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Season Six: Scamsgiving Part Two: The Chicken
170 Plays7 days ago
Welcome to Black Fraud-day! Check out this seeming scam situation while you browse for deals! Hope you have a day off!
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Transcript
Introduction and Theme Exploration
00:00:00
Speaker
The content you're about to hear may be graphic in nature. Listener discretion is advised.
00:00:25
Speaker
This is True Crime
00:01:01
Speaker
So we were setting this up so that we could do like scamsgiving. actually called it fraudsgiving when I was texting you about this, like much earlier in the year than people are listening to this.
Corporate Fraud vs. Empire-building
00:01:13
Speaker
And then i realized that I had totally missed the boat on that. And it's actually scamsgiving and then black fraud day.
00:01:21
Speaker
i i was going to say, ah Scamsgiving, so it's like if you celebrate Thanksgiving or if you're a different country and you celebrate some sort of Friendsgiving, you can share Scamsgiving and Black Friday with your friends. Exactly. So we picked up, we just you know finished the first episode of this, and that was this interesting case where I think there's like some elements of it that are clearly fraud, and then there's some stuff that's like more maybe building a corporate empire and people aren't happy with it.
00:01:57
Speaker
It's always interesting to me when people sort of fake it till they make it. Everybody has to do that to some extent. Right. There's a reasonable amount of delusion that comes with success.
The Courtney Jordan Foundation's Dubious Ventures
00:02:07
Speaker
And like it's interesting because i think where I get like deep into the cases, first of all, is when That what I would not be able to quantify as a reasonable amount, because I don't know exactly what it is, but it it crosses some lines into territory where it starts to break laws. And like, I know other corporations do that.
00:02:32
Speaker
and get Legit. Legit corporations. Yeah, like corporations that end up making it big early and then later. Like you and I were just sort of talking about all of this from the perspective of like how many really big deals, they could look like fraud in certain scenarios. Yeah.
00:02:53
Speaker
It's like a series of choices that are made, and it starts out on a good a good path, right? Right. We've got this plan. We're headed this way. So it's possible that some of these things that ends up that end up being like a scam or just a fraud, they don't start out that way. But as they' you're making decisions, eventually you get to a crossroads and the wrong decision is made, right? 100%.
00:03:21
Speaker
And sometimes sometimes things aren't on that path, I will you know honestly say. But sometimes when you're looking at the nuts and bolts of a situation, like we're going to talk about today a little bit, it's really hard to... like It could have been legit if different decisions had been made at different points in time, right?
00:03:46
Speaker
I think to a degree they could be. like i I just think... ah One of the hard parts for me, which I think there's two like serious questions I have. The first one is kind of, like was it ever going to be that legit? And this is one of cases, the situations we're going to talk about today in terms of Fraudsgiving Black Fraud Day. um They are hard for me.
00:04:14
Speaker
to wrap my head around the numbers being real because I feel like they're exponentially more than the legit version would look like. Well, I can say this anytime.
00:04:25
Speaker
and i I feel like this came up in the other episode too. Anytime in real life you find yourself, uh, dealing with someone who is calling themselves a billionaire, like touting that information,
00:04:40
Speaker
ah There's more than likely some sort of scam or fraud happening. ah People who are actual billionaires don't flaunt that most of the time it in a professional setting, right?
00:04:55
Speaker
they're not They don't in a personal setting either, though. Well, yeah, I don't think so either. But like for the most part. and And here's the other thing. In faking it until you make it, one of the classic things that would tell you someone's faking it, right, is that they're saying they're a billionaire.
00:05:15
Speaker
Right. Or flaunting it in ways that like you're supposed to pick up on the billionaire part and and ask them about it or whatever. Right. And in a non-for-profit situation, like none of that stuff comes into play. Right. And you know I know...
00:05:31
Speaker
Several wealthy people over the years I'd been either acquainted for, employed by, or close with, um I knew they were wealthy because of my nosiness.
00:05:43
Speaker
And, like, there were some obvious signs that they were wealthy. You know, that joke, like, i'm not going to tell you that I won the lottery, but there will be signs. um the Right, exactly. You know, there were certain things that, like, I knew. i i knew one person that I'm relatively certain has crossed into – The billionaire threshold. They're on all those lists that like come out. and And the reason I bring that up is it's usually pretty easy to track a billionaire from the perspective of like figuring out.
00:06:14
Speaker
Sort of where the money came from. Like with this person, I know that there was family money and then a successful business built from the family money. And like there were, you know, older folks in the family who passed away. So the family money grew exponentially. And I was there when some of that was happening and I was watching how the wealth grew. These happen to be very...
00:06:36
Speaker
modest and low-key wealthy folks. So it was more difficult to tell what was happening with them. But never once did they go, you know, I'm a blah millionaire, I'm a blah billionaire. You know, we would get phone calls related to our connection to these folks. And those phone calls were almost always like some list that Forbes had sold to some other company. Right.
00:07:00
Speaker
Forbes is exactly, um i I know maybe, And I don't even look at Forbes, but I know maybe four or five people that have been, or i don't i don't know if they would be on it now or not, but I know people that have been, you know, the top richest people. And I know and i happen to know it because of a like completely different situation. Right.
00:07:24
Speaker
like you They would never tell you. Yeah, and like it never really came up. like there are There were moments when it's come up like in conversation with other people asking if I knew what I was was involved with.
00:07:39
Speaker
Yes, thats that's true. If somebody knows that you have a connection, they will say, did you see this person was on the list? And that's what's happened to me. And I always shrug off those conversations, really. Right. And i like it's not something outside of this, like you and I talking right now, I don't think you and I've ever talked about the different folks that we just happen to know are in that scenario. It doesn't come up. Right. So...
00:08:08
Speaker
When I first saw this, I was like, why is everyone not covering this? And then, like, I think it's been going on in terms of being me being aware of the story we're about to talk about. I think it's been about a year. But, like, realistically, the problems in this story has been the last eight months.
00:08:29
Speaker
And once it started popping in the news, I was like, oh, that's interesting. um Because... You don't see a lot of like pretty plainly ah awkward situations for people who have claimed to have like a lot of money.
00:08:48
Speaker
In this instance that we're about to start talking about, they have represented themselves in such a way that i'm I'm not so sure that some of it is not like out-and-out fraud on its face, potentially.
00:09:04
Speaker
But where we get to that, like, I look at all of this and I have, you know, the questions and I feel really comfortable bringing it up in ah and a true crime podcast, particularly under the heading Black Fraud Day, is when um' when I look at this scenario, other people were harmed.
00:09:23
Speaker
And anytime people who just think they're working a job or are providing a service to whatever corporation has held itself out, potentially had to go through a credit check or background check or put down deposits, and they're not holding them up their end of the bargain and small businesses suffer, or people who think they're an administrative assistant or they think that they are you know some type of project manager. In this instance, there are camp directors and people who are counseling children.
00:09:56
Speaker
like When that happens, they've crossed the line where I don't consider them to be somebody who's faking it until they make it or on the right side of reasonable delusion. I consider them to be harming the community.
00:10:12
Speaker
100 million percent. And that's mainly why i was drawn to this case, because we were watching. i i wasn't watching it like a year ago, but shortly thereafter, because it's been kind of this ongoing like this is what's happening. And then finally, you know, ah law enforcement was investigating and then doing something about it. Right. Right. And so where it pops for me first, and the reason I brought up the year ago thing, is because sometimes like corporations like doing something good in the community.
00:10:47
Speaker
when they pop up, they're supporting political candidates. And that was what caught my attention first. There's a very small town that's close to all of this, and I have some people there that I know. And they had mentioned this to me over a year ago, that there was a candidate running in one of their local races, their political races,
00:11:13
Speaker
who was heavily tied to this organization and they were being funded by this organization. And could I look into a couple of names just to make sure that some of the officials in the town weren't being bamboozled and the results of all of that, they essentially felt like they were being bamboozled. So like, it's not like,
00:11:41
Speaker
People haven't been on notice. But where I'm going to start this story, that's going to come up as we talk. But where I'm going to start this story is this is out of ABC 11, which is it used to be WTVD.com out of the Raleigh Durham area.
00:11:57
Speaker
I was sent a link when I started asking about this story and kind of um seeing who I knew that might be involved. I was sent a link to a local news article by a woman named Diane Wilson who functions as a troubleshooter for ABC 11.
00:12:13
Speaker
The article just says summer camp accused of not paying the chicken hut in Durham for $4,000 meals. And it comes with an interview and sound clips.
00:12:25
Speaker
ah The byline is in Durham, North Carolina. It says a Durham summer camp is allegedly not paying its bills and a popular Durham restaurant known for helping out the community is one of the vendors waiting to be paid.
00:12:37
Speaker
The chicken hut is owed $3,400 and the organization that didn't pay them, that it's admitted they owe them money, blames the delay on how their funds are distributed.
00:12:49
Speaker
So the organization that we're going to be talking about today is at first called the CJF America. So CJF America said that they're going to make full payment to this little local restaurant, the Chicken Hut. It's going to be made on Wednesday, July 30th. And the owner of the Chicken Hut tells WTVD or ABC that they told him it would be by four o'clock.
00:13:13
Speaker
But when they were waiting for this payment, it doesn't happen. So ABC 11 ends up reaching out to this CJF America and doesn't hear back.
