Charlotte Councilwoman should resign & Democrats should demand it (05-23-2025--Hour3)

What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepeteclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support, the inboxes blowing up, the emails, the messages blowing up, phone lines on fuego. All right, so we're going to get you guys. I got David, I got Emily. I'm gonna get to you in a second, well thirty three seconds. Actually, I'm gonna play this clip real quick. Because Tijuana Brown, Charlotte City council woman indicted for fraud with over a pandemic era loans, fraudulent loans, she has called this political, This prosecution or this indictment, she said was political. You called the attack political. What do you think the motivation is that it's political? Reason for I paid the money back. No one had to tell me to pay it back. If we're seeking justice and I paid back the twenty thirty three dollars that I'm accountable for. Then why are we here? Do you call the press conference? Why are we here? You called the press conference. So you got to put it. If it's in the matter of justice. And we're seeking justice and I paid it back, again, why are we here? You invited us, You called the press conference. Okay, No, we're here because you paying back the money that you fraudulently obtained does not absolve you of the crime that was committed. The crime that was committed was the filing of the fake paperwork in order to get the money. You paying the money back does not now wipe the slate clean. That's not how law works. All right, let me go over to the phones. Now we got David. Hello, David, welcome to the show. Hey, love you show. Thanks sir. Hey, Look, if this was a Republican this would be all over the news. Oh yeah, well it would be national news. I suspect, oh yeah, oh yeah. But the thing that gets me the most, Pete is this one party in general, but it's one group inside the Democratic Party. They think they can get away with this man. No, I think I think anytime you got so this goes to a thing that Jordan Peterson said, I've quoted him on this several times, which is unguarded storehouses of value will become targeted by parasites. And that's what That's what these institutions, this the government, any institution, if you don't guard this the resources, it will be attacked. And that I think is what we are seeing in the city of Charlotte as an institution, Charlotte School. And Downhill bro and it's by Democrats. I just saw what they did with Tart McCary c and you even want to go back, let's go to Patrick Cannon. I went to school with Patrick Cannon. The big thing about Patrick Cannon him taking bribes. It wasn't so much to bribe. It goes back to patric Crory's White Rail where Patrick Cannon's wife was a real estate agent and he was setting her up to get money when they were buying property. Who Canon was. I'm sorry, Cannon was setting his wife up? What does that mean to get the property? He was setting his wife up with the people that he was being probed with, So his wife, her real estate agency could buy those properties through the city. That would not surprise me, but that was I mean, everybody knew where the light rail line was going, and so everybody, I mean, there were a whole bunch of developers that got in on that, but in real estate agent everybody knew the plans and that was that was part of the deal. Was they wanted it for redevelopment too, David. I appreciate the call, but that would not surprise me if there was something like that going on. Emily, Welcome to the show. How are you hi, Hi, Pete, I'm so excited to talk to you. Well, welcome, take my call. Sure. I wanted to ask a question on this story with miss Brown. Did you say her big fancy fiftieth birthday party was in twenty twenty one? Yes, it was. Would that not be in the middle of the COVID thing where you're not supposed to have all these big gatherings. How come the rules don't reply? Oh my gosh, she was a super spreader. Yeah, on top of it all. Don't ever apply, no rules ever apply. Yeah, Democrats, it's just so well, I can't say. It's infuriating. Yeah, it's infuriating. And this is right. This was the and it was the same thing like, oh we can burn down cities through our fiery but mostly peaceful protests. During gusts are fine, we can take all this money is for free or just giving it away? The problem, right, this gets to again unguarded stores of value and parasites attack them. If they're not guarded, they get attacked. And that's exactly what we're seeing at a societal level. You know, cities that have built. Up understood why people keep electing these types of people. Have you met the average voter? Yeah, you hear them until I moved to South Carolina. Emily, thanks for the call. I appreciate it. Yes, ma'am, take care. Here's a message. I wonder if people will sign up to speak at the city council public forum about this situation in Tijuana. Brown. Wonder if she shows up. I bet she will, And I wonder if she can hold back from responding. I bet you can't. I bet you can't. Yeah, she seems like she she strikes me as a person who knows better than you. You know that's and how dare you question me and my lived experience and all of this. She was also at this Oh hang on a second before I right, I'll play the club. She was asked about the timeline. Remember at the press conference yesterday, she said, would an innocent person come here and make a statement and answer questions? And she put that in place as a standard that her willingness to come and talk equals she is innocent. And then when she is asked about the timeline, she doesn't answer. Can you you mentioned earlier you said when you were kind of first to me aware of the questions about the relief money, can you and when you paid it back? Can you walk us through a little bit of the timeline or like when you first heard about the concerns and when you paid it back. I just say I was aware of any questions. I just paid it back. I paid it back. It was done by a third party. The