This article is a collaboration with Antifa Seven Hills.
- DOB: September 2, 1989
- Height: 6 feet, Weight: 250lbs, Eye Color: Blue, Hair: Red
- Patriot Front Network Director, former Proud Boy
- AKA “Samuel” AKA “Ganz” AKA “DeltaGanz”
- Lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia, but is originally from NYC and returns often.
- Drives a 2020 Chevy SUV, VKX 5434 (VA); 2018 Honda Accord HXZ 7766 (NY)
[Editor’s Note: As confirmed by a journalist on February 16, 2022, Paul no longer works as a Professional Engineer for the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Expansion Project in Virginia.]
[Editor’s Note: Paul Gancarz update and new action items here.]
Summary
Paul Michael Gancarz is a fascist and Patriot Front’s Network Director for the region covering Virginia, Washington DC, Maryland, and Delaware. He currently lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia, but is originally from New York City where he has strong ties to Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and Forest Hills, Queens. As a member of Patriot Front, Gancarz is very active in the group’s propaganda campaigns in both New York and Virginia where he is responsible for much of the Patriot Front stickers, posters, and stencils reported in these areas. In his role as a Patriot Front Network Director, Paul would have been directly involved or consulted on high-profile vandalism in his network, such as the defacement of the Arthur Ashe mural in Richmond, Virginia. As the host for Patriot Front marches in Washington DC on January 29th, 2021 and more recently on December 4th, 2021, he would have had a large role in the organizing and staging of these fascist spectacles (and any U-haul mishaps that may have occurred).
Paul Gancarz’s involvement in Far Right politics also goes well beyond Patriot Front. On August 12, 2017 he attended the deadly white nationalist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia as a Proud Boy and has maintained strong connections to the group over the years. In December 2019, Paul and Proud Boy member Simon Ming Yui Lee (AKA Simon “Lee Greenwood”) scrawled swastikas outside of a Greenpoint, Brooklyn restaurant. Gancarz also helps distribute a variety of fascist and far right propaganda, notably those for white nationalist Robert Rundo’s groups, Rise Above Movement and Will2Rise. His work as an engineer provides him the opportunity to travel around the United States, network with different fascists, and spread fascist/white nationalist propaganda and ideas. He currently works for the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Expansion Project in the Virginia Beach/Norfolk, Virginia area.
THIS IS NETWORK DIRECTOR SAMUEL VIRGINIA
Paul Michael Gancarz was connected to Patriot Front after receiving a tip that linked a black Honda Accord to his Patriot Front alter-ego, Samuel. During the course of the investigation into the owner of that vehicle, it was discovered that Paul was also deeply connected to the Proud Boys and attended the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville as a Proud Boy. Paul Gancarz is now being exposed as a Network Director in the Patriot Front organization and one of the original members of the Proud Boys.
Paul was born on September 2nd and is 33 years old. He is from New York City and the license plate information along with various public records confirms that he owns an apartment in Forest Hills, Queens. Public records also connect Gancarz to his mom’s apartment in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Paul frequently uses his mother’s address for official purposes, such as when he got himself arrested or when he donated to Donald Trump’s presidential election campaign in 2016 (and 2018!)
Although Paul is originally from NYC, monitoring connected him to an address in Virginia. After obtaining a copy of a traffic summons that he received in March 2021, the Virginia address was confirmed and he is currently living in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The speeding ticket also updated what was known about the vehicles Paul drives. In addition to the black Honda Accord, it now appears he drives a 2020 Chevy SUV that has Virginia plates. The Virginia speeding ticket matches the date-of-birth associated with the NY license plate as well as the Virginia arrest record. It also helpfully provides pedigree info–Paul is 6 feet tall, weighs 250 pounds, and he has blue eyes and red hair. Despite this move to Virginia Beach, Paul still comes back to NYC to visit family, as is documented on his mom’s Facebook page.
Proud Boys
The NYC Proud Boys formed sometime in mid-2016 and Paul Gancarz was involved with the group since at least the fall of 2016. Paul was recognized as a NYC Proud Boy after comparing photos on his mother’s Facebook page to those from various Proud Boy meet-ups. He maintains ties with members and former members, especially Proud Boys who are outright fascists or in the language of 2017, ‘alt-right.’
