin finally gets him on the phone

and confronts him
about Khalil's campaign.

What campaign? We don't have
a campaign for three years.

For Khalil?

No, it's not... Never.
Nothing happened.

Is that true?

Yeah. Because I see
the link of Khalil's,

uh, fundraising is...still running,

but it's not stopped.

There's nothing there. There's no...

They... It didn't start.

They just did like
a testing, two years ago.

Have you remembered the link
that I sent you?

That it's $27,000, right? Yes.

I explained to you that
there is cost of advertising,

so the company lost money.

OK. You understand? They lost money.

I lost money, too.
The money that I gave you,

the money that I spent
on production, I lost.

Like so many other parents,

Aljin is not given an apology

and is told the money
went to advertising

without any evidence
to support that claim.

Nearly two years after his death,

Khalil's campaign is still up

and accepting money.

We've monitored Erez's movements
around the world

and addresses linked to him
in Canada,

but he's nowhere to be found.

All we have is a phone number.

So I'm about to call Erez,

and I hope he picks up

because I have a lot of allegations
to put forward to him.

LINE RINGS

LINE CONTINUES TO RING

No answer.

Eventually, Erez sends me a text.

He said, "Just so you know,

"the nonprofit has never been active
since it was opened.

"We never used it."

I know that's not true.

Although he agrees to talk to me,
he never picks up when I call.

He never gets back in touch.

I keep trying him.

He's clearly avoiding me.

Throughout this investigation,
I've felt like I've unravelled

one of the worst things
any human can do to another.

But meeting the families
has restored my sense of hope.

They have shown me
what resilience really looks like.

In Colombia,
Ana is now completely cancer free.

She has returned to school
and has dreams of becoming a doctor.

HE LAUGHS

Papa!

In Ukraine, Victoria's parents
have received bad news.

She's been diagnosed
with another brain tumour.

They are determined to keep fighting
for their daughter's life.

Here's some of the other great
content from the BBC World Service

that you can find this week.

As the US piled pressure on Nicolas
Maduro's government in Venezuela

with a fresh round of sanctions

and threats of
more military strikes,

the BBC sat down
with opposition leader

and Nobel Prize winner
Maria Corina Machado.

She has been accused
by Venezuelan authorities

of acts of conspiracy,
incitement of hatred and terrorism

as a result of her criticism
of last year's elections.

You can watch the full
exclusive interview now

on the BBC News YouTube channel
and the BBC News website.

Now we're going to take you back
to Ukraine

to hear about an extraordinary group
of people caught up in the war.

At least 50,000 Ukrainians -
soldiers and civilians -

have lost limbs
since fighting began.

Now a Superhumans Center has been
set up to support them

in their recovery.

BBC Global Women has been to
meet some of them

and hear their inspiring stories.

We never meant to build
just a prosthetic centre.

We wanted to build the future
of Ukraine

as a country of superhumans,
not a country of victims.

I'm Olga Rudnieva. I'm CEO and
co-founder of Superhumans Center.

We provide services to people

who are wounded
due to Russian aggression.

And we are
restoring people's ability to walk,

to run,
to do things that they love to do.

Most of the people
who at Superhumans,

the fact that they are alive
is a miracle by itself.

To be wounded in Ukraine meant,

you know, I'm going to be
disabled for the rest of my life,

and infrastructure is not ready

and society is not ready

and medical system is not ready.

But I think our superhumans
who are having families, kids,

getting back to work,
opening their businesses,

they do understand
that life is possible.

We also wanted to normalise
in Ukraine

this ability to say, "OK, that's how
the country is going to look like,

"that's OK."

We have 1.8 million people
at the front lines right now,

50,000 people who lost their limbs.

Superhumans - they give hope
and give strength

and braveness to those who are
at the front lines right now.

Because the biggest fear
of Ukrainian military guys

was to be wounded.

They call me mum.

Uh, and I feel like they are
my kids.

They learn to walk with me.

Probably,
that's one of the consequences.

They did learn to walk
with their mothers,

and I was the second person...they
learned how to walk.

Everyone in this country
has some kind of trauma.

The trauma of loss,
the trauma of witness. Moral trauma.

The trauma can ruin you,
or it can build your superpower.

Thanks for joining me in London.
We want your feedback on Global Eye.

Let us know what do you think
on social media using the hashtag...

We'll be back on the 5th of January.
Thanks for watching. Goodbye.