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Old Lady Brain @oldladybrain - In 2010, a billionaire from Iowa bought his girlfriend a gift.
A 240-foot yacht. Five decks. A helipad.
And something most people wouldn't notice: a compartment beneath the waterline.
Big enough for a submarine.
They named it Plan B.
His name was Ted Waitt. He'd built Gateway computers into a billion-dollar company. He was wealthy, recently divorced, and interested in ocean conservation.
Her name was Ghislaine Maxwell.
And over the next two years, something strange happened.
Waitt donated ten million dollars to the Clinton Foundation.
Maxwell attended Chelsea Clinton's wedding in August 2010.
Within months, she was speaking at the United Nations. At TED conferences. At events where world leaders gathered.
She'd launched a nonprofit called TerraMar. Its mission: protecting international waters—the sixty-four percent of the ocean that belongs to no country.
No coast guard patrols there. No customs. No jurisdiction.
And for private submarines? No required logs.
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Between 2012 and 2017, TerraMar gave out zero dollars in ocean conservation grants.