The core tenets of the Proud Boys are so-called ‘western chauvinism’ (a nasty admixture of ultranationalism and opposition to multiculturalism), toxic masculinity, and extreme violence. The first Proud Boys chapter in NYC would read out loud from (dead) Far Right bigot, Pat Buchannan’s, book, Death of the West, which is essentially a precursor to the white supremacist conspiracy theory of ‘The Great Replacement.’ The short version of this conspiracy theory is encapsulated in the “You will not replace us!” chant from white supremacists marching in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017.
Proud Boy violence has been a part of the group since the beginning, and Proud Boys have been involved in numerous violent assaults around the United States. In NYC, the most serious instance occurred in October 2018, when dozens of Proud Boys brutally assaulted several antifascist counter-protesters after watching Proud Boy leader Gavin McInnes reenact the execution of a Japanese socialist at the Metropolitan Republican Club.
Venmo data provided the aliases Paul has used with the Proud Boys. He went by “Paul Ganz” (@deltaganz) on Venmo and the earliest transaction on record shows him paying then-Proud Boy and current Nazi Salvatore Cipolla for a NYC meet-up in November 2016. A 2018 payment request from Paul’s sister for mobile phone charges gave confirmation that “Paul Ganz” is Paul Gancarz. These 2018 Venmo transactions also show Paul liked to attend national Proud Boy gatherings such as those in Vegas and New Orleans. In one of these transactions, Paul signed a comment to Heath Hair, a Proud Boy “Elder” in Georgia, as “Delta Ganz.”
Paul’s Venmo history shows that he collected money for NY Proud Boys after their October 2018 arrests for viciously assaulting people outside of the Metropolitan Republican Club. In one transaction, Paul sent money to Douglas Lennan, and in another, he sent money for John Kinsman, which was evidently being collected by Gavin McInnes. Paul has changed his account name several times (it is currently called “delta G”) and he has deleted his public transaction history.
After finding Paul’s alias, “Delta Ganz,” on Venmo, it popped up many more times. On Facebook, it appeared in a scrape of individuals “interested” in attending the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12, 2017. The Proud Boys are implicated in the violence and death that occured in Charlottesville that day. In the run-up to the deadly rally, Proud Boys released an “official” statement in late June 2017 that said, “if a [Proud Boys] chapter or an individual Proud Boy feels compelled to go, we encourage him to do so.” The Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights (FOAK), the so-called “military wing” of the Proud Boys, announced they would attend Unite the Right and one of the FOAK’s leaders, Augustus Invictus, was a listed rally speaker. Proud Boy/FOAK associate Alex Ramos received a six year prison sentence for his part in the brutal beating of Deandre Harris. Proud Boy Jason Kessler was the main organizer of the rally that ended in the murder of Heather Heyer. Many other Proud Boy and FOAK members attended. Paul Gancarz was one of them. He was found in the crowd of fascists leaving Emancipation Park in Charlottesville on August 12th. Paul is wearing a black and yellow Fred Perry (that has become unfortunately associated with the Proud Boys), red-tinted ski goggles, MAGA hat, and what appear to be fighting gloves.
Further investigation into Paul Gancarz’s activities at Unite the Right revealed that in January 2018, two individuals filed assault charges against him for an incident that occured on August 12, 2017 in Greene County, which is just north of Charlottesville, Virginia. At least one of them is a Nazi. There is a Noah Thomas Gunter in his mid-20s living in Asheboro, North Carolina, with an email beginning in “ntg_3.” This email was used to register an account with the username, “gunter1488,” which is a plain reference to the Nazi code “1488.” This string of numbers is the combination of the “14 Words,” a saying coined by David Lane, the leader of the ultraviolent, deadly white supremacist group, “The Order,” and “88” for “Heil Hitler” (H is the 8th letter of the alphabet). A photo of Noah posted on his Poshmark account (username “gunter1488”) matched with photos from his mother and girlfriend’s Facebook pages. Whatever happened in Greene County, Virginia on August 12, 2017 is unclear, although fascist-on-fascist violence is indicated. The assault charges filed against Paul Gancarz were later dropped by the Commonwealth of Virginia.
