Alex Vranas @Alex@vran.as

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.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/12/29/north-shore-leader-santos-scoop/

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.

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, and says another organization at the same address but Ste 101 is there 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.com 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.

How's that for following the money? :) Wait, I'm not done yet.

2023 energy

Sick of people calling everything in crypto a Ponzi scheme. Some crypto projects are Pump-and-Dump schemes, while others are Pyramid schemes. Others are just middlemen skimming off the top. Others are just standard-issue fraud.

Stop glossing over the diversity in the industry.

The internet wants to be fragmented https://slrpnk.net/post/204842

Haiku Is Such A Unique Operating System https://lemmy.ml/post/685299

Get ready! The party is starting at 7PM GMT over on https://twitch.tv/fieldfxdemo

My kids are watching this classic scene from Sesame Street and are just as confused as the Yip Yips. They have absolutely no conception of what this thing is. The humor of the scene has truly come full circle.

I cannot keep this to myself. There is a website (radio.garden) where you can listen to radio stations all over the world for free. No log in. No email address. Nothing.

When the site loads, you are looking at the globe. Slide the little white circle over the green dots (each green dot is a radio station) until you find one you like.

I have been listening to this station in the Netherlands and it absolutely slaps. I have no idea what they're saying but the music is fantastic.