application was submitted to BYuT third party. So what I accept responsibility for is maybe not scrutinize the application the way that should happen. This is going to be a trial, so we're not going to but. We're it's definitely going to be a trial. But I do want to say this, so he do you hear that she bigfoots her lawyer. That was her lawyer saying this is going to be a trial. Like, we don't need to get into this stuff because he's trying to protect his client. You don't want to give the prosecutors more stuff to work with or whatever. But the question was about the timeline, Like the reporter is just asking to try to, you know, nail down the timeline because she said that she was made She said, when I found out there may have been some scrutiny in the application. Again, I'm not really sure what that means, but she is alerted to the fact that people are asking questions. I don't know who alerted her, whether it was media, whether it was the investigators at the US Attorney's office, not sure either way. She is alerted to this scrutiny and that's when she pays the money back. And so she said she paid it back a couple of months ago. So the reporter, quite legitimately and appropriately, is just trying to nail down the timeline. So when did you first become aware of these questions and when did you pay it back? Exactly? And she starts in on this other line of answering. When a person has something to hide, they don't send out a press release, they don't show up and answer questions and so I've done this my entire life. That's actually false. By the way, I have covered numerous guilty people who put out statements, they usually deny any wrongdoing. Now, to her credit, she did not deny any of the allegations. She just called them serious allegations and then moved on. She never said I am innocent of these allegations. I didn't do this thing, she said. Someone else filled out the paperwork, kid, but you signed it. And there's the small matter of the schedule C form that was fake, that was used to create this fabrication of a business and its gross profits and its expenditures that the IRS never had a copy of. You never filed it with the IRS on maybe somebody forgot about it or whatever. But that was used in order to prove the existence of the business and that it should be receiving funds through the PPP. Out of the world. Have a national footprint fighting for women that are needing second chances, third chances, four kids of fIF chances. What I'm saying to you is, when I found out there may have been any discrepancy in the application that was submitted about third party, I paid it back. That's not in the paperwork that you have, but I paid it back and it was submitted. Defense say, the money was supposed to be used for payroll. Did you use that money for payroll? Again, this is gonna be for trial, So I've asked her not to answer these questions. So literally after she says, when something when someone has something to hide, they don't put out a press release, they don't come and answer questions. The very next question like, we can't answer that. This is not a good look, this did not go well. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina. Just a quick drive up the mountain and Cabins of Asheville is your connection. 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Call her text eight two eight three six seven seventy sixty eight or check out all there is to offer at cabins Offashville dot com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. I have a message here. I have an email from Ben in North Carolina. Once somebody who has been convicted of a state level felony and I checked her in the break is also federal felony. Once they have fulfilled their sentence and no longer actively serving time or a probationary period, their right to vote is automatically restored. The blanket declaration that someone convicted of a felony in North Carolina is inaccurate. I don't want you to pass along anything inaccurate. Be well, keep up the good fight. That is from Ben, Thank you Ben. I thought so it was because Pat Cannon had not gone and fulfilled the term of his sentence. So there you go. So she did not so okay, So she did not break any laws by voting in all of these races, I assume going back years. So if she was off probation or parole or whatever it was, that would not be something that was illegal that she did. Dennis says, are you Tijuana? Brown's voice sounds almost identical to Jasmine Crocketts. Scott says, what and the h E double hockey sticks is going on? How did she get that government job? She was elected to it? Scott? Because while well, now I was gonna say, while felons can't vote, they can actually run for office. Convicted felons can run for office. That might be a loophole we should close. But then I have a message on the Twitter machine from Vector, who says, Pete, are we sure there are real clients overseas that she has? And it's not a way of deducting just personal expenses as business expenses. That is a very good question. Maybe an IRS audit is in order. So I mentioned there was some guy sitting next to her at this press conference, and they never identified the guy. Now, he was wearing a hat and the hat said Mobile Crisis, Mobil Mobile Crisis, and then underneath it it said Cedric Bean. And somebody did say the name Cedric at one point, So I think he is Cedric Bean. Now I don't know if he himself is the Mobile Crisis, or if he offers some sort of crisis services or something, but he has known her for a long time, or if that's a different nonprofit or something. I don't know what mobile, or maybe it's out of Alabama and it's Mobile Crisis. I don't know. They did not identify the guy, but he was sitting next to her during this press conference, and he then starts saying stuff. Well, yeah, well you could just hear it for yourself. If I'd say you spent thirty five hundred on a venue for your birthday party, five thousand and catering, twenty three hundred for photography, a rented