After Unite the Right, Gavin McInnes tried to distance the Proud Boys from the political fallout of the car attack and other violence in Charlottesville. Proud Boy members who attended the rally, like Paul Gancarz, were allegedly expelled from the official group: a cynical gesture by McInnes to keep up the pretense that the group was just a ‘men’s drinking club.’ Proud Boys and their associates continued to engage in violence around the United States immediately after Unite the Right. Vicious attacks by Proud Boys occurred throughout 2018, such as in Portland, Oregon on June 30, 2018, and of course, the brutal attack in NYC at the Metropolitan Republican Club later that year. The legal fallout of the October 2018 attack in NYC–with multiple Proud Boys facing years in prison–created an image problem for McInnes and he publicly made a big show of “quitting” the group (reader, he did not quit). In the power struggle that followed, Proud Boy Enrique Tarrio became president and since Tarrio himself attended Unite the Right as FOAK, Proud Boys like Paul Gancarz were no longer ‘officially’ disavowed.
Proud Boys were booted off of various mainstream social media platforms at the end of 2018, and the Telegram messaging app became an increasingly popular means of communicating for various Far Right groups, including Proud Boys. It was on Telegram that “Delta Ganz” made another appearance. On September 2, 2019, antifascist researcher Gwen Snyder noted that a Proud Boy called “Delta Ganz” was praising and defending Patriot Front in Enrique Tarrio’s channel, “Enrique’s house of propaganda” and the official Proud Boys channel, “RWCS–The Omega Pill.” The profile image for “Delta Ganz” was a blue eye overlayed with a Sonnenrad, or “black sun.” The Sonnenrad is widely used by Nazis, including by many fascists who attended Unite the Right, such as Patriot Front associate William Fears, who was involved in the attempted murder of counter-protesters at a Richard Spencer event in Gainesville, Florida.
In addition to defending and promoting Patriot Front in these 2019 screenshots, Paul Gancarz, as “Delta Ganz,” is openly bigoted, and he freely uses homophobic, racist, and ableist slurs. Paul likes to “joke” about the Holocaust and is extremely anti-semitic. In a verbal spat with another Proud Boy member, Paul says “CUAWF” (or “See You At West Fest”), which confirms that he was still attending national Proud Boy meetups known as “West Fest” in 2019/2020.
As a Proud Boy, Paul did not limit his overt use of fascist symbols and anti-semitism to Telegram channels. On December 22, 2019, Paul Gancarz (who has strong ties to Greenpoint, Brooklyn) and Simon Ming Yui Lee, a Proud Boy from Flushing, Queens, were seen on surveillance cameras putting up swastikas on the facade of the Acapulco Restaurant & Deli in Greenpoint.
Patriot Front
Although Paul Gancarz attended the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville as a Proud Boy, he rubbed elbows with other Far Right groups there, such as Vanguard America and the Rise Above Movement. As these fascist groups morphed into Patriot Front and Will2Rise, respectively, Paul kept close and maintained connections to both.
Patriot Front formed after splintering off and rebranding from Vanguard America (VA), which was one of the main organizers of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017. VA was a defendant in the civil lawsuit, Sines v. Kessler, brought by survivors of Far Right violence at Unite the Right. The civil trial began in October 2021, and after several weeks the jury found VA, along with over two dozen other defendants, liable for their role in the horrific violence that day. Patriot Front’s leader, Thomas Rousseau, was at Unite the Right with VA, and was pictured with James Fields, the fascist who murdered Heather Heyer and injured dozens of others by driving his car into a crowd of antifascist protesters.
Paul was connected to his Patriot Front alias, Samuel, after a tip which linked that name to a black Honda Accord. This tip was corroborated by comparing propaganda images by Patriot Front with known pedigree information (6” tall, 250 lbs, blue eyes, red hair), known photos of Paul Gancarz, and messages from the 2020 Torch Antifa leaks of the Patriot Front chat server.
Based on the Torch leaks, Paul has belonged to Patriot Front since at least early 2019 and has been active in both Patriot Front and the Proud Boys for years. However, it is likely he joined Patriot Front before 2019. The Torch leaks indicate that Paul, as Samuel NY, acted as Network Director (ND) for New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania until October 2019, after which time Kieran Morris took over as ND for the area.
