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If your friends gave you $376,000 to stay out of jail, the least you might want to do is drop a hint that you're skipping town. But none such courtesies were extended to Julian Assange's donors such as Michael Moore, who now face losing all the bail money they posted for the WikiLeaks founder. Early this year the filmmaker joined other donors including British socialite Jemima Khan and Australian journalist John Pilger as sureties for Assange's bail by helping to post £240,000. The list of Assange allies also includes those who agreed to pay 20,000 pounds ($31,000) in surety to be paid later such as former British army captain Vaughan Smith and catering business mogul Sarah Saunders. Each one now faces losing that money because of the WikiLeaks founder's bid for asylum in Ecuador. Who knew radical transparency was so expensive?
Today, the Assange camp is trying to convey unity among its financial supporters and said that everyone's bail money will be returned. Speaking with Australia's News.com, Christine Assange, Julian's mother, said the process of her son getting asylum from Ecuador should resolve the problem of the bail money. "Julian told me that the asylum process is internationally recognised as a legitimate form of appeal and that the bail should not be forfeited." She also said that "the people who gave surety for his bail support his action." Are either of those claims true?