BrianKrebs (@[email protected])

Do you know how many times I've heard over the past few days how much the media is failing to follow the money in this story about the newly elected Rep. George Santos? This story makes it clear that's exactly what happened. https://www.theleaderonline.com/single-post/santos-filings-now-claim-net-worth-of-11-million (edit: replaced the paywalled WaPo story about how the MSM missed the big scoop with the big scoop itself). So let's follow the money, shall we? Starting with Mr. Santos' latest filing for The Devolder Organization, which is apparently responsible for his sudden unexplained wealth (Devolder is Santos' late mother's last name). http://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/CorporationSearch/ConvertTiffToPDF?storagePath=COR%5C2021%5C0601%5C00184778.Tif&documentNumber=L21000206150 The organization lists its address as 336 N. Babcock St. Ste 104. The document also lists another organization at the same address but at Ste 101, called D&D International Investment Services Inc. Both are affiliated with an individual named Devaughn Dames, who appears to be both a physician and a CFO somehow. He's also very passionate about spreading his knowledge about how to handle your money wisely. His linkedin page mentions both companies. He also seems to be an IT expert; previous domains include https://web.archive.org/web/20160518071721/http://www.manageditsolutions.net/about.html One of Mr. Dames' email addresses (dev.dames at gmail) was used to register the vanity domain devaughndames[.]com. Firefox didn't like what that site tried to do when I visited it, but it loaded an empty page that had the heading "Financial Educational Services." But the pop-up takes you to a domain called myuwe[.]net, which is for an entity called United Wealth Education. Now, UWE is full of stock photos and videos, and there isn't much there about who runs it. And after spending a few minutes on this site, you'll probably come away with the conclusion that the site is tied to some type of scam. Well, if you look up the name of what Myuwe[.]net used to be called -- Financial Educational Services -- you'll see they were shut down JUST THIS YEAR by the US Federal Trade Commission for being a giant pyramid scheme that bilked people out of more than $213 million. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2022/05/ftc-shuts-down-credit-repair-pyramid-scheme-financial-education-services-which-bilked-more-213 How's that for following the money? :) Wait, I'm not done yet.