Nathan Damigo, the founder of the white nationalist organization Identity Evropa, has filed for bankruptcy.
Emily Gorcenski, who tracks court cases involving members of the far-right at First Vigil, posted a filing submitted in a lawsuit against white supremacists, including Jason Kessler, who organized the 2017 Unite the Right gathering of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia. The filing states that “defendant Nathan Damigo did file a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy petition on January 2, 2019.” Chapter 7 bankruptcy typically involves a court-appointed trustee selling off the property and assets of the person who files in order to repay those to whom debts are owed.
A new filing in Sines v. Kessler indicates that former Identity Evropa leader Nathan Damigo has filed for bankruptcy. pic.twitter.com/vqLABipyXN
— Emily G (@EmilyGorcenski) January 3, 2019
Damigo once served as the vice-chairman of the National Youth Front, the American Freedom Party’s youth group, during which he used flyers and posters to disseminate white supremacist propaganda on college campuses. He went on to found Identity Evropa, which is now led by Patrick Casey. In 2007, Damigo robbed a cab driver at gunpoint, apparently driven by an episode of post-traumatic stress disorder, but he gained national notoriety on the white nationalist scene when he punched an anti-fascist protester in Berkeley, California, in 2017.
Last month, a jury recommended that James Field Jr. be sentenced to life in prison for driving his vehicle into a crowd of counter-demonstrators at the 2017 melee in Charlottesville, Virginia, following the shutdown of the Unite the Right rally, killing Heather Heyer. Lawsuits filed after the violent clashes at Unite the Right have aggravated the longstanding financial issues that have historically plagued the far-right and led defendants to plead for money online.