00:13:25
Speaker
Trey Tapp is the owner of the Chicken Hut in Durham, North Carolina. He says that CJF America asked him to provide meals to their children who are attending summer camp. And so basically he takes on this contract to provide meals for 125 kids for breakfast and 125 kids for lunch every day.
00:13:47
Speaker
The Chicken Hut has signed this contract with what's known as CJF Summer Camp, which is like part of the umbrella that is CJF America. And this is for meals at the Durham location. This is a camp that's being provided for free for families. And CJF says that it offers this space for youth and underserved neighborhoods.
00:14:09
Speaker
Now, the first week of camp is June 23rd. They do their job. Chicken Hut provides all the meals. According to Trey Tapp, he says, we bought our food, our supplies. He said, I paid my staff to prepare it. My staff would get it all together in the morning, and at 6 a.m., they would bring the food over, and the food is ready. Breakfast is delivered by 8 a.m., and at the end of the week, the contract says Chicken Hut is supposed to get paid. The invoice for the 250 meals is $3,437.50, but Trey Tapp he didn't get his money, so they promised that every week there'd be a payment made,
00:14:45
Speaker
but According to Trey Tapp, those promises have been broken. So the contact person who we're supposed to be in contact with regarding all of this, Trey Tapp starts emailing them and calling them and texting them, and there's no response.
00:15:00
Speaker
So the chicken hut reaches out to Diane Wilson. She gets in touch with CJF America. CJF America is also based in the Triangle area of North Carolina, which is Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill.
00:15:11
Speaker
It states on their website that this is a vital arm of what's known as the Courtney Jordan Foundation. On the website, it states its mission is building stronger communities. And Trey Tapp says that after Troubleshooter contacted CJF, the payment was promised again.
00:15:30
Speaker
and once again, it was the same story we've been hearing for over a month. Now, this time, Troubleshooter reaches out and says, hey, we you know we poked you on this.
00:15:41
Speaker
You guys said you were going to pay it. What happened? So the president, a woman named Kristen Picot, P-I-C-O-T, sends an email and says, at CJF America, we deeply value our partnerships with local businesses and recognize the vital role that vendors like the Chicken Hut play in helping to serve families across Germany.
00:15:59
Speaker
We understand the concerns shared. We wanted to be clear in both our acknowledgement and ah in intent. Over the past several weeks, CJF America has experienced a significant but temporary disruption and the internal mechanisms that govern how funds are dispersed across our network. This has affected several key partners, including vendors, utility providers, and members of our staff. In the course of scaling our operations to meet high demand, internal pros processes have experienced unforeseen delays. We regret any impact this has caused.
00:16:29
Speaker
CJF America has remained in communication with the chicken hut, Throughout this process, we recognize that during a period of internal adjustment, messaging may not have been consistent across all points of contact.
00:16:41
Speaker
We take responsibility for any confusion this has caused and are working to ensure clarity moving forward. To be clear, CJF America fully intends to honor all of our outstanding commitments.
00:16:52
Speaker
The Chicken Hut is scheduled to receive payment in full Wednesday, July 30th, 2025. In accordance with our updated disbursement plan, our team has prioritized their invoice to ensure resolution by that date.
00:17:04
Speaker
We are grateful for the patience and professionalism many in our community have shown as we work diligently to solve this disruption. Despite the challenges, our free summer camp programming has continued to operate, offering a stable, enriching space for youth in underserved neighborhoods.
00:17:19
Speaker
We remain committed to fulfilling every obligation with integrity, transparency. Our mission is to provide access, equity, and opportunity to underserved communities, relies on trusted relationships, and we look forward to continuing that work with full alignment and accountability. Please don't hesitate to reach out should you need further documentation or clarification.
00:17:39
Speaker
That's their statement. Blah, blah, blah. Trey taps as he's hoping CJF America comes through on their commitments. to pay them. He says, I have to pay everything up front, so I have to pay my staff up front. So all of this has already come out of pocket.
00:17:52
Speaker
And it says that ABC 11 troubleshooter and ABC News will keep you updated. As CJF America says, the chicken hut will be paid on July 30th. Besides this restaurant, Wilson is hearing from CJF America employees and summer camp workers who say they have not even been paid for any of their work, claiming they're owed thousands of dollars and even have been provided checks that can't be cashed due to insufficient funds.
00:18:15
Speaker
Okay. So that's where i go from passive interest to active interest. Sure. And part of the um background, the chicken hut is, it's a fixture there in that community, right? Absolutely. hundred And part of um the sort of the background there, you were talking about Trey Tapp who reached out ah to, for help, right? To get some exposure onto it. He's the owner. And he takes the community like um seriously into consideration. And there were some news, some press in probably just locally to Durham, where when the pandemic happened and the restaurant had to shut down like every other restaurant did, they were providing food for children in the community
00:19:12
Speaker
who didn't otherwise have food, right? Right. um I'm not sure how many people realize a lot of times in different communities, I'm sure across the United States, most elementary schools, at least, they have a free lunch program. And it's not like when we were in school, like it's a everybody eats type situation and they provide it to children because ah Research and studies were showing that sometimes that breakfast and lunch that kids got at school, that was the only thing they got to eat. And when schools shut down on March 15th, 2020, there was no backup plan to get children food.
00:20:05
Speaker
Right. And that caused a huge... i know in I know that in certain places, it affected the community more than others, right? yeah And it's not the case for everybody. But I do remember when my son was in elementary school a long, long time ago, there were children who they simply didn't have food at home for whatever reason. Right. And it was heartbreaking. And, you know, we had...
00:20:32
Speaker
the parent organization try and help that situation. But he, there was, there has been press on the chicken hut and Trey Tapp stepping up. In that case, he wasn't just feeding the children. He was feeding the whole community and he was giving away meals for people who needed food because of the way the pandemic sort of Right.
00:20:53
Speaker
Right. And they, um For more than 20 years in the community, the Chicken Hut had partnered with healthy the Healthy Start Academy, which is one of North Carolina's first tuition-free public charter schools. So they were giving from like 500 900 meals a week ah towards to that school and that program for 20 years.
00:21:17
Speaker
And so I don't know what the perception of is like, oh, they owed them $3,400, but they had a contract agreement, right? and Yeah. And Tapp was saying, you know, he put the money out. And I'm just going to take a guess here. he looks like a very ah smart and, like, kind man.
00:21:41
Speaker
i imagine that $3,400 was about the margin of their profit, right? That would be my guess. I don't know. What I mean is operating, right? Right. So...
00:21:52
Speaker
You're saying he wouldn't have overcharged the camp to begin with much he He's covering it. I'm saying that he's giving them a deal, but also I'm saying that like they based on how much they give away and stuff, I'm saying that it can make a huge difference when they don't get a $4,000 invoice paid.
00:22:12
Speaker
Right. Because he doesn't, this kind of place, it's a small profit margin to begin with, but it actually makes the business start hurting, right? Because it's not like they are, you know...
00:22:26
Speaker
restaurants, especially this type of restaurant, they run on like a shoestring margin to begin with. It's so tight. And he get it looks like he gives all of that back to the community. And they had an agreement. And so he wasn't planning on going the whole summer without that extra money. and if he's budgeted, which I imagine he has because he appears to be a very smart, responsible businessman, right? Right.
00:22:52
Speaker
He's probably going, oh, if I don't get that money, what am I going to do? Because then you've got to go to the bank and you've got to get a loan. or you've got like The bills don't stop coming just because this summer camp didn't pay the invoice.
00:23:07
Speaker
Right. And it really, i can tell he probably didn't want this anymore than anybody else at the foundation wanted it. He didn't want to have to go to the media and say, y'all didn't pay me. He had no choice, right? Right.
00:23:24
Speaker
Just pointing out what you're saying for a second. I think you do significant damage to a community when you start messing with the people supporting the community. Right.
00:23:40
Speaker
That was $3,400 worth of like whatever, jobs, meals, whatever he was going to use it for. There was a contractual agreement in place. And keeping in mind the foundation behind the summer camp for children, for underserved children, had he touts being a billionaire. Right.
00:24:02
Speaker
Correct. And they signed a contract. I mean, you know, it's different if you sign up for a handout, but that's not what happened here. It was signed up for, you know, we're going to pay you. He he held up his end of the bargain. And so it's, I'm sure, mind-bogglingly disappointing, Right.
00:24:28
Speaker
to see this like billionaire enterprise foundation not paying your tiny little bill. Right. Just sort of basic math on this, I'm just going to throw it out as an example. I'm not saying this is specifically what it is, but $3,400, if you were to sit down and go, okay, these kids are coming for five days, getting two meals a day, that's 250 meals a day because we've got 125 that's going to $3 meal little
00:24:57
Speaker
That he is. Right. like Just to give you an idea of like what he's charging them. Now, he is providing this in bulk, and like there's a lot that goes on when you're catering, but that's not a lot of money that he's charging them to begin with. He didn't make probably hardly anything off of this. But, see, the electricity had already been used. The workers who prepared the meals and put them in the boxes and delivered them, they had already done their work, and he had already paid them. right and And he's paying for the product and the product's already gone on its way. Exactly. And so it's a whole thing and you count on that. And yeah, I guarantee you, like it's three under $3 a meal per kid. Like, I mean, it was very kind of him. Right. Right.