throne, and a horse drawn carriage, what was that party? Same answer on that one where this is not the. Not going to answer that either. And the reason I came in today is because I've been very supportive of miss Brown. I've paid her. Thousands of dollars over the years for working with my company. So any insinuation that she took some money from a PPP loan when she had three jobs. She worked for Uber, she worked for Lyft, she worked for American Airlines. So to say that this money that was related to this PPP loan was exclusively used to pay for the stuff like that, I personally gave her donations for that. So you know, now you're not helping dud. You are not helping the matters. So the last thing I want to say is I come here today to support her because we're talking about something that happened during the time when everyone was filing these loans, right, And the only mistate that she made was she didn't scrutinize it the way that she should have scrutinized it. And once she became aware, they made her aware. I'm gonna say that she didn't say it. I said so the fact. They made her aware that there was some problems, just like you coming in questioning right now, when she was questioned about it. She paid it back, no questions asked, because she accept the responsibility of the fact that she did not scrutinize the application the way she did. She didn't fill out the application. So the fact that she didn't fill out the application and there was some things that may have been put on that and may not be correct. She's not saying. I'm saying the reality is that this was five years before she ever thought about running for office. Irrelevant today, she staying here as a person that did more than here Billy Bob could ever done. That company that didn't get indicted, right, she paid it back. What justice is to seek to get the money back the other company they sitting over here and it has I don't care about the politics and none of that. Were talking about people lives here doing an attack on this black woman right here. God, who paid it back? That's what we want. Right when you go to somebody and you say, hey, this right here, money may not have been obtained the correct way, right, we need you to pay this back. Right, everybody has the opportunity. Urs has a way to pay that back on their website. Right, So you pay it back. Now, tell me one person who have paid it back, they got indicted. Other than till you want to brand, you won't find it. Now, that's actually not true. They've they've indicted lots of people, lots of businesses over the since the pandemic for this kind of fraud. Because the fact that the matter is, there are people who have strategically planned to do this. Did they tell the grand jury that she paid it back? We don't know, but they show didn't tell you. It showed not in this indictment right here that she paid it back. When you say that, that's something that was in important for the public to knowe. So we're gonna let the public be the judge. It is okay, then you guys should answer all of our questions if you're gonna let us be the judge. Here's from the indictment. Tijuana Brown and her daughter Tejima Brown submitted and caused to be submitted a fake twenty nineteen IRS Schedule C form for the purported business. The fake schedule see form was in the name of Tijuana Brown under the business name TC Collection. The form falsely stated that TC Collection earned one hundred and six thousand dollars in gross receipts and only had ten thousand dollars in expenses, resulting in ninety six thousand dollars in net profits in twenty nineteen. This form was fake as it was never filed with the IRS. This fake twenty nineteen schedule see form was identical to the twenty nineteen schedule see forms submitted for PPP loans eight seven oh three and eight A ZHO four under the business names given looks by Jemma as well as Antoinette Rouse. Those are her daughters. So they used the same fake form in these three loans, and they stated that they would use the loan funding to pay payroll costs, and they certified this under penalty of perjury, that the information was true and correct. As a result, Lender one wired twenty thousand and eight thirty three to Tijuana Brown to an account for a nonprofit business checking account in the name of a nonprofit entity named Beauty after the Bars and Tiawanna Brown. So not TC connection all right. So spring is here a time of renewal and celebrations. You got graduations, weddings and veres and the special days for mom and dad. Your family's making memories that are going to last a lifetime. But let me ask you are all of those treasured moments from days gone by? Are they hidden away on old VCR tapes, eight millimeter films, photos slides? Are they preserved? Because over time these precious memories can fade and deteriorate, losing the magic of yesterday. 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Defendants spent the vast majority of the funds on personal expenses, including purchases of Louis Vuton merchandise. Approximately one month after receiving twenty thousand and eight thirty three in PPP loan proceeds, Tijuana Brown made approximately fifteen thousand dollars in personal expenditures on a birthday party for herself using the Beauty After the Bar's nonprofit bank account. That's why they're connected. TC Connection was used as the business to apply for the loans. The money went into this nonprofit bank account Beauty after the Bars, and then that fund was tapped for the birthday party. And that's not what the funds were supposed to be used for. I don't even think they should have gone to that bank account. What is TC Connection either. Here's another question she wouldn't answer at the press conference. I'd say that you certified the application now under perjury, So why are you saying that a third party submitted the application? Said question? As innocent people don't When did you pay it back? It was paid back a few months ago, A. Few months ago, Okay, after