Marines investigate reservist for alleged connection to white supremacist group

SAN DIEGO (Tribune News Service) – A San Diego-based Marine Corps reservist is being investigated by Marines after interviews with members of a white supremacist hate group were leaked by activists and highlighted in a later report by the Southern Poverty Law Center on the high percentage of claimants who claimed military ties.

In its report, the SPLC found that one in five applicants to the Patriot Front hate group claimed to be active duty or veteran of the military. It highlighted a candidate who said he was a Navy veteran based in San Diego.

Local activists noted that the cap. Victor Krvaric, 21, shares the same biographical details — such as age, job titles and family background — as the anonymous candidate cited in the SPLC report. Krvaric is the son of Tony Krvaric, the former chairman of the county Republican party.

San Diego activists affiliated with The Activated Podcast were the first to point to Krvaric as possibly the anonymous person in the SPLC report. In a detailed Twitter thread on Wednesday, the podcast highlighted similarities between Krvaric and the contestant, who is named in leaked threads as “Interviewee 441515.”

A Marine Corps Reserve spokesperson confirmed Wednesday that the service was investigating whether Krvaric was the interviewee in the leaked communications.

“The Marine Corps investigates when a command receives information that a service member may be involved in active participation in an extremist organization or extremist activity,” said Lt. Col. Craig Thomas, spokesperson for the Marine Forces Reserve, in a statement. “There is no place for extremism in the Marine Corps. Our strength comes from the individual excellence of each Marine, regardless of their background. Bigotry and racial extremism run counter to our core values.

The military is prohibited from participating in extremist organizations, and the Pentagon has stepped up efforts to root out extremism within its ranks in the wake of the January 6, 2021 Capitol uprising.

Krvaric did not respond to a text message sent to a number associated with him on Tuesday. When a Union-Tribune reporter called Wednesday morning, a young man answered, refused to identify himself, and hung up. “Good day,” said the man.

Krvaric joined the Marines in July 2018 and is currently assigned to the Select Marine Corps Reserve as a Light Armored Vehicle Marine. He is assigned to the 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion at Camp Pendleton, the Marines said.

According to the SPLC, Patriot Front was founded in the aftermath of the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, after it broke with the neo-Nazi group Vanguard America. Its founder, Thomas Rousseau, led Vanguard America members at the rally. A man pictured holding a Vanguard America shield, James Fields Jr., then drove his car into a crowd of anti-racism protesters, killing one. In 2019, Fields was convicted of murder and federal hate crimes and sentenced to life in prison. The band denied that Fields was a member.

In January, activists from the reporting collective Unicorn Riot released more than 400 gigabytes of leaked Patriot Front communications.

“Ostensibly private, unedited videos and direct messages reveal a campaign to organize acts of racial hatred while indoctrinating teenagers into National Socialism (Nazism),” Unicorn Riot said in a post announcing the leak. UT was unable to independently confirm the authenticity of the documents. Thomas Rousseau, the leader of the Patriot Front, confirmed in a podcast on January 27 that the organization had been hacked.

In an interview report with a member, ‘Interviewee 441515’ told the hate group that he believed in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and that non-Europeans should not be allowed in the United States unless they are “doctors” or a “net positive” for the economy. .

The plaintiff discussed the Marine Corps during his interview, according to the leaked documents, saying he had a tumultuous experience, including a fight at a Marine Corps ball. He also told the Patriot Front that he “discovered the existence of Jews” after joining the Corps.

The plaintiff told the group that he currently works as a guard at the Department of Homeland Security, handling inmate records. According to his LinkedIn account, Victor Krvaric works for contractor Stratus Security Management, which handles detainees for the Department of Homeland Security.

The plaintiff also told the group that he currently works for his father’s financial firm. Tony Krvaric, former County Republican Party Chairman and father of Victor Krvaric, is the President and CEO of Krvaric Capital & Risk Management. Victor Krvaric is listed on the company’s website as a Customer Service Associate.

Tony Krvaric did not respond to a request for comment. Homeland Security and the contracting company did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

The interviewee told the group that he was 21 and lived in San Diego, and said he was a first-generation immigrant and both of his parents were from Sweden. Tony Krvaric was born and raised in Sweden before immigrating to the United States in 1992, he previously told Voice of San Diego.

The interviewee also told Patriot Front that he had previously been “doxed” at a BLM protest. Victor Krvaric was identified during a BLM protest in August 2020 when protesters accused him of “antagonizing” them.

The person interviewed by the Patriot Front credited his brother with exposing him to extremist ideology. Victor Krvaric’s brother, Oliver Krvaric, 23, was the former leader of the San Diego State College Republicans. While leading the organization, Krvaric pushed the group to the far right and frequently engaged and retweeted with accounts affiliated with the white nationalist “Groyper” movement, according to The Daily Aztec.

An archived screenshot of an Instagram account believed to belong to Victor Krvaric, published by KPBS, shows that at one point he also identified himself as a “Groyper”.

Patriot Front has been active in San Diego since at least 2018, when its flyers were distributed at SDSU. The flyers, which featured the white supremacist slogan “not stolen, conquered” on a continental United States graphic, were found at a Daily Aztec newsstand near the university’s music building. They also presented the URL of the group’s website: “bloodandsoil.org”.

Another former Marine, Lance Cpl. Thomas Martin, shared the same graphic on social media in 2019. Martin was kicked out of the Marines after a Union-Tribune investigation into his social media accounts.

This isn’t the first time the group has had its communications leaked by Unicorn Riot. In 2019, the Discord messaging app chat logs of several extremist groups were released, including those of the Patriot Front. Some of the discussions revealed details about extremist activity on college campuses in San Diego.

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