00:25:43
Speaker
Well, so I wanted to go back through and I started digging into the whole concept of the CJF America to see how far back it actually went. And I pulled an article from the Chatham News Record, which is a local paper to Chatham County, North Carolina, it deals with Pittsburgh, Siler City.
00:26:01
Speaker
And this article is actually from May of 2022.
00:26:05
Speaker
The headline of the article, written by Bill Horner III, who's the publisher for Chatham News and Record at the time, it says, a hostile takeover or plan for Siler City's prosperity.
00:26:17
Speaker
And then the subtitle is, quote, unity, end quote, block, pledges prosperity but raises red flags for some. ah The article goes like this. Even in the ah often upside down world of local politics, it's clear that Siler City's 2021 municipal elections would be particularly unusual.
00:26:38
Speaker
Now that they're finally happening, although spring of 2022, after COVID impacted census this data collection delayed it, the races have turned especially odd. The Stranger Things-esque plotline feature four newcomers to Siler City running as a block, making sometimes outlandish charges against the town's current board of commissioners.
00:26:59
Speaker
They've also made audacious pledges to bring prosperity to the town, including a $100 million dollars privately funded affordable housing loan, a promise to cap costs for residents who rent apartments or homes, and a plan to revitalize healthcare here by bringing two urgent care centers to Seiler City, and, quote, seven or eight, end quote, clinics from Duke University Health System.
00:27:23
Speaker
And that was even before Saturday's online revelation on the candidate's Unity22 website at unity22.org of a list of more than 70 additional proposals addressing community prosperity, inclusivity, sustainability, public safety, and housing access for Cyber City.
00:27:41
Speaker
The group, mayoral candidate Nick Gallardo, G-A-L-L-A-R-O-R-D-O, and town commissioner candidates Dean Picot II, Jared Picot, and Samuel wille Williams are all new to Siler City. Now, Dean Picot and Jared Picot share a last name, P-I-C-O-T.
00:28:02
Speaker
If you recognize that name, it's because the person that responded to the chicken hut was named Kristen Picot, P-I-C-O-T. All four of these people have registered to vote in Chatham County over the past winter for the first time. So in 2021 into 2022, they register to vote in Chatham County. They don't say how they're going to pay for their proposals or provide much detail, or how they'll execute them. Their sudden appearance with bold pronouncements and vague hints about malfeasance occurring within the town's board have raised red flags with locals.
00:28:34
Speaker
But it gets stranger. A new Save Our Siler Facebook page created by a group of local residents in response to the Unity ticket drew a number of concerned comments over the weekend before it was taken down sometime Sunday for violating the social media site community guidelines for content.
00:28:49
Speaker
One of the page's creators says community members worry about a hostile takeover of Siler City. One of the Unity candidates later took credit for having the page removed from Facebook. The page goes up and down several times. They don't mention that all of that here, but...
00:29:02
Speaker
they're The publisher seems to be aware that there's some kind of social media battle and heading up here. So then they've got a little bullet list for us. It says, a video made during an April 24th candidate forum at First Missionary Baptist Church, where the four spoke, has been removed from the video sharing platform YouTube, likely related to complaints from unity candidates. During the forum, Dean Peacock II suggested Siler City's current elected board was telling, quote, lies, lies, lies, among other people.
00:29:32
Speaker
facial claim. It says an exchange on the social media platform next door between a Siler City resident one of the candidates resulted in accusations of quote borderline slander and with the candidate in question saying the town's leadership have not for decades lived up to the vision that this beautiful town was created on. Competing, perhaps boring Twitter sites, the unity blocks Save Siler.
00:29:54
Speaker
The profile reads Save Siler City from the tyranny of a neglectful ruling class while a Save Our Siler which is at our Siler as opposed to Save Siler, which was created first, was being promoted as a concerned group of Siler City residents to expose a self-appointed billionaire's quest to take over our town.
00:30:12
Speaker
On Monday night, following Siler City's Board of Commissioners meeting, the group's apparent patron, Courtney Jordan, who is a Durham resident touted as a billionaire entrepreneur, was involved in a shouting match with candidate James J. Underwood.
00:30:25
Speaker
The encounter drew the attention Siwa City Police Chief Mike Wagner, who had attended the meeting and called for support from his staff as Jordan and Underwood argued outside Wren Memorial Library where the meeting was held.
00:30:38
Speaker
No charges were filed, but it added another bizarre layer to the town's municipal election, which will be held May 17th as part of the state's primary election cycle. Okay, so that's like three years ago when this is happening.
00:30:52
Speaker
But it's weird. So we've got this guy who can't pay the chicken hut, who three years earlier was trying to take over sort of a neighboring town. Now, Durham, where Courtney Jordan is located, would be almost impossible to take over.
00:31:09
Speaker
Durham is a highly political town, and it's a highly progressive town, and it would stand for No money, real or fake. It has its own corruption and and malfeasance problems. So they go to this place, Siler City, which if those of you who don't know anything about North Carolina, um Meg and i have spent many years in and around North Carolina. And I will just tell you that Siler City is essentially a central North Carolina town that mimics Mayberry from the old Andy Griffith story.
00:31:46
Speaker
television show. It's very small and I bring this up to say it is very strange to go into an area like this and to try and take over, but they're not the only ones doing it.
00:32:02
Speaker
Pittsburgh, Siler City, they have been the target of the likes of even Disney. Disney has a huge development plan down in that area. It's considered to be prime real estate. It is very central to transportation hubs in North Carolina and a lot of interesting industry. It's sort of a bedroom community for the outlying suburbs of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, those suburbs being towns like Apex and Holly Springs and Hillsboro. But you know it's 20 minutes removed from that in terms of drive time, but they were trying to take it over.
00:32:37
Speaker
Right. And just um to sort of give some, I don't know, geographic geographical ah clarity, ah most people know where like Raleigh-Durham era, the Raleigh-Durham area in North Carolina is. And then you would know probably where like the Piedmont Triad, which is like Greensboro once and Winston-Salem. And so in between those two areas is Burlington. And Siler City is directly south of Burlington. Correct.
00:33:05
Speaker
and so it's ah I think that you're right, that it's not the only community um that is ripe for the picking. I hate to even say that.
00:33:18
Speaker
ah But it's it's a convenient target, right? Yeah, absolutely. And ah the town's population in 2020 was 7,702. And two and so that's a that's a small town ah for,
00:33:33
Speaker
i mean it's not two hundred people but like most of the bedroom communities in I would say probably most states, but in North Carolina for sure. I mean, a bedroom community is typically like 25,000 people, right? Right.
00:33:50
Speaker
And this this area is going to be growing over the next couple of years simply because of the housing developments that are going on there. They have anticipated this growth. Up until that point, it was a relatively affordable place to live. And i don't think this is a terrible description of a town. These places are simple.
00:34:08
Speaker
Like, it's not complex to live there. They don't have super high crime rates. It's not really expensive to live there. And it's close enough that you can get a job in one of the more major cities. Right. You can get a job in a city and you you have a relatively you know ah palatable commute. And you can go make your money, bring that money back to this area. That's a common thing ah living in these areas.
00:34:33
Speaker
So these candidates, first of all, the candidates having multiple roles. people with the last name in common with someone from the Courtney Jordan Foundation is interesting.
00:34:47
Speaker
Well, clearly those people are all related. They have to be. They are. Yeah. um they don't ah They don't answer the questions really upfront. And this guy gives us a little bit of a breakdown of these four just so we like have an idea of who they are.
00:35:01
Speaker
ah Nick is from Texas. He says he was raised in Raleigh. He's the mayoral candidate. He was on the ballot to replace the late John Grimes, who was a beloved local businessman who died in office in October 2020. His seat was never filled.
00:35:15
Speaker
He was seeking office um along with a sitting at-large commissioner, I think it's a county commissioner there, named Thomas Price III, who goes by Chip, and a local pastor named Donald Matthews. The Peacots, Dean Jr. and Jared, who are related but apparently not brothers, they were seeking the at-large and District 5 seeds, respectively. It says that Dean Peacot is a substance abuse counselor who was facing off of Jay Underwood, who had the role with Jordan,
00:35:44
Speaker
um the in this Courtney Jordan, the guy that's supposedly behind the funding here, and an incumbent named ah Cindy Bray. Jared Peacott, who says that he is also an entrepreneur, um he's facing District 5 incumbent Louis Fadley and Rayetta Fox.
00:36:03
Speaker
ah Sam Williams is a New York native and a pastor, and he's a self-described, quote, hospital manager. He was facing a man named Albert Alston. So it's interesting that these guys are all running for this at the same time and kind of banding together.
00:36:24
Speaker
i think it's ah a bad sign for everybody involved here. It's a PR nightmare. I'm not sure what they were thinking. Right. It is a, for one thing,
00:36:36
Speaker
it would be bad to be a candidate coming into a situation with like save Siler, like save Siler city. When you've got people who very clearly do not see why there is a need to save Siler city living there. Right. Right. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it in their eyes. And to multiply that by four and I think a hostile takeover is a good description of what they were trying to do.
00:37:12
Speaker
Right. Well, just so everybody's aware, like none of this ends up working. Of course not. um this This is all just, you know. And I could have, when of course, this is like in the past that we're looking at it, right? So there's no anticipation that like, is it going to work? But like even just looking at their smiling faces, like they're up to something. Right.
