What if the world came to an end tomorrow? Would the world’s wealthiest already be hidden away in secret bunkers, shielded from the chaos above? That’s the unsettling scenario painted by Catherine Austin Fitts, a former Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President George HW Bush, who recently reignited a long-standing conspiracy theory.
Speaking on Tucker Carlson’s podcast, Fitts claimed that the US government covertly siphoned off USD 21 trillion between 1998 and 2015, to construct approximately 170 underground and undersea bunkers designed to shelter the elite during catastrophic events.
She also asserted that these facilities are interconnected via hidden transit systems powered by undisclosed energy technologies.
Fitts references a 2017 study by economist Mark Skidmore from Michigan State University, which identified USD 21 trillion in unsupported adjustments within the Department of Defense and the Department of Housing and Urban Development from 1998 to 2015. These adjustments represent discrepancies in accounting records, not necessarily actual missing funds.
A striking figure revealed that the US Army made USD 6.5 trillion in unaccounted-for adjustments—an amount vastly exceeding its USD 122 billion annual budget. Given that such adjustments are usually minor, the staggering scale of this discrepancy raised serious concerns.
Fitts claimed that the bunkers were designed not only to provide refuse to the elite and powerful, but also to house secretive government projects, including a “secret space program”.
“I’m convinced that this energy exists. If you look at a lot of the really fast ships, flying around the planet, they’re not using classical electricity,” she said, referring to recent sightings of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs).
While the existence of some government bunkers, such as the Cheyenne Mountain Complex and the Greenbrier facility, is well-documented, Fitts' broader assertions lack concrete evidence.
However, several conspiracy theories have earlier claimed that billionaires are preparing for doomsday.
Meanwhile, a US-based company, SAFE (Strategically Armoured & Fortified Environments), announced plans earlier this year to construct a luxury fortress on the outskirts of Washington, DC, with completion targeted for 2026.
According to the Daily Mail, the USD 300 million underground bunker – Aerie – is designed to house 625 of the world’s ultra-wealthy in the event of a global catastrophe. The price of admission to this secret luxury haven? A staggering USD 20 million per person.
Those prepared to spend the hefty sum won’t have to wait for the end of the world – access to the fortress will be granted any time they feel their safety is at risk, allowing them to retreat to their private pods whenever needed.
In 2018, Bloomberg reported that a growing number of tech entrepreneurs had secured survival bunkers in New Zealand, a country often viewed as the ideal refuge in case of global catastrophe. Among them was billionaire investor Peter Thiel, who even obtained a New Zealand passport as part of his escape plan.
Meanwhile, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is said to be developing an ultra-private 1,400-acre estate on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. A Wired investigation revealed that the property will include a hidden underground shelter and is being built under strict secrecy—construction workers have reportedly signed NDAs to keep the project under wraps.
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