As Joe Kent, the Donald Trump-backed Washington state congressional candidate for the far-right put it — in his public appearances and public documents — $122,110.36 last year asProject manager“For a start technology It is called “American Enterprise Solutions”.
One problem: There is no record of the company’s existence.
The mystery surrounding the income of the former “Green Berets” led to the outbreak of frantic conspiracy campaigns Internet Margins Where did his past work in Central Intelligence Agency He has been described as “a putative puppet of the deep state”. These doubts arose though Kent Vaccine bashingThe endorsement is not only from Trump but from the right-wing billionaire Peter Thieland his defeat in the August primary to Representative Jaime Herrera Butler (R-Washington), one of the few Republicans who supported the impeachment of the former president.
One website, JoeKentIsCIA.com posted multiple videos in which the audience asked the candidate about their job status. in one syllable From May, Kent reiterated that the employer’s name is “American Enterprise Solutions,” and emphasized that we “are doing a variety of types of 5G switching.” in another placeKent told an audience member that the company is in Virginia, and added, “We have a lot of proprietary software.”
But American Enterprise Solutions has no patents or trademarks, no licenses, no website, no social media pages, and no single publicly announced contract with a government agency or private wireless service provider. The Daily Beast contacted the owner of the only company ever formed under that name in the Commonwealth of Virginia, who said the entity — listed as inactive on the state company committee — had been out of business for the better part of a decade, and had not operated in the industry. technology, and never hired Kent.
When The Daily Beast reached out to Kent’s campaign for an explanation, the response was brief.
“AES is a technology company registered in Delaware and operating out of Reston, Virginia,” spokesperson Ozzy Gonzalez wrote in an email to The Daily Beast.
However, no American Enterprise Solutions corporation is registered in Delaware either as a corporate entity or as a fictitious business name, and public records show that no business uses the name in Reston or elsewhere in Virginia. Furthermore, Fairfax County confirmed to The Daily Beast that it has no record that American Enterprise Solutions owns a Commercial, professional and occupational licenseEssential for any private establishment operating in Reston or the surrounding area.
After contacting him by phone, Gonzalez insisted that “this is the company Joe works for,” and pledged to provide more information. He added that he believed American Enterprise Solutions to be a government contractor or subcontractor.
But no American Enterprise Solutions company has registered with the Federal Reward Management System or the governmental and commercial entity code program, although this may not be necessary if the company is not the primary contract supplier.
Unfortunately, Gonzalez did not provide further details, nor did he respond to repeated emails, texts and voice messages from The Daily Beast requesting that the campaign provide documentation for Kent’s employment with American Enterprise Solutions — or that it share the name of many one founder or executive of the company.
A search of the Data World Numbering System — a private portal used for credit reporting and some contracting opportunities — gave rise to American Enterprise Solutions in Florida and another in Georgia. When asked, the Peach State businessman told The Daily Beast, “I haven’t worked with this guy,” referring to Kent.
Meanwhile, the Florida co-owner said that they not only never hired Kent, but confirmed that their company had no employees at all.
Delaney Marscoe, senior ethics advisor at the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center, noted that the House’s financial disclosure rules include excerpts of some work being done for the benefit of the US government. However, she noted, “if an exception were applied, you would likely not report income at all.”
Marsco stressed that she could not say whether Kent’s filings contained false information, and left open the possibility that American Enterprise Solutions was a sole proprietorship that failed to obtain a trade license or trade name, which is required by Delaware law. However, she highlighted the harsh penalties federal authorities could impose on fraudulent applicants: fines of up to a quarter of a million dollars and up to five years in prison.
“You are required by law to provide accurate and complete documents. Lying on these documents is very problematic,” she said. “You cannot, for example, lie and say ‘This is my full-time job,’ when in fact the company does not exist.”
Kent began showing his house last March by lending his campaign $205,000 out of his own pocket, and has since donated an additional amount $44,866.89 in his efforts to replace Beutler.
FEC records He showed that he began identifying American Enterprise Solutions as his employer based on donations he made to Trump-related committees in May 2020. His LinkedIn Page He asserts that he began working as a project manager at an unnamed “tech start-up” in August 2019. The page notes that he is simultaneously running a sole proprietorship called Perpetual LLC, registered and has since dissolved in his home state of Oregon, which Gonzalez told The Kant Daily. Best is a security subcontractor for the Department of Defense.
Kent will face Democrat Mary Glosencamp Perez in November.
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