00:37:35
Speaker
Right. and And pretty much like what they ended up doing was guaranteeing that the opposite candidate was going to win. And i you know sometimes that's a thing that people do. i can't imagine that's a thing that you do in this scenario. Right.
00:37:51
Speaker
They very clearly were going to um present bonds and try and raise money that they would have control of. That's what I see happening there. Of course, it didn't end up happening, but it's all a financial ruse. Oh, absolutely. So I started wondering when like digging through all of this, like who actually is Courtney Jordan?
00:38:13
Speaker
Because he ultimately appears to be behind this. Yeah, he seems to be the person that's either been chosen the figurehead or has decided like in some way, shape, or foundation, like like he's in charge here. His website is still up. You can go check this out. um If you pull it up, it's the CourtneyJordanFoundation.org.
00:38:30
Speaker
And it says, what's important are branches. And it says they have CJF America, CJF Bangladesh, and CJF Sri Lanka. So...
00:38:41
Speaker
immediately giving me international vibes, but also simultaneously giving me sweatshop vibes. so Do you wonder why um theirre those foundations, like you don't necessarily need a foundation in Durham, North Carolina that is this would be on par with like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka,
00:39:06
Speaker
No. it's It's strange, right? It's all strange. It's it's it's very strange. um Unnecessary is a good word to kind of describe like what they're touting here.
00:39:17
Speaker
If you drill down, you can find out more about their leadership. It says they're led by Courtney Jordan. It says he's the executive chairman and as the executive chairman of the Courtney Jordan Foundation, Mr. Jordan shapes and approves the foundation strategies, advocates for global issues, directs its mission to address the world's most pressing challenges, including poverty by dedicating 82 percent of his net worth.
00:39:40
Speaker
to sustainable solutions and it says that i can learn more if i want to go over to courtneyjordan.org so for the moment uh when i flipped over to there ah it basically is a website called courtney jordan giving it says born in may of 1988 courtney jordan is an accomplished entrepreneur who has transitioned to one of the most influential philanthropists of his generation Known for his work in empowering communities, fostering global entrepreneurship and promoting sustainable development, Courtney's life story is a testament to resilience, transformation and the power of giving back. Fluent in seven languages, including English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, Arabic, and Mandarin, he has built bridges across cultures, allowing him to lead with a deep understanding of diverse global needs. Courtney's journey is one of reinvention, driven by both his personal hardships and his commitment to social change.
00:40:36
Speaker
Once focused solely on business success, Courtney shifted his priorities after... experiencing profound emotional, spiritual, and professional challenges. Today, his legacy is one of empowerment, having committed his life to fostering entrepreneurship, creating lasting, sustainable impact through the foundation, the Courtney Jordan Foundation. That goes on below where you can click on links about entrepreneurship, arts, food, and housing security.
00:41:01
Speaker
The only thing I can tell about Courtney Jordan from reading all of this is that he's probably telling us the truth within the lie because I think most of this is a lie, he does appear to have had like some minor successes in business that have netted a little bit of money. The billionaire thing is, there's a lot of really fancy writing here, but ultimately, like this fancy writing is not real. So, looking at it from the perspective of like what has Courtney Jordan done, as far as I can tell, basically nothing.
00:41:33
Speaker
Right, and along with his accolades, he all of these things that sort of branch off into other things that have like his name in it, which is weird. um Courtney Jordan, like he is addressing the world's most pressing challenges, including poverty by dedicating 82% of his net worth to sustainable solutions. That's one of his goals. Right. Right.
00:42:01
Speaker
And I was like, it's interesting that, They settled on this 82% mark, right? is this He's untaxable? Is that his idea? yeah I don't know. But like 82%. So if he's worth a dollar, he's going to give 82 cents, right? There is absolutely nothing about that that indicates it's a lot of money.
00:42:23
Speaker
Correct. like They're very careful with language. I've noticed what the one thing he's done that seems successful is built a lot of websites that say very little but have extremely psychologically powerful, meaningless language.
00:42:38
Speaker
Right. if you If you see it in a glancing type, like just in passing... Like this guy doesn't show up on the radar at all. Right. I mean whatever. ah it is. It's weird when you're like.
00:42:56
Speaker
All I can think is maybe legacy, like he's trying to build some sort of legacy, but it's weird. Courtney Jordan Foundation, Courtney Jordan Giving, you know, real philanthropists, for one thing, their name is usually not all over something unless somebody else started it, right? Right, yeah. um and But he started all these. And, you know, you don't need – it costs money to have a structure – for a profit company or not for profit company and even the expenses of just having these websites like kind of branch off into each other if you're really looking for a sustainable way to do whatever your mission is you don't need 15 foundations to do it
00:43:47
Speaker
Right. You don't at all. And um it only gets weirder. i I'm just going to thumb through this part so that I can set up like where we're headed with all of this.
00:43:58
Speaker
It lists Detrick Howell or Dietrich Howell as their spokesperson and communication strategist. He says as foundation spokesperson and communication strategist, he leads global messaging and public engagement, shaping the foundation's voice, amplifying its mission to drive lasting change.
00:44:14
Speaker
And and then it has kind of a standard but a little over full description of the rest of the leadership. There's a woman named Dr. McKenzie Robinson who's listed as the CEO and board member.
00:44:31
Speaker
A guy named Alexei Vanovic who goes by Blaine who's a CFO and a board member. Sebastian Eirich.
00:44:40
Speaker
He's listed as a chief legal officer and corporate secretary, um which is an interesting choice of titling. um We have...
00:44:53
Speaker
Noah Birch as the Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director of the Foundation. Stephen Dennis as President and have Global Development. We have Liam Kincaid as President and Global Growth and Opportunity, ah whatever that means, President of Global Growth and Opportunity. We have Davis Whitney, who's a Chief Strategy Officer. Kristen Picoff, who we've already mentioned, as the President of the North American Operations of CJF America. and Then we have Dr. Mahmoodal Hassan as the president of the Bangladesh operations of CJF Bangladesh.
00:45:28
Speaker
We have Aruna Pereira as the president of Sri Lankan operations at CJF Sri Lanka. And maria lordd santos as the president of the we have Maria Lord Santos as the president of philip the Philippines operations or Philippines. Dr. Rajesh Sharma is the president of india operations India. And all of these things, you know, have colorful language mixed in from their native tongues. They all talk about this organization called N-E-Y-I-U-S.
00:46:01
Speaker
um They all have their own individual websites for each thing going on here. um And it points out that Like there's these foundations and this fund that's being managed.
00:46:17
Speaker
According to this, the CFO is the chief financial officer of NIAS, whatever that word is. That's a fun thing to look up if you need a rabbit hole.
00:46:31
Speaker
Oh, well, ah it's it's set up here with its own websites. um It looks like they are just another part of the insanity that is all of this. Well, it's really funny because how deep does this go, right? Right. All these people appear to be represented as being involved. If you go digging deep into any of them, you will find...
00:46:59
Speaker
Almost nothing. that They all seem to be people who are on the track to call themselves a billionaire one day. Some of them appear to be self-published authors and self-represented public speakers.
00:47:14
Speaker
Sure. And like they are faking it till they may possibly make it. Yeah, even in social media, they have you know the requisite 50 followers, some of them slightly more. They have about 100 people on LinkedIn. Yeah. like all and But all of they're all the same people. Right. They all revolve around this this whole pyramid here. Yeah, and so I wanted to get back to the Chicken Hut thing for a minute.
00:47:44
Speaker
um So the first thing that pops up, in case you guys are following this elsewhere, you can find like a couple of different articles about this at this point.
00:47:56
Speaker
But I've kind of organized them, and I'm going to walk you through like what's going on there.
Legal Repercussions and Fraud Investigations
00:48:01
Speaker
So same place as earlier, ABC 11, we find out that Kristen Peacott is charged with...
00:48:10
Speaker
a couple of ah criminal counts of simple worthless checks. So those misdemeanor charges were filed by a woman known as Crystal Graves.
00:48:22
Speaker
According to what's being pulled up here, she's a former executive director of the Durham Courtney Jordan Foundation office who was hired by CJF America in May. She claims that she never received were wages for the work she had already done.
00:48:39
Speaker
According to and a previous article where they talked to CJF America employees back in August, that article, also by Diane Wilson, joined by Isabel Dietrich, it said, camp counselors, employees at CJF America say they showed up for work, but their pay is a no-show.
00:48:57
Speaker
So new details emerged in an ABC troubleshooter investigation into triangle-based organization CJF America, a branch of the Courtney Jordan Foundation, Employees of CGF America and camp counselors of the Foundation Summer Camp are claiming they have not been paid for their work.
00:49:12
Speaker
Daya Wilson first told you about payment with CGF America, not paying the Chicken Hut restaurant. And... According to this in August, they still had not been paid.
00:49:22
Speaker
Employees of cdf j ah CJF America tell Diane Wilson they're still awaiting payment. Also, Dr. Sharice Collins and Crystal Graves were both offered high-paying positions at CJF America. Started their jobs in May. At first, everything was great. Dr. Collins and Graves both were passionate about helping underserved communities, thought this was a perfect fit. The organization was to serve sort underserved communities to develop smart hubs community centers along with free summer camps during the summer This is according to Dr. Collins,
00:49:50
Speaker
who is hired as an assistant vice president regional director for the north carolina region ah Graves is a community activist in Durham, was hired as the executive director of the Durham office.