Because Paul moved to Virginia Beach, it was long suspected that he was involved in Patriot Front activism in the Virginia, Maryland, and Washington DC area. Researchers confirmed that Paul Gancarz is NETWORK DIRECTOR SAMUEL VIRGINIA after an antifascist infiltrator leaked audio of him melting down during a Patriot Front group call. Samuel NY and Samuel VA have the same user number within Patriot Front: PF-3564. Paul’s appointment as ND of Delaware, Washington DC, Maryland, and Virgina, also indicates some uncertainty about the status of the prior ND, Victor Staab, in the organization.
As a Network Director, Paul Gancarz manages the recruitment of members as well as their participation. He would oversee, coordinate, and collaborate in a variety of activist efforts by Patriot Front, and would be deeply involved in hosting the group’s leadership and members for larger actions in his network, such as the recent march to the US Capitol in December 2021. While the majority of the group’s so-called activism consists of littering an area with promotional stickers, Patriot Front also regularly engages in poster wheatpasting and dropping banners. Recently, however, members have begun using spray paint and stencils to deface murals across the country. In October 2021, Patriot Front defaced a mural in honor of legendary tennis player, Arthur Ashe, in Richmond, Virginia. In audio recently leaked by Atlanta Antifascists, Thomas Rousseau, the leader of Patriot Front, describes how members need to consult with Network Directors (or himself) before they deface high-profile murals or sites. Paul was likely the individual who gave the greenlight for mural defacement in Richmond, if it wasn’t his idea in the first place!
Paul targets the areas around where he lives and works–regularly hitting areas in Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and Hampton, Virginia. In November and December 2021, Patriot Front released a number of photos of members wheatpasting posters and hanging banners in this cluster of towns. The figure in the Adidas track pants and Will2Rise hoodie is Paul Gancarz.
On November 1st, the Will2Rise Active Club Telegram, “Activism, Athletics, and Identity,” posted a photo of an individual wearing the same Adidas track pants and and a discontinued W2R hoodie combination. The caption on the photo reads: “Supporter photo sent in right before he took first place in a jiu jitsu tournament.” Paul (who changed his name to read ‘Paul Goncorz’ on the tournament site) competed in the Virginia Beach BJJ Gi & Nogi Round Robin Tournament on October 30th and took first place in his weight class (-230 lbs). While Paul doesn’t always wear the sloganed hoodie when targeting the area where he lives and works with fascist propaganda, he often wears the Adidas track pants with a hoodie that has a similar fit.
When Paul was living in NYC, his Patriot Front activism was similar to what he is currently doing in Virginia–putting up stickers, hanging banners, and hosting Patriot Front leadership and members for larger actions. In spring of 2019, Patriot Front targeted the American Israel Public Affairs offices in NYC as part of its anti-semitic “debts of blood” campaign. Patriot Front followed the standard fascist playbook of polluting legitimate criticism of Israel or the role of lobbyists on government policy with typical anti-semitic rhetoric about “rootless mercenaries” corrupting the nation. Paul was the Network Director in NY during this time period, and he is seen walking ahead of the main group with Patriot Front leader, Thomas Rousseau, in video of the action.
While Paul was living in New York, he often bragged in the Patriot Front messaging server about how prolific he was in putting up propaganda, which he was actively involved in doing regardless of his title of Network Director. Much like his activity in Virginia, Paul’s activism in New York also clustered near where he lived. Other Patriot Front members in the chat noted that many of the banners he was bragging about hanging were done in NYC, and not other places upstate.
The Patriot Front messages leaked by Torch Antifa capture a period between March 2019 through June 2020, while Paul was also actively involved in the Proud Boys. Much like when he defended Patriot Front as Delta Ganz in various Proud Boy Telegram channels, he also defended the Proud Boys in the Patriot Front chat. In messages from April 2019, Paul pushes back against criticism the Proud Boys are “half-pilled” by characterizing the Proud Boys founder, Gavin McInnes, as both a “raging anti-semite” and “woke to the jq.” In the context of anti-semitism and fascists, ‘the jq’ stands for “the Jewish Question.” Gavin McInnes has recorded a video titled, “10 Things I Hate About Jews,” and in other videos has said, “I’m becoming anti-semitic.” Anti-semitism is a major reason for Paul’s involvement in both the Proud Boys and Patriot Front.
