A major Republican donor and majority shareholder of Utah-based software company Entrata, David Bateman, claimed in a fascistic email Tuesday morning, sent to the Utah political and businesses elite, that COVID-19 vaccines were an extermination plot conceived by “the Jews” as part of a scheme for mass depopulation and global domination. Entrata, a property management software company, based in Lehi, Utah, claims on its website to have 1,400 employees.

Forbes magazine verified that the email was sent by Bateman at 4:59 a.m. Tuesday. Among the over 50 recipients of Bateman’s antisemitic screed included Utah Governor Spencer Cox (Republican), Utah Senate Minority Whip Luz Escamilla (Democratic) and billionaire owner of the Utah Jazz National Basketball Association franchise and co-founder and executive chairman of Qualtrics, Ryan Smith.

“I write this email knowing that many of you will think I’m crazy after reading,” wrote Bateman. “I believe there is a sadistic effort underway to euthanize the American people. It’s obvious now. It’s undeniable, yet no one is doing anything. Everyone is discounting their own judgment and dismissing their intuition. I believe the Jews are behind this.”

In statements that could have been plagiarized from Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Facebook rants, Bateman spewed vile antisemitic conspiracies that have floated around the ruling class for centuries: “For 300 years the Jews have been trying to infiltrate the Catholic Church and place a Jew covertly at the top. It happened in 2013 with Pope Francis. I believe the pandemic and systematic extermination of billions of people will lead to an effort to consolidate all the countries in the world under a single flag with totalitarian rule. I know, it sounds bonkers. No one is reporting on it, but the Hasidic Jews in the US instituted a law for their people that they are not to be vaccinated for any reason.”

When contacted by KSTU-TV after his email was made public, Bateman doubled down on his fascistic delusions:

“Yes. I sent it. I have nothing but love for the Jewish people. Some of my closest friends are Jews. My heart breaks for the 2,500 years they’ve been mistreated by nearly every country on earth. But I do believe Scottish Rite Freemasons are behind the pandemic (overwhelmingly Jewish). And I fear billions of people around the globe right now are being exterminated.”

Speaking to the Associated Press, Rabbi Avremi Zippel of Chabad Utah, who along with his entire congregation is vaccinated, said the email was “blatant antisemitism.” Zippel noted how frequently threats of online violence have translated to real-world action: “We know how quickly things go from ridiculous conspiracy theories online and in emails, how that jumps to violence rather quickly.”

Bateman was the top political donor in the state of Utah in 2018, giving over $777,000 to the Utah GOP, of which he was a member according to the Salt Lake Tribune. His prodigious donations are credited with erasing the state Republican Party’s debt in 2019.

The tech boss used his company’s resources to promote an anti-immigrant and far-right agenda, with Entrata donating $649,073.21 to Bateman-controlled political action committees in 2018. Last summer, Forbes reported that Entrata had “raised $507 million in funding from a group of investors led by Silver Lake and family offices,” naming several CEOs who later received the antisemitic email.

In their fawning profile of Entrata, which they dubbed a “unicorn,” Forbes noted that “cofounder Dave Bateman maintains majority ownership of the business ... Entrata is now valued at more than $1 billion.”

As part of the infusion of cash, Forbes noted that a new CEO would be added to Entrata, Adam Edmunds. “Edmunds and Bateman are close,” wrote Forbes, with the two meeting as students at Brigham Young University.

In an attempt at damage control on Tuesday, Edmunds released a statement announcing that Bateman had stepped down from the board, while retaining all of his shares in the company. Edmunds also claimed that the “opinions expressed by Dave were his alone, and do not reflect the views or values of Entrata, the executive team, board of directors, or investors.”

Elise Scott, opinion writer for the Daily Utah Chronicle, has been cataloging Bateman’s Instagram posts since 2018, noted in a Twitter post replying to Edmunds effort at public relations spin, that the CEO was one of Bateman’s 3,001 followers on Instagram.

“Hi Adam, unless I am mistaken, an account that appears to be yours follows Dave Bateman’s instagram, where he has been posting antisemitic screeds for over a week. It seems unlikely that no one knew. Why is this only being addressed now?” questioned Scott.

Before Bateman locked down his account, Scott saved dozens of his deranged posts, noting that “this specific screed has been going pretty consistently for the last two-ish weeks.”

“How else could we curb this insidious population growth issue without murdering people with a man-made virus?” reads one post. Another post, featuring a clip from the Joe Rogan Experience, warns to “think twice before giving your kids the jab. Your daughters are born with all the eggs they’ll ever have.”

In other words, Bateman’ Instagram posts, like his email, is full of anti-scientific, anti-vaccine, and putrid fascistic conspiracy theories, expressing the noxious ideas permeating at the highest levels of the American bourgeoisie. The efforts by Democrats to present Donald Trump as an aberration are disproved by Bateman’s email and social media postings. Trump’s embrace of the fascist right, including upholding Ashli Babbitt as a martyr, reflects a world view he shares with many of his wealthy donors.

These ideas find purchase among layers of the ruling class who are completely alienated from the broad masses of the US population and indifferent to the mounting pandemic death toll. While millions have lost their jobs, seen their living standards plunge or lost loved ones, the ruling class have seen their wealth skyrocket as their political servants, Republican and Democrat alike, reject any effort to protect the population from COVID-19 at the expense of corporate profits.