00:50:00
Speaker
She says, I got a call from Courtney Jordan himself. When she came on board as an employee, she took her role seriously. If I can work for this company my community, get what they need, then it's a win for me because nobody else is going to do this. And we need help, especially within Durham Housing Authority. We need help.
00:50:15
Speaker
A key part of Graves' role was to include recruiting families to enroll their children in the CJF summer camp. We only had 50 applications when I started. When I finished, we had approximately 300 applications. I want my community to benefit from this. He promised all these field trips. He promised all this academic help for kids with autism. None of the activities that the staff put together beautiful programming for the kids.
00:50:38
Speaker
I mean, we had it all laid out. We were excited. We were on board. And that's when we realized something was very wrong. She says CJF America or Courtney Jordan provided the funding for all the promised activities for the kids or even basics for like tables and chairs.
00:50:53
Speaker
So, I think what they mean to say is that he didn't provide that funding. Graves said she felt that she let down Durham community. It was a lot of pressure on me because I'm utilizing resources that I know. I started and set up the whole camp thinking he was going to do his part, which his part was to supply the funding, and that was all he had to do.
00:51:11
Speaker
Besides problems with the CGF summer camp, Graves and Dr. Collins say there are problems with CGF America and their paychecks. While they did get paychecks when they went to the bank, I was told that there was no money in that account.
00:51:22
Speaker
And that's where this becomes a huge criminal issue. So for Dr. Collins, she said she's owed $27,000. Ms. Graves says she's owed $10,000 for her work. We all have bills, and our credit has suffered and dropped.
00:51:36
Speaker
We don't get returned emails anymore from the Courtney Jordan Foundation or CJF America. No one is answering the phones or text messages. It's like they have all totally disappeared.
00:51:47
Speaker
Despite not getting paid, they continued working at CJF America, which... I don't know what that says about them. But Dr. Collins adds, we continued working because we were under the understanding that this was a new project in this area. I've worked with startups before, so I know that sometimes there are kinks that need to be worked out when doing something new. But never have I not been paid to do that during that time. I was being patient because, of course, I was not thinking I was never going to get paid because there been so much work that had already been put into it.
00:52:15
Speaker
And I say that that is a mistake, It is a mistake. And so ultimately it ends up Kristen Peacock gets charged with simple worthless checks. And that comes from Crystal Graves, who basically called the cops when her checks bounced.
00:52:30
Speaker
So according to what's being said here, she was due in September, on Tuesday, September 16th in court. She was a no show.
00:52:41
Speaker
She was scheduled to appear on those charges. Um, and she doesn't show up now. That's a big deal when you fail to appear.
00:52:53
Speaker
Further article by WTBD in September points out that Graves and the doc are not alone, says that former CDF camp counselors, Brianna and Jasmine Thompson filed additional worthless check charges against Peacock for getting paychecks from CDF America they say could not be cashed.
00:53:12
Speaker
The Thompson sisters shared with wilson Diane Wilson how much it affected their lives not getting paid. And they shared an email from the CFO and managing partner CJF that says the foundation is preparing to distribute payments that would be sent via certified mail.
00:53:26
Speaker
The email goes on to state that in order to ensure no delays, CJF requested an address where someone was available to sign for delivery. They responded, but to date, no checks have arrived. So that court date is scheduled for later on. And this starts getting really messy, don't you think?
00:53:43
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, not that it wasn't messy before, but legally speaking, it gets a lot of attention. Right. So there's a new article, September 29th, that pops up. It says, Camp Counselor for CGF America finally gets a paycheck as others wander As others wonder and wait.
00:54:02
Speaker
ah New details in an IT investigation. After weeks of promises, at least one employee of CGF America got a new check for some of the money he says he's owed. That employee is Ethan McRae. He says, i was very shocked. i'd never thought I was going to see this money. It's money, Ethan says.
00:54:18
Speaker
He is owed for working for the Courtney Jordan Foundation. He got a check for $577, but says that CJF still owes him $1,300 for his work. This all started in June. McRae says the Courtney Jordan Foundation hired him to work as a camp counselor at their camp in Raleigh. After weeks of working, he got his first paycheck, but after cashing it, it bounced.
00:54:39
Speaker
ah He was not alone, as WTVD has reported. More than a dozen CJF employees were had either received paychecks that bounced or in some cases claimed they never received payments.
00:54:50
Speaker
In August, Diane Wilson said she was ah working on getting employees paid. Weeks went by. ah Diane ah Wilson asked the president of CJF, who said she was working on getting the employees paid. Weeks went by. no checks arrived, but some camp counselors did receive an email from the CFO stating they were sending payments via certified mail. A few days ago, the mail lady comes up and was like, need you to sign for this and here's your money, according to Ethan McRae. So while that's going on, the Durham police have now issued active warrants in September for Courtney Jordan for
00:55:29
Speaker
felony obtaining property by false pretenses and felony conspiracy and related with fraud. And that's for Nicholas Gallardo and Courtney Jordan.
00:55:39
Speaker
and they These charges stem from the complaint where allegedly receiving a large amount of cash and documented payments from what was described as a quote investment fund.
00:55:52
Speaker
After the complainant determined the fund was not being operated as agreed upon, a request was made for the money to be returned. So Nicholas Gallardo sent this person a check and that check bounced.
00:56:04
Speaker
As the investigation continued, investigators found the foundation was associated with similar false investment funds and unpaid obligations. Crystal Graves says, I feel like we're getting somewhere. I feel like there's hope.
00:56:15
Speaker
I just don't want this to happen to anyone else. And they remind us that Crystal Graves was responsible for organizing summer camp activities for nearly 100 kids a day. She said the foundation still owes her more than $10,000. At this time, it's emotional when you have people calling saying, well, what do i do? you know I have to pay my bills. What do I do to hold them accountable? How are they able to do this?
00:56:35
Speaker
And Crystal Graves says this is the outcome they were hoping for. We're not expecting to get all of our money back, but we hope the judge holds them accountable to pay us back. There's a lawsuit that's been filed against CGF America and the executives. That's mentioned here.
00:56:49
Speaker
It's filed in Durham County. It's filed by seven former employees who alleged that CGF did not pay them. And I got news for everybody involved here. I don't think there's any money. There was never any money. um And one of the very first things to me in this situation, that's a red flag. I mean, there's a lot of them. But on the back end here where they're saying, hey, we didn't get paid, pay us, right?
00:57:16
Speaker
um Now, I do understand that, you know, this summer camp was happening whether it was paid for or not after they had registered all these kids, Right. Right. And so I do understand where the adults in the room with regard to that happening probably sacrificed quite a bit to make sure it went on. Right. Oh yeah.
00:57:38
Speaker
And that's, it's sad um that that happened. I mean, I'm glad they did it for the kids, but they aren't ever going to get the money. And one of the things that is um insane to me is ah I think it's,
00:57:54
Speaker
I don't know how many states it's a law in, but in North Carolina, like if they never paid them, you have to go through the civil process, right? Correct.
00:58:06
Speaker
unless it's i mean there are some other kind of nuances ah with the Secretary of State that you can ah possibly do. But for the most part, if you don't pay somebody, it's a long drawn out civil civil matter.
00:58:24
Speaker
When you write a bad check and the check bounces, you have committed a crime. Yes. And that is a huge red flag that it seems like, especially um Kristen Picot, who is the president of CJF. Now, she was charged. This is a situation, I believe the very first charge was the employee who received the bad check just went to the magistrate.
00:58:55
Speaker
And said, hey, I got a bad check, and the magistrate issued an arrest warrant based on that. And it gets dealt with in court, but she didn't show up, right? Now, the reason she was able to be charged, I imagine, is because her name, like, she signed the check, right? Right. That's what I'm guessing, yes. That's my guess. But ultimately, you know, with an attorney, that whole situation is even more complicated because I doubt her name was at the top left part of the check, right? Right, yes.
00:59:29
Speaker
And, but... the very first thing at the end of all this that I would have said, i would have noticed was these people are writing bad checks.
00:59:41
Speaker
Correct. And either they don't know they're bad checks because they don't have access to the accounts. Right. And they don't know what's in there. And they're just the messenger, so to speak.
00:59:52
Speaker
But the very last thing you want to do, if you were having, let's say just a small hiccup, and You don't want to be writing a whole bunch of bad checks because you're literally going to be charged for every one of them if somebody decides to take action, right?
01:00:10
Speaker
If you just hold off and, you know, even if they, you know, I need money, I need money. Well, you know, if you don't have money, you can't you can't get blood from a stone, right? Yeah.
01:00:22
Speaker
and It's not strategic to placate a situation so very temporarily by giving someone a rubber check.
01:00:34
Speaker
It's weird. it's not a It's the very first thing a strategic business person who like has billions of dollars to put towards philanthropic causes, they would know not to do that.
01:00:49
Speaker
Well, so I started digging through um the different articles that are popping up. And I found, so this is one of the more interesting parts of this. And, you know, I only have a couple more things on this particular case, but but I do want to talk about it because it's technically, I think it's ongoing.
01:01:07
Speaker
WRAL, which is another local news source, it's sort of a competing news source with WTBD or ABC 11. WRAL is more Raleigh and WTBD is more Durham. They put out an article back in August that said Durham not-profit accused of not paying employees used logos, testimonials that were not legitimate.
