mrobergeMar 7, 2025
BrianKrebs

Investigative journalist Jacqueline Sweet just published a helluva scoop over at Rolling Stone that looks into the background of a guy I mentioned the other day: Sam Corcos, one of several people named as allowed to access Treasury/IRS data. WaPo reported the other day, without providing much background into Corcos, that he had shown up at Treasury demanding access to all taxpayer records.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/doge-staffer-corcos-wife-ties-russian-oligarch-1235291673/

tl;dr: Corcos's wife is a Russian woman who spent years at the venture capital firm GVA Capital, which has been exposed as a money laundering vehicle for Suleyman Kerimov, a sanctioned Russian oligarch.

I published a story yesterday based on research into a DOGE guy who is now director of IT at X. The story looked his and his wife's past connections to a series of Russian foundations in California. As that story noted, Jacqueline was super helpful in that reporting, and she credits me for helping with her research.

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/03/who-is-the-doge-and-x-technician-branden-spikes/

New DOGE Staffer Has Ties to a Sanctioned Russian Oligarch

Corcos, a new member of Elon Musk’s DOGE team, reportedly showed up at the IRS demanding detailed info about American taxpayers to hunt for fraud.

Rolling Stone
Mar 7, 2025 at 7:50pmWeb
Show threadBrianKrebsMar 7, 2025

BTW this was mention of Corcos the other day.

https://infosec.exchange/@briankrebs/114100311267410604

BrianKrebs (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image Who the heck is Sam Corcos? He's a serial CTO and startup guy who runs a healthcare startup called Levels that is backed by a16z (Andreesen Horowitz) and aims to show how food affects your health. Okay. And there's another DOGE-ish person on the scene at Treasury I'm told: Linda Whitridge, a gym owner and owner of AME Higher Nutrition, a "health steps nutrition mentoring platform." https://growyournutritionbusiness.com/gym-owner-and-nutrition-coach-stories/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAmNI5ZJ0tY What's with all these nutritionists or whatever at DOGE? And why should they be at Treasury?

Infosec Exchange
Show threadBrianKrebsMar 7, 2025

The Rolling Stone story makes an important point: Citigroup is being investigated by the Justice Department, the FBI, and the IRS for its handling of Kerimov's assets, which were held in an entity called Heritage Trust.

"The Treasury Department blocked Kerimov from accessing assets worth $1 billion from the Delaware-based Heritage Trust in June 2022, citing an investigation into Kerimov’s “use of a network of relatives, advisors” and other entities to invest in U.S. companies.
​"

"The three agencies will also investigate Citigroup’s financial compliance framework, including how the bank prevents money laundering and other processes intended to prevent other financial crimes, according to Barron’s, citing a person with knowledge of the situation."

Anyone wanna take bets on how soon this DOJ drops this investigation?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-11-14/citigroup-probed-by-us-over-ties-to-sanctioned-russian-kerimov?embedded-checkout=true

Show threadVissMar 7, 2025
@briankrebs muahahaha the put options are cheap
Show threadCaliMar 7, 2025
@briankrebs nyet, comrade
Show threadSpaceLifeFormMar 7, 2025

@briankrebs

I could tell you a story about Citi.

The DOJ will drop this.

Show threadUrzlMar 7, 2025
@briankrebs "Money laundering" might as well have been on DOGE's no-no list.
Show threadṫẎℭỚ◎ᾔ ṫ◎ℳMar 7, 2025
@briankrebs Yes, I Bet you 1 🍺 They Don't👨🏼‍⚖️
Show threadDavid FleetwoodMar 7, 2025
@TycoonTom @briankrebs Prepare to buy a beer...
Show threadṫẎℭỚ◎ᾔ ṫ◎ℳMar 7, 2025
@briankrebs "White House Crypto Summit" - The First Ever White House #Crypto Summit hosted by President Trump. Shaping the future of Crypto in America. #cryptocurrency #bitcoin #trump #musk #Doge
Show threadBrianKrebsMar 7, 2025
@TycoonTom we need a gag-me-with-a-spoon emoji
Show threadṫẎℭỚ◎ᾔ ṫ◎ℳMar 8, 2025
@briankrebs Best I Can do is this pic Brian🤷🏼 #crypto #bitcoin #doge
Show threadskuaMar 7, 2025

@TycoonTom @briankrebs

America is certainly open for business!

Launch your scam at the WH, get a Presidential warrant, the WH mailing list, a Justice-Exempt card AND guarranteed free Fox, NYT & WSJ coverage - all for just 90% of the action. Success is sure & big.

