July 29, 2025 – Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s Chapin Fay and UG Solutions Legal Counsel Presents Documents that Counter False Claims Made in the Media by Former Contractor
Today the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) conducted a virtual briefing alongside legal counsel regarding a personnel matter that has attempted to distract from GHF’s life-saving mission to feed the people of Gaza. David Panzer, counsel for UG Solutions, presented facts and various pieces of evidence related to former UG Solutions contractor Tony Aguilar’s false accusations.
Summary:
- Mr. Aguilar was terminated for misconduct, pleaded to be rehired and threatened repercussions, and is now spreading false allegations.
- Evidence shows Mr. Aguilar fabricated documents, misrepresented events, and lacked access or visibility to witness the incidents he described.
- All members of the media have a responsibility to vet Mr. Aguilar’s claims.
Resources:
Read the transcript:
“CHAPIN FAY
Good evening, everyone. I’m Chapin Fay, spokesperson for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
The focus of today’s briefing will be related to a personnel matter.
I want to start by saying that GHF takes any allegation that calls into question the safety, integrity or conduct of our operations very seriously. When Tony Aguilar’s allegations were brought to our attention, GHF immediately launched an investigation. When behavior falls short of our standards, we take action.
But we also believe in transparency. We felt this briefing was absolutely critical, given the falsehoods emanating from a terminated and disgruntled contractor, Mr. Aguilar. We have a responsibility to set the record straight, especially when misinformation risks undermining our life-saving work. And let me be clear, Mr. Aguilar’s statements are not only false, they are distracting us from our mandate, which is to feed people. So we will be discussing this here today and then getting back to our essential work.
I’d like to start by introducing David Panzer, counsel for UG Solutions, who will be presenting the facts and various pieces of evidence related to Mr. Aguilar’s accusations.
DAVID PANZER
Thank you. Chapin. I’d also like to be clear: Mr. Aguilar’s statements are false, self-interested, and an attempt to seek retribution against UG Solutions.
Mr. Aguilar was terminated from his contract with UG Solutions on June 13, 2025, due to poor performance, volatile conflicts with staff, and erratic behavior. Since termination, Mr. Aguilar has spread a false narrative to media outlets around the world, all at the same time begging UG Solutions to hire him back.
Mr. Aguilar’s activities in the last several weeks make clear that he’s making good on his threats to, in his own words, make UG Solutions, be UG Solutions’s, worst nightmare if they didn’t hire him back.
As part of the investigation we launched after Mr. Aguilar made certain accusations, we’ve compiled written communications in which he’s pleading for his job back and at the same time threatening retribution if he’s not reinstated.These raise substantial questions of motive.
We also have evidence that he’s falsified documents and he’s presented misleading videos to push his false narrative.
We advise the media to exercise its due diligence before amplifying the false account of this former contractor. His words require scrutiny. The claims he peddles against GHF and its contractors and about our mission and our work to feed people in Gaza are all defamatory.
GHF and its contractors remind media outlets of the legal and ethical standards associated with publishing false accusations. We reserve all rights in this respect.
We’d like to show you some documents that demonstrate that Mr. Aguilar’s accusations are materially false, and after this call, we’ll be circulating a signed affidavit for members of the UG Solutions team who work directly with Mr. Aguilar, and they refute and contradict Mr. Aguilar’s claims.
So four points:
NUMBER ONE:
Mr. Aguilar claims he resigned from his role at UG Solutions, GHF’s security partner.
Fact, Mr. Aguilar was fired.
On June 13, Mr. Aguilar was terminated for misconduct. Mr. Aguilar failed to perform basic tasks that were his responsibility. After being terminated, Mr. Aguilar pleaded for his job back. On June 14, Mr. Aguilar wrote to the company leadership, asking them to reconsider and offering to work in any capacity. As late as July 4, Mr. Aguilar informed UG leadership that he had submitted a new application for work in Gaza.
He wrote to the company on June 14:
“I do not want to leave. I understand that my current contract as the JTOC operator is terminated. Fine, but I can be put on a new contract. If other personnel liking that or not is the fear, then UG is being held hostage. I can be of huge value to this company and contract take advantage of me as an asset.”
And Mr. Aguilar threatened UG Solutions with retribution if he wasn’t hired back. And so the next day, on July 15, he wrote that he could be “your best friend or your worst nightmare, stop effing around. Put me back to work, and let’s get this mission done.”
In a June 21 message, Mr. Aguilar cited his personal family needs when begging to be rehired. Mr. Aguilar ended the message with, “Figure something out, or I’m on a plane come Tuesday and the gloves are off.”
Mr. Aguilar swung between begging for another chance to work for the company and making these hyperbolic accusations. Mr. Aguilar continued to ask for additional opportunities with the company again as late as July 4, Mr. Angler informed the company leadership that he had submitted a new application to come back to work in Gaza.
Despite Mr. Aguilar’s many attempts to be rehired, the company held firm. Mr. Aguilar’s behavior barred him from further work in a complex environment like Gaza. As reality sunk in for him, it seems that Mr. Aguilar, then became more hostile. Ultimately, Mr. Aguilar has made good on his threat and began to speak to a number of media outlets regarding these false claims.
NUMBER TWO:
Mr. Aguilar was very enthusiastic about his work with UG Solutions. His claims that he raised about GHF operations to his superiors are false.
Fact: There are many text messages from Mr. Aguilar praising the work he was doing in Gaza, delivering and distributing humanitarian aid to a starving and displaced population. We’ll be projecting many of these up on the screen.