01:01:27
Speaker
This is run by an investigative reporter named Sarah Kruger, if who does a pretty cool job on all of this. She says, Durham-based not-profit accused of owing its employees thousands of dollars is now facing new issues related to misrepresentations on its website. Because WRAL Investigates got involved, the city of Durham's attorney's office took action, sending demand letter to CJF America.
01:01:48
Speaker
So they point out here that there are tons of articles where WRAL and others have been investigating for weeks on the issues here. ah Sarah Kruger took notice of Duke Energy, Durham County, the city of Durham, and Duke University having prominently displayed logos on the CDF America's website. She also noticed testimonials that were claimed to be written by longtime State Representative Mickey McHugh, or Michaud, former Durham Mayor Bill Bell, and former U.S. Senator Richard Burr. She contacted each person or entity, and all of them said they had no relationship with CJF America or Courtney Jordan that anyone knows of. The day after WRAL investigates alerted the city to its logo's use on the website, emails obtained through a public records request show that senior deputy city attorney Fred Lamar wrote to CJF America demanding it immediately remove CJF America.
01:02:40
Speaker
the logo and cease any use of its association with their website. CJF America responded to Lamar saying it had removed all third party logos from the website. It also claimed that the city's logo was on the site because of a prior partnership under our former brand and its flagship initiative, the Major Program Alliance in the early two thousand and ten s So you guys are aware, Courtney Jordan Foundation and Foundations of America, as far as North Carolina Secretary of State Records go,
01:03:10
Speaker
They were formed in 2023 and they were dissolved in 2024. We're now in 2025. So Sarah Kruger asked the city's public information officer if the city had ever had a partnership with something called the Major Program Alliance and the response was that staff could find no evidence of that.
01:03:27
Speaker
When WRAL investigates Reed's bill bill by phone to ask about his testimonial, he said, I don't know that guy. I don't know where he got that from. Similarly, Mickey show or Michaud, he said that that quote was not legitimate. An aide for Senator Burr said the senator and his staff could find no record or recollection of the quote that's attributed to him. And WRAL investigates Ask CDF America where it got the testimonial quotes from the three men.
01:03:52
Speaker
Executive Director of External Communications, Reagan Cartwright. Everybody said Executive Director here, aren't they? um but I don't know who like the workers are. yeah She replied, we're reviewing all testimonials to make sure everyone is properly attributed and can be fully verified. If a quote can't be confirmed, it will come down. As of Wednesday, those quotes remained on CGF's America site. I couldn't find them when I went tonight.
01:04:17
Speaker
Meanwhile, WRAL investigates, checked in with the CGF America employees who said they weren't paid. They tell us they're still awaiting payment for their work. The North Carolina Department of Labor confirms that it's investigation is ongoing.
01:04:30
Speaker
And I don't have a lot of faith that something is going to happen here where these people are going to be held accountable. But have one more thing, article-wise, to bring up from October 2025. And this is the thing, I think, that Sarah Kruger found that will they'll be held it accountable.
01:04:51
Speaker
She put this out October 9th. It's Sarah Kruger again on WRAL's website. The headline is, Man says he lost $200,000 to executives at center of WRAL investigation.
01:05:05
Speaker
The lead-in is WRAL Investigates has done more than a dozen stories on Durham-based CJF America and its executives who face accusations and, in some cases, criminal charges for allegedly not paying employees. Now WRAL Investigates is speaking with a man who says he gave the company's founder, Courtney Jordan, and Chief Financial Officer Nicholas Gallardo, roughly $200,000, and he fears that money has gone forever.
01:05:30
Speaker
The man is speaking on the condition of anonymity, out of fear for his safety. He said he gave payments to the two men over the course of years, was told the money would be invested and grown. He then started seeing WRAL's story this summer and says he asked the men for his money back. He told WRAL Investigates he keeps getting the runaround and has not received dime.
01:05:49
Speaker
This has been devastating to me. I'm not exaggerating when I say... I'm not exaggerating when I say this is probably the worst thing that's happened to me in my entire life. It has been devastating in every um area imaginable. It's not just about losing the money. I don't want people to think it's about losing the money. They take your life because you have plans, plans for progress with this money, things to do. People have medical bills in real life situations. The man described himself as being self-made, said he worked hard for going vacations to ensure he had enough money for retirement. He said, I have nothing to show for the last few years of my life because of this mess. It's been very hard on me mentally. Some days it's hard to wake up.
01:06:26
Speaker
So he claims that Jordan was very convincing, made him feel comfortable and trusting him with his money. This is the person at the center of some other criminal charges.
01:06:38
Speaker
Now, Other people have come forward. WRAL Investigates spoke with another woman. She did not want to give a recorded interview, but she gave them in $30,000. She was told that her money would be invested and grown. If that's the case, they have a different problem, and I think this will be the downfall of it all.
01:06:55
Speaker
In total, 20 people have come forward, and I don't know if they're including employees, how they're doing all of this, but 20 people have come forward saying that Courtney Jordan owes them more than half a million dollars.
01:07:11
Speaker
So that part right there, the whole concept of like taking investment money and using it on this bullshit and lavish lifestyles, that is straight up fraud.
01:07:27
Speaker
And that will be the downfall of them. Correct. And just, you know, little business tip. Um, In general, and this is so ah convoluted, it's really hard for me to follow the actual like lines where things are connected because there's so many different things. But just like, this is just a general tip.
01:07:57
Speaker
A not-for-profit foundation focused on the community is typically not where you're going to invest. You would give tax-deductible donation. Right.
01:08:15
Speaker
But not-for-profit literally operates with no goal of a profitable return. So how are you going to get money back?
01:08:29
Speaker
Look, I... I'm just saying, in general, like I was pointing out the other red flags, like writing checks, you literally will go to jail for that, um in North Carolina at least. I think it's a misdemeanor, but I do think you can actually serve time, like a little bit anyway. You can get to the point that it becomes a felony, depending on, Because it's the number, right? like the Yeah, it's the number, the intent. I mean, I don't know that it'll be Picot or Picot, whatever her name is. I don't know that it'll be her.
01:09:00
Speaker
Well, if she's not showing up for court, that's going to be another problem. But an attorney could probably argue that... This is a civil matter between a foundation and these people, not her. And she's not personally responsible, right? Now, the magistrate didn't seem to differentiate, but, I mean, magistrates just issue the warrants. They don't they they don't have they have a very low bar for probable cause, especially on a bad check, Yeah.
01:09:26
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, it is. You're right. So, yeah, yeah yeah it's. But all they have to do is go in and say, this person wrote me a bad check and show them the check and that it was returned and they'll issue the warrant. But because the magistrate's like, well, this is supposed to be worked out in court. And in North Carolina, a bad check is a criminal matter. Correct. If you make it one. Correct.
01:09:46
Speaker
Yeah. And this is, you know, but i apologize because you're right. the it's very difficult to see all the three lines and it sounds like I'm all over the place. It's not me. That's all over the place.
01:09:59
Speaker
No, no. I know. It's this thing that they've done is all over the place. And, I put it together best I could tell so far. Now, Matt, it's interesting because we're releasing this on Thanksgiving. We're recording it ahead of that. But there's still a strong possibility like we could have to come in and like explain something else. Now, these people could be like they could have business elsewhere in the world that's making tons of money, and it's just not U.S. money, and that's why I can't track it.
01:10:30
Speaker
But they are committing real offenses by not paying people in the U.S., Well, right, and they took a debt investments that I have a feeling they literally turned around and spent as their own money. Yeah, legend that was their paycheck.
01:10:44
Speaker
And, again, i i just can't emphasize this enough. You make donations to not-for-profits. They are not investment firms. They are not. Like, i I can't even believe, like, I do realize people who work hard for their paycheck and then just want to invest it, they may not be aware of that. Right.
01:11:04
Speaker
But, like, not-for-profits are never going to have any money to give back on an investment. Now, it may be that it's structured differently, and he was, like, using some other offshoot of his name, saying that it was some sort of investment firm.
01:11:21
Speaker
Those charges, though, they should, like, I feel like actually the FBI might get involved with that. Well, that becomes, yes, because now we're at the point. The will be involved. we We get to the point that, like, things occur, like mail fraud, wire fraud, and that type of financial crime would garner a lot more attention.
01:11:51
Speaker
Yeah, you're absolutely right. And $200,000, yeah.
01:11:56
Speaker
You know, i i presume, especially with this ah reporter and sort of the background of all this here, I presume she probably saw a proof of that, right? I mean, she she's not just going off of this person's word, I don't think.
01:12:10
Speaker
But ah that's a lot, right? Right. um And it those kinds of transactions... I guess depending on the circumstances, was there a timeline? Is it possible that like that $200,000 was like... Funding all of this?
01:12:30
Speaker
Well, maybe like placating some of these things, but then... because See, all too often... you've got a situation where you're getting investment funds and they're using this to live, right? Yes. And they're using it to live in a way that like says, I'm a billionaire because they think somehow or another, this is going to work out.
01:12:55
Speaker
And that's just never the case. Yeah. i I don't know. I can't tell you what's going on here. i can tell you that Everything I've seen related to all of the names of all of the people Courtney Jordan down so far, it's either completely fabricated or it's nefarious.
01:13:17
Speaker
Well, he did supposedly. Now, I do think this is a self-made accolade. It does look like he had some sort of recognition for at least ah for possibly being part of or the developer of something called PicPack.