New Las Vegas-style uniforms for all the 10s at the WH, a theme park brothel high-speed rail-tunnel contected in a emptied out Department building, VR data access galleries - pay per view, suites to meet with top WH AI avatars.

Show threadDragon-sided DMar 8, 2025
@TycoonTom @briankrebs "... and an undisclosed amount of #Monero "
Show threadT2RMar 7, 2025
@briankrebs I give it a month tops before it "disappears".
Show threadPatrick Morris MillerMar 7, 2025
@briankrebs Anything called 'Heritage' is evil until proven otherwise now.
Show threadAdam ThomasMar 8, 2025

@briankrebs

>>Anyone wanna take bets

No, but good chance it gets dropped.

And is it a likely bet that the 2 prosecutors put on leave today in the Southern District of NY were also working on investigation(s) into Citi / Heritage Trust?

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/nyregion/eric-adams-prosecutors-sdny.html

Justice Dept. Is Said to Put Two Prosecutors in Adams Case on Leave

The prosecutors, Celia Cohen and Andrew Rohrbach, had held high-ranking positions in the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.

The New York Times
Show threadJim LillicotchMar 7, 2025
@briankrebs
Hey #Republicans
How long you gonna keep your heads buried in the sand & ignore this #corruption?
Way to go @RollingStone
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/doge-staffer-corcos-wife-ties-russian-oligarch-1235291673/
New DOGE Staffer Has Ties to a Sanctioned Russian Oligarch

Corcos, a new member of Elon Musk’s DOGE team, reportedly showed up at the IRS demanding detailed info about American taxpayers to hunt for fraud.

Rolling Stone
Show threadmartin lentink 🇪🇺 🇺🇦📎Mar 7, 2025
@briankrebs The USA really is becoming West-Russia.
Show threadAlexa FontanillaMar 8, 2025
@martinlentink
#PostOfTheWeek (season 2):
There is a new staffer from the so-called Department of Government Efficiency seeking access to sensitive data at the IRS — and his family has ties to a sanctioned Russian oligarch. The Washington Post reported that two DOGE representatives, Gavin Kliger and Sam Corcos, have been at the IRS seeking private taxpayer information in unprecedented ways that would violate current IRS privacy law. He demanded “detailed taxpayer and vendor information."
Show thread Why Not Zoidberg? 🦑Mar 7, 2025
@briankrebs The lack of surprise is killing me.
Show threadGeoff BernerMar 7, 2025
@briankrebs it's sort of a scoop I guess. Except that Musk on his own has even more ties to Russian oligarchs.
Show threadDarcyMar 7, 2025

@briankrebs

None of the people who are in DOGE have had any type of background checks for any sort of security clearances.

You know all this information is going straight to the Russian FSB, (Formerly the KGB)

But MAGA I'm sure Putin has only the best intentions, right?

Show threadSpaceLifeFormMar 7, 2025

@Mor696 @briankrebs

Bingo. No security clearances. Never done.

So, when the Doge goons show up, just tell them they do not have any clearance, and to FOAD.

If they do not like that answer, tell them to go get a court order.

I am appalled that so many people did not have a spine to do this.

NYC (Know Your Crook).

Show threadWaitman GobbleMar 8, 2025
AFAIK it's difficult to impossible get security clearance with familiar ties to foreigners.

I've had the opinion this Russian place in Sunnyvale could be a KGB hangout :) the sign is kinda faded.





Waitman Gobble - [email protected]

Show threadDoomsdaysCWMar 7, 2025
@briankrebs Surprise, surprise...NOT!
Show threadmtc_ukMar 7, 2025
@briankrebs Somehow, Niven and Pournelle’s CoDominium seemed more palatable; at least the US half of it wasn’t run by fucking morons, and the USSR half wasn’t run by the Russian mafia.
Show threadPeteMar 7, 2025
@briankrebs Anyone shocked by this is either a fool or complicit.
Show threadB-Sizzle Mar 7, 2025
@briankrebs Oh great. The enemy has my GD taxes.
Show threadmattiaMar 8, 2025
@briankrebs welp that’s the push I needed to freeze my credit w the bureaus 🤦
Show threadEndicottRoad59Mar 8, 2025
@briankrebs Yet another bit of proof that DJT is a Russian agent.
Show threadJohn RefiorMar 8, 2025
@briankrebs
What a great time to be a money launderer
Show threadErwin van BeinumMar 8, 2025
@briankrebs 7 days max… whenever the investigation is gone, you think anyone is gonna search for the money when it disappears? Just wondering…