On May 28, Mr. Aguilar distributed a signal message praising UG Solutions. And he said, “Delivering and distributing 318.3 tons of humanitarian aid to a starving and displaced population wrote sentiment in the media, despite whatever people may think about the politics of the situation, your presence, meaning UG’s presence, GHF’s presence, is seen as a good thing.” On the same day, Mr. Aguilar wrote to UG Solutions’s leadership: “This is a very rewarding mission. I’m excited every day.” These are the relevant times during which Mr. Aguilar was claiming to have sent a memo to the company raising issues.
On May 31 he shared a similar sentiment with his colleagues, and he wrote to them, “Be proud, be humble. You are making a difference in the future of this region and geopolitics around the globe. That’s something to hang your hat on at the end of a hard week.”
On June 10, Mr. Aguilar sent another message, this time with a picture of a young girl carrying a bag of aid. He wrote, “Hungry, tired, filthy, with a smile on her face. How? Why? Because you’ve given her hope for tomorrow, hope that things will improve, life will get better, a feeling she likely has not known in a long time. You’re making a difference every day, every hour, every minute.” That’s how he was describing the work of these contractors at the time.
But while Mr. Aguilar praised UG’s success, the company became concerned with his substandard performance and his repeated workplace conflicts.
NUMBER THREE:
Mr. Aguilar fabricated a memo that he claims he sent on May 28, 2025.
Fact: We have evidence obtained from the metadata, you can see this on the screen, in the memorandum that the document in question was fabricated by Mr. Aguilar and backdated to May 28 the actual date of creation, which you can see June 21 2025 was the same day that Mr. Aguilar sent the memo to company personnel and to the press.
Notably, on May 29, one day after Mr. Aguilar claims to have sent this memo to UG leadership, he sent a flurry of messages to the team, praising them for their work. Please see the screenshots on your screen, and I will read some of them here. Mr. Angler wrote, “Your efforts have brought families back together and have severely weakened the image of Hamas.” He continues, “It’s a privilege and an honor to see America’s best doing America’s most important work in places most Americans will only ever see on TV or read about.”
Then, he said, alongside pictures of several smiling Palestinian civilians, including a young boy, he said, “With the addition of more teammates on their way and new SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) being implemented, the schedule will become steady. I assure you, great job.”
On July 29 Mr. Aguilar appeared on a podcast in which he showed pictures of the very same young boy pictured in the text on the May 29 text to his team, the same text where he wrote great job now on his podcast appearance, he claims to the first time this little boy was shot dead by the IDF. Not true.
Also, the circumstances in which Mr. Aguilar was in Gaza prevented him from drafting a memo like this in May. The company did not give Mr. Aguilar a computer. Personnel in the ops center, just like Mr. Aguilar, were completely occupied 24/7.
Mr. Aguilar neither had the time nor the resources to draft the memorandum that he claims to have drafted on May 28.
FACT FOUR:
Mr. Aguilar spoke to the media and provided video testimony stating that UG Solutions contractors fired on civilians seeking aid. Mr. Aguilar alleged that these UG Solutions personnel used stun grenades, tear gas and other non-lethal munitions in a manner that causes undue harm to civilians. This is false. While it’s true that UG Solutions personnel use pepper spray, smoke and flash bangs to prevent trampling in the crowds of civilians that are trying to seek aid, these systems are deployed consistent with their intended use.
There are safety measures in place, and there have been multiple instances in which UG Solutions personnel have successfully dispersed crowds, saving the lives of women, children and starving individuals unable to lift themselves out of a crush, warning shots have been used to disperse crowds. But contrary to what Mr. Aguilar says, no UG personnel have ever directed warning shots at civilians on the ground in Gaza warning shots were used directed upwards in the air and towards the coastline, not towards folks seeking aid.
Let me be clear, the allegations from Mr. Aguilar regarding the use of force are false. It’s also notable that Mr. Aguilar only worked for UG Solutions as a contractor for a total of 27 days, and more than half of that time he spent in a hotel in Israel instead of on the ground at the distribution sites. And not only did the events that he recounted never happen, but he wasn’t even in the right place or at the right time to have seen the things that he claims to have seen.
Mr. Aguilar claims to the BBC and others that he was an eyewitness to IDF actions are false. He did not leave the static distribution site during operations, and from there, he would not have had a line of sight to any IDF assets that were behind high berms protecting sites.
From everything we’ve seen, this evidence we’ve described, Mr. Aguilar’s behavior since termination, on one hand, begging the company for reemployment, on the other hand, smearing it in the press — it’s just unsurprising given the unprofessional behavior that the company saw in Gaza.
As a source, Mr. Aguilar is both self-interested and unreliable. Again, we urge all members of the media to carefully vet the claims being made by this former contractor. Publishing or repeating unverified allegations from an unreliable source like Mr. Aguilar, the corroboration may constitute libel and expose outlets to legal liability.
Despite this unfortunate distraction, GHF and its contractors remain focused on our core mission: delivering food to the people of Gaza in a safe, direct and uninterrupted manner, as we’ve done since launching operations on May 27 since then, we’ve distributed more than 95 million meals to the people in Gaza.”
Please follow @GHFUpdates for regular updates.
EMAIL US AT [email protected] IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR TO CONFIRM INFORMATION RELATED TO GHF’S HUMANITARIAN OPERATIONS IN GAZA.
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