01:13:35
Speaker
which is a security feature for Microsoft Windows Phone, there has to be like a starting point typically, right? Where they might have done something small successfully, right?
01:13:49
Speaker
And so they were like, oh, I can just keep doing that, which, you know, obviously perhaps he did develop something that Microsoft acquired and then it got, you know, flushed when Android and,
01:14:02
Speaker
IOS became the two operating systems on most phones, right? Because I don't think Windows has a phone. I might be wrong. i don't know. I'm looking for what you're talking about.
01:14:14
Speaker
I remember the Surface phones, but like, and I would believe that there's some modicum of success with some of these people. i just will go ahead and say I don't believe that he is any kind of billionaire.
01:14:32
Speaker
And most of what I can find about him seems to have been carefully cultivated by him. Well, and yeah, exactly. By him. And that's not real, Right. right He supposedly, like a source says that he has, his net worth is $8 billion. dollars He is not worth $8 billion. dollars Well, I was going to say, i don't think that he even recognizes how ridiculous it is for him to say that.
01:15:02
Speaker
Yeah, like there would be a like there's a point somewhere that like I could look at him and go, OK, he had a little something. But and like I'm not saying he started out with like bad intentions or anything. I'm saying that like there is definitely some BS going on where if he had this much money, he would have made it go away.
01:15:31
Speaker
he would have Oh, he would have made all this. He would have been paying his bills. He would have like, yeah, all of this stops when you simply pay your bills. He just strikes me as someone who was faking it till he made it and then didn't really know what he was doing.
01:15:48
Speaker
That's what he strikes me as. Just to put this in perspective, because perhaps I don't i don't want to sound like I'm being um flippant about it. I haven't really looked this information up in a while. i have absolutely no use for it, just sort of on, you know, nobody really has any use for this information unless you're looking at a page of a person who's saying they have $8 billion. dollars When you're...
01:16:14
Speaker
talking about billionaires globally in in the planet we live on, right? Correct. correct People who are billionaires, there's a total of approximately 2,780 of them.
01:16:30
Speaker
yes okay total and of that it's like 5% or something like that, that would be people who are getting up towards like the 8, the 10, over 10 billion, right? And so that's like 200 people, right? Right. We're talking about a group of like 200, and I bet there's a list somewhere. I'm just saying. But that much money being earned and then moving in any way, shape, or form shows up places.
01:17:03
Speaker
Correct. Right. And I just, I feel like faking it until you make it is not what Courtney Jordan ah has showcased. Like that is not what they're saying when, i i believe that um fake it to you make until you make it is a real thing and it helps keep people starting out going, right?
01:17:30
Speaker
But this is not how you do that. Right. And so I don't know what exactly is happening in this situation. i can only speak to the local attempt to take over this tiny town in North Carolina.
01:17:49
Speaker
Because that's documented. And like they did not do well. You can look at all the financials of that if you dig deep enough online into each candidate. If they were, in my opinion, if they were making a real effort, there would have been a significant amount of election filings that you could follow the dollars on. And instead, they're very minuscule.
01:18:11
Speaker
And it really amounts to these four guys just kind of talking in public forums. They didn't put any money into advertising. There was no organization to their election or their filings. um That is a situation you can get into serious trouble for, for tampering with elections. And i think they were trying to avoid it.
01:18:32
Speaker
They were not. good And that was the weirdest thing to me All of this is weird. This whole thing is bizarre. It is. And like in my wildest dreams, if I were like, let me go burn it down. Right.
01:18:46
Speaker
Right. Scorched earth on everything. I wouldn't go to this extreme. No, it's like that's that's the other thing is you know, it's complicated to report on this because it's all Right.
01:19:00
Speaker
Right. And so most recently, we so we caught wind of this. ah You caught wind of this because you're very familiar with at least the Raleigh area, which Durham is very close to. And it was interesting, right, because it has a community impact. But then it's amazing. This is one of those real-time situations because at first you and I were like, ooh, because there were no charges, right? There was just this like crazy bits and pieces from basically the local investigative reporters, right?
01:19:34
Speaker
And we're reading it going, what the heck? And then I think that i think that the all the news articles included at least one link going somewhere. Yes. And that's how we end up at all of the various websites that – i I've never seen anything like it.
01:19:58
Speaker
If you are a person who has perhaps $200,000 to invest and they said, hey, check out my website, and you started clicking around and you perhaps were not ah sophisticated with the workings of business, you might be impressed, right? Right.
01:20:15
Speaker
And I can see where that could happen. If you actually know how things work or you you're interested in that type of stuff, you start clicking and you realize you're going nowhere, right? Yes.
01:20:27
Speaker
And there is actually nothing that's substantiating everything that's being put out there. And then we start having a real problem, which, I mean, this is not necessarily uncommon, but on this scope and this like level, just the mass amount of it.
01:20:45
Speaker
Yes. I can't even figure out. Unless you're just going, hey, I want to get caught faking it while I try to make it. i don't even understand why he was doing it.
01:20:58
Speaker
I imagine everything... has a plan in his mind. I don't think the plan's ever going to work. I think that his, the only thing that he's trying to do at this point is probably fund his own life. And he's not successfully doing that. And, you know, how do you come back from i'm worth $8 billion dollars when you're not worth anything and your entire life is based on that lie? i don't know how you do it. I, so I, but obviously we're doing this as part of,
01:21:32
Speaker
Fraudsgiving, Black Fraud's Scamsgiving. We're doing this because you and I like to tell stories that don't really fit into our regular feed on like the holiday times, because ah we can remember times when we didn't have anything else to do on those days. And like, that's been a thing that we kind of started four or five years ago and we just do it.
01:21:57
Speaker
um But weirdly with this one, I tried to do a much deeper dive on this and I'm not going to say it's never going to come up again, because the truth is I have so much material That is difficult to fact check, which is why the sources that I named here, those are the sources we used or things that you could find through the self-representations of CJF America, Sri Lanka, the foundation, etc.
01:22:26
Speaker
And we're providing them so that our listeners can be the fact finders here. Yeah, you can hunt through this one. And it's is a fun rabbit hole if you have the time during these holiday seasons. It is so interesting. i have gone through the process of making lists of names and trying to contact people, which is unusual for the stories that we do at the holiday time. I don't normally go that far.
01:22:50
Speaker
um I've come across multiple people online that I've now spoken with. I have exchanged messages with at least one person who said their opinion of all of this was that there was serious mental illness at play.
01:23:02
Speaker
Oh, that's really sad. um And that like there was no one around to go, you should stop this. Well, and you know what? i will say a lot of times young people starting out like early in their careers, they're offered one of these. i mean, everybody's like an executive here, Right.
01:23:26
Speaker
And being offered a job like that with a big promise attached to it would be like flattering. And then you'd be like, oh, I'm on my way. Right. Not knowing the bigger picture because i think it's possible. Right. I don't think everybody looks at stuff like I do and go, well, none of that is going to lead to anything. Right.
01:23:46
Speaker
Maybe. i don't know. i did want to point out because we are talking about this and ah hate to even say it. However, just in case, know.
01:23:56
Speaker
I noticed that CJF America has still got like postings for vacant positions. Correct.
01:24:08
Speaker
And I just want to say, like do you not for anybody looking for a job, if it is too good to be true, it is. Yeah.
01:24:20
Speaker
Yeah. And I feel like that simply stated, like, I almost want to, like, I don't know, do something about that. Because nobody else should be subjected to this. No, they should not. um i am going to pull from a Courtney Jordan Facebook post from March 17th, 2025.
01:24:39
Speaker
I don't know why he posted this, but I'm going to say it here. He says, no human being had ever run a mile in under four minutes. It was thought to be the limit of human speed. Then one day an Englishman did it in three minutes and 59 seconds. That was it.
01:24:52
Speaker
Six weeks later, someone else did it. Then another and another. Now a strong high schooler can do it. It's our inability to conceive those things that hold us back. That's something that he said on his personal Facebook page. And I will say sometimes it's laws. It's laws. It's like committing crimes against other people that holds us back, Courtney. um i you know i don't know that that would necessarily – I don't know that being required to pay somebody for work they've done is holding you back.
01:25:24
Speaker
No, no, it's not holding you back. It's just a limitation on what you can functionally do. He has this whole thing he does online called corthology. So it's like the study of Courtney Jordan. So if his goal was to make himself the subject of a very interesting rabbit hole that had no good ending, he has achieved his goal.
01:25:49
Speaker
Yeah, this is not going... I'm...
01:25:53
Speaker
I hope ah if it is mentally if it is related to a mental illness, I hope he gets help. I find it very hard to believe that he employs supposedly employs all these... like highly educated, supposedly qualified people who, and nobody has said, and nobody has given him like a check, a gut check of whatever, a reality check, right?
01:26:21
Speaker
Nobody has done that for him. I don't know. um it It boggles my mind. I feel like logically speaking that it shouldn't have been allowed to get this out of hand because if we were a single source podcast, which we sort of started out as, I guess, not single source and that's all we look at, but like covering one thing, like I would get really deep into this. I just already know it's going, it's going to go nowhere.
01:26:52
Speaker
I mean, there is nothing here to prop any of this stuff up. And, you know, I would say maybe actually during the time that we've had this podcast, so like, you know, we're in season six now.