Rise Above Movement, Will2Rise, MMA
Paul and many other Patriot Front members wear clothing and post stickers promoting the Rise Above Movement (RAM) and Will2Rise. RAM is a white nationalist gang infamous for assaults perpetrated by members at Unite the Right in Charlottesville as well as several California cities. The group was founded in Southern California by Queens, NY native, Robert Rundo, who is currently living in Serbia and is deeply involved in fascist movements throughout Eastern Europe. Although RAM is formally inactive, Rundo promotes his vision of “white nationalism 3.0” via Will2Rise and “Active Clubs.” Active Clubs combine fascist indoctrination, networking, martial arts, and propaganda posting into a lifestyle. Rundo’s vision converges with Patriot Front on many points, and his media arm (Media2Rise) promotes Patriot Front and is embedded within the group at actions.
In addition to wearing t-shirts and hoodies, Paul is very involved in supporting RAM and Will2Rise in other ways. In the Torch leaks, Paul is identified by another member as someone who “puts up more [RAM] stickers than the actual members.” In 2019, he also mentions writing letters to RAM members who were still in prison at that time. These RAM members were convicted in part for violently attacking people in Charlottesville at the Unite the Right rally in 2017. Paul was at the Unite the Right rally where these violent attacks took place.
Paul also takes the martial arts training elements of Will2Rise and Active Clubs seriously. As discussed earlier, Paul was identified in Patriot Front photos from the Virginia Beach area after his picture (wearing a Will2Rise hoodie) was shared on the Active Clubs Telegram channel and researchers traced him to a BJJ tournament in Virginia Beach. There is also overlap between RAM/Will2Rise and certain segments of the Proud Boys, or the remnants of that group that have taken “Western Chauvinism” into an explicitly white nationalist direction. Paul has been involved in Proud Boy MMA events, such as at Midwest Fest in 2020, and he also posts about training frequently in the Patriot Front member chat.
[Editor’s note: the following paragraph was edited on January 25th, 2022 to reflect the most recent information about Paul’s gym affiliations.]
Since Paul Gancarz moved to Virginia Beach, he enrolled with a local gym for Brazilian jiu-jitsu, which as of January 25th, 2022, has terminated his membership. Paul has also competed at Grappling Industries events under the banner of an unaffiliated gym several times, and he is currently registered for an upcoming tournament in April 2022. After this article came out, the unaffiliated gym has disavowed any knowledge of or support for Paul’s fascist activities. At the time of the original blog post, Paul had set his tournament profile to ‘Private’ and intentionally misspelled his last name in a feeble attempt to hide his identity, only further cementing his involvement in fascist movements.
Employment
[Editor’s note: On January 26th, 2022 we received information that Paul is no longer a member of the American Society of Engineers. The original text has been amended to reflect that.]
[Editor’s Note: On February 16, 2022, the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Expansion Project in Virginia confirmed that Paul no longer works there. The original text has been amended to reflect that.]
Paul Gancarz is from New York City and graduated with a degree in civil engineering from Manhattan College. His specialty is in industrial grouting and he has worked for all of the major engineering companies–such as Parsons Brinckerhoff, AECOM, Northeast USA @ Sovereign-Thyssen, and OHL (Judlau Construction). Although, Paul appeared as a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and was even a member of its Grouting Technical Coordination Council, the organization has confirmed that Paul is no longer a member and hasn’t been for several years.
He was employed as a Professional Engineer on the I-64 Hampton Roads Connector Partners Joint Venture (HRCPJV) until his exposure as a fascist. The Virginia Department of Transportation awarded the contract for the largest construction project in Virginia history to the joint venture, which consists of Dragados USA, HDR, Mott MacDonald, Flatiron Constructors, Vinci Construction, and Dodin Campenon Bernard. After weeks of pressure on the organization after the publication of this article, on February 16, 2022, a journalist from the Huffington Post, Christopher Mathias, confirmed that Paul Gancarz no longer works for the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Expansion Project.
Action Items
[Editor’s Note: Paul Gancarz no longer works for the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel Expansion Project and was also dropped by his gyms. There are no pressing action items at this time, although that can always change as we find out more information!]
As we promised– as we have gotten more information, we have more action items! See our Paul Gancarz update post for more information on how to deplatform him from FUJI BJJ tournaments and other BJJ events!
NYC Antifa 