01:27:08
Speaker
I would say like there have been some really sort of desperate times happening with like the pandemic and like all kinds of stuff where people have wanted to have hope.
01:27:20
Speaker
Yeah. and this is a situation i feel like where somebody manipulated it and exploited it And I'm not really sure why, because all you have to do is like nothing at all.
01:27:33
Speaker
Right. yeah
The Impact of Financial Scandals on Communities
01:27:34
Speaker
Why make promises to children? Why make promises to people like ah about one of their core needs, like housing? Why make promises to your employees and have them work really hard to accomplish something just to not pay them what you've promised?
01:27:53
Speaker
It is not uncommon for not-for-profits to work with a volunteer-based company. group of people where they you're not paying them right no why are you i mean obviously maybe you wouldn't get the quality of person that you needed but why are you even making the promise to pay knowing that you can't and then honestly kristin piqueau because she was the first arrest warrant issued and that i think in this situation i wonder how much she knows
01:28:29
Speaker
what's going on right? And I saw her, um I don't know, she's on the leadership pages or whatever in various places. And I wonder how involved she is with the fraud side of it. Well, she is listed as the producer on several of his quote hit songs.
01:28:50
Speaker
So I think she's involved.
01:28:54
Speaker
Does she believe him, though? I don't know. I mean, I find pictures of her going back through the years. i mean... um but The story itself is kind of over for today, but we're going to talk another minute or two about this.
01:29:08
Speaker
So I started hunting this community center that he allegedly opened in April, 2024 under the name Cornerstone America. It's called the Mayfield Raglan center. And I talked to multiple people that have been involved in that. And that was this big flop where it opens in April and it's gone by June. And,
01:29:26
Speaker
It's, you know, he is dangling hope at the end of a fishing reel. and The carrot and on a stick. Yeah. And then he's taking it away. And, you know, there's there's ah this whole fundraiser out in California that appears to like have his name all over it. um There are multiple ah different accusations of not paying their rent.
01:29:53
Speaker
um And, you know, it is it is a It is a wild disaster that just is sort of spiraling out of control. it fit perfectly into what we were doing related to scamsgiving. It didn't fit into the podcast proper because I personally don't have like the bandwidth and investigative time to do the deep dive that's already being done by better reporters. But i I'll be damned if I'm not sharing this story because it's fascinating to me when someone takes this kind of advantage of communities.
01:30:26
Speaker
Well, if but also, it's not stopped yet. It's not stopped, and it's not really gone super wide. and I keep wondering, is that because it happens so often that people do shit like her and this? this is not This is not something that is – the scale that I imagine could possibly come out of this.
01:30:47
Speaker
Right. Right? – this is it's sort of we just get this sort of soft shell on the outside right and so we don't have access but i'm imagining there's absolutely nothing propping this up yeah and what i mean by that is like there is no money all the money that was like given as an investment to a not-for-profit uh gone because they spent it on themselves and It is alarming that this scale was allowed to happen. Now, one website, one attempt, one ah one person running for an office promising big changes that are never going to happen in the grand scheme of things. That, sure. i mean, I'm sure it could have it could possibly happen all the time.
01:31:41
Speaker
But he's got to be like an excellent actor because he's had to talk a lot of people into a lot of stuff. Yeah. And this scale of things, I don't think – I think this could potentially – As far as the number of different outlets he used trying to generate whatever it is he's trying to do, like, it could be worse than, like, Bernie Madoff. I don't think the amount is going to be more than Bernie Madoff, but, like, all these different things...
01:32:17
Speaker
Because it just keeps going, right? arthur I think it has the potential to be more impactful. and And I say that because Bernie Madoff figured it out. Like he figured out that as long as he was taking from rich people, it was difficult to tell what he was doing.
01:32:34
Speaker
Like, so I say that because he was taking, like where his downfall was, was when he got greedy. When he got greedy and took like a third of someone's net worth, it was noticeable. Up until that point, taking a million dollars from someone who had $30 million dollars didn't get as noticed if you grew the money a little. They didn't ask as much about that.
01:32:56
Speaker
But like when he got greedy, it was his downfall. The problem is these communities notice $100. notice and they certainly notice
01:33:10
Speaker
Right, and the chicken hut has to get the $3,400 that they signed the contract for because they literally aren't going to be able to continue to operate without collecting invoices, right? Right, and and the same thing happens with like the people he owes rent to. There's 2023 case where he owes $10,000 in rent. That was a smaller local or company to, I think, Raleigh, North Carolina, where he had been running an office for a year and decided he was he didn't have to pay his rent.
01:33:40
Speaker
And it everybody's not a faceless corporation. In fact, I would say that that's like less and less often now. You're actually damaging situations. People who are like managing to to do things where, i don't know, if you're in a tenant landlord situation and you run a business that way, you could be needing the rent to pay the mortgage, right? Right.
01:34:07
Speaker
And when it starts being backed up, that person's business is going to fail because you you said you were going to pay the rent and you're not.
01:34:17
Speaker
And it's things like that.
Psychological Insights and Lessons Learned
01:34:21
Speaker
I don't think people like Courtney Jordan have any idea That, like, that's what happens.
01:34:30
Speaker
Do you think he knows? No. Or maybe he knows and he just doesn't care. He doesn't care. But see, also, every single bill that all of his workers had— when he he's not paying them, when he's promised to pay them, those bills aren't getting paid. Yeah.
01:34:49
Speaker
And that has an impact on everything. and you know, the economy is circular, right? And what is being put in is what is being paid out and this and that and the other. And this type of thing, it's just never going to work. And I'm not... I almost...
01:35:12
Speaker
would dig further into it. But when you said, and I don't know why i didn't think of it, when you said there's probably mental illness involved, it they' that's probably the answer. He may live in la-la land.
01:35:26
Speaker
Yeah, no, I think he lives in La La Land. I mean, the don't have a ton more on this, but the quotes that I read about, like the amounts that were promised to what is known as the Ragfold Mayfield Center, which was this thing that I was talking about in Roxborough, North Carolina. It went on basically.
01:35:48
Speaker
2023 2024 but like they were throwing out numbers like they were going to be investing two and a half million dollars and that they were personally pledging fifty thousand dollars towards I think a local basketball league and they present this big ceremonial check and they're on the cover of all the local papers did they ever get the money no none of it not and not and think about like think about the impact on you know the kids or I don't know who it was the team right right They don't get to do that. Well, what the one thing that stood out to me there was there was a registration for a Courtney Jordan group with the North Carolina Secretary of State's office from July 2011.
01:36:29
Speaker
But it was suspended as a nonprofit organization in October 2017. And I think it said that the Courtney Jordan group had been suspending for failing to comply with the North Carolina general statute I'm not going to get the numbers right, but I think it's in 105, which is a if a corporation or a limited liability company fails to file a report or return or pay a tax or fee, the secretary shall inform the secretary of state of this failure, and they will suspend their articles of incorporation or whatever organis organization organizational
01:37:11
Speaker
you know body they have. So all of these things are like briefly registered through, like, it looks to me like they're being registered through those like websites where you can quote, start a company today for just a hundred dollars.
01:37:24
Speaker
And, and then like they go away and then they come back when they get their shit together. um There's this whole thing about Cornerstone Scholars Academy that they were running that doesn't appear to be real. It's a lot. It's like you said, like the more you look, the more websites you see, the more tentacles this fraudulent thing has.
01:37:50
Speaker
it's It's incredible to me because none of this was necessary if you legitimately don't have any money, which is just right off the cuff what I'm thinking. Yeah. um With the way everything's set up, you would think somebody with that's building this type of legacy, they would never allow a situation to occur where they're getting bad publicity for not paying their employees, for ripping off investors. Like that's just, if you had the money, you would not be wanting that, just like you said earlier. Yeah.
01:38:27
Speaker
Yeah, i um I don't have anything else on this right now. I just thought it was an interesting story. If you kind of plan on following it a little bit, if there's like more charges and stuff, I don't know what's goingnna happen. yeah But if it ends up being a bigger case, I totally would cover it more. This type of sprawling like financial thing is very difficult for me. like it takes The truth is, investigating something like this sucks up another tremendous amount of resources, and it's very difficult to do Because there's so much paperwork and there's so many interviews that you have to do to get these little nuggets of information that then send you down another big rabbit hole. Because every time I've searched for something on this or talked to someone about this, it just opens up another like bottomless pit. It's a lot. It's like a can of snakes. It is a can of snakes. And it...
01:39:20
Speaker
i I don't know. i i find, you know, I've said on the show before that I do feel like a lot of financial crime ah cases are waste of time. And it's almost like the universe was like, well, really? Because look at this. Because I don't think this is a waste of time. um We do have laws in this country against certain things. And Just to be clear, like when it's just nameless entities, like mostly the government, I feel like that's a waste. But in this case, I hope every single person that lost something because of whatever is happening here with all this garbage, I hope they all get justice that they deserve. And, you know, hopefully they take it
01:40:06
Speaker
ah forward with them, like a lesson learned, and they, you know, maybe share it which it seems like they're doing. Right. And, you know, we're' it's giving time of year So I hope that the universe does something amazing for everybody affected by this nonsense.
01:40:22
Speaker
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01:40:36
Speaker
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Speaker
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01:41:09
Speaker
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Speaker
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01:41:31
Speaker
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01:41:49
Speaker
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