you became aware of the investigation, correct. But it's clear that no one told me to pay. A back though it's not actually no, it's not actually clear. Why did you originally seek the funding? I had a business to seek the funding. Yeah, I was starting a new business. Let's swim. Let's not get into too much to give our entire playbook to the other side here. Why do you think the lawyer jumped in there because you filed it for a business TC connection, but the funds went to beauty after the bar's nonprofit and then you spent the money from that account on your birthday party. Follow the money folks were. Getting ready for trial. What's the timeline? Do you know what happens next in terms of the trial? Not yet, that'll that'll be a schedule that'll be set. The indictments just released this morning, so they'll be an initial appearance and we'll be pleaded not guilty of the initial appearance. Absolutely, initial appearance tomorrow. Yes, I would ask to the US attorney, and I'm making this request on the ad for the community, give him miss Brown the same consideration that was given to these NB. Yeah, he'll been to barbecue like she has a right to equal justice and until fourteenth for meny right. So okay, I'm gonna stop it right there because he's going to try to say that these are equivalent cases. Here's the thing. All cases are different. They are all these cases are different. They involve different fact patterns and such. But here's the story from the Gaston Gazette from April fourteenth. The owner of a popular Gaston County restaurant has agreed to pay more than one point five million dollars to resolve allegations of fraudulently taking and using pandemic relief funds. Bobby Gerald Duncan and Dee and E Foods, doing business as Hillbillies Barbecue and Steaks, have agreed to pay one point five to three million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by knowingly obtaining seven hundred and sixty two thousand dollars in pandemic relief funds and then misusing them for Duncan's own personal gain. The United States Civil complaint alleges that Duncan, through his restaurant, Hillbilly's Barbecue in Luell, obtained the relief funds through the Economic Injury Disaster Loan as well as two PPP loans. Rather than using the funds for authorized purposes, including for payroll and other business related expenses, Duncan misappropriated the funds for his own benefits, specifically to purchase a separate FedEx business with his longtime friend. The funds were meant to provide a financial lifeline to small businesses struggling to stay afloat during the unprecedented COVID crisis. Where those this, according to the US Attorney Russ Ferguson, where those funds were misused, we will pursue their return as part of our ongoing effort to curb waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer funds. It appears to me that the that the money that was used here was used to purchase new businesses, So it's not like they were using it for a horse drawn carriage for a birthday party. Maybe that's some sort of material difference. I don't know, because if it was meant to, you know, support businesses or something, again, I haven't read through that court case. But then pointing to this other case and saying, well, see this one case, we should get that same treatment. But I don't know all of the facts of that case. That's also that's also just one case. Where are all the other cases? Are there other cases where people went to jail? Why? As a matter of fact, today a fifty three year old Moresville man was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for running a six million dollar investment fraud scheme and fraudulently obtaining two and a half million in COVID relief funds. The money that was both the business is rather that he used Stephen and Deloro. We're both real and fake. So he's running this ponzi scheme and then he's also drawing in this money from COVID relief funds, and so they nail him on all of that. So here's a guy who did the same thing with the COVID relief funds and he got four years in prison and he has to pay back millions of dollars in restitution. They didn't cite that case. All right, if you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events, and I know you do too, and you've probably heard me say get your news from multiple sources. Why, well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with ground News. It's an app, and it's a website, and it combines news from around the world in one place, so you can compare coverage and verify in information. You can check it out at check dot ground, dot news slash pete. I put the link in the podcast description too. I started using ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check dot ground, dot news slash pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get fifteen percent off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. I have a couple more clips I want to play. So there was another attempt to get her to explain what she wanted the money for, specifically at this news conference. Why did you apply for the pandemic relief money? In a pandemic. Yes, in a pandemic. Yes, that's my answer. I don't have anything else to say. We know what we went through in COVID. We know what everybody in this room went doing COVID. We know what the world went through in COVID. Yeah, So the question is about what you needed the money for. Because if you needed it for payroll but you didn't have any employees, that's a problem. And it was a time when she was she was she was working for Uber, she was working for Lift, she was working for American Airllives. She was trying. To take care of her family. She she I mean, look at all the different jobs that she's doing right to try to make ends meet. And addition to that, she's trying to run a nonprofit organization. And she tried to start a new company. So with all of these responsibilities that's going up and you in a pandemic trying to make all this it's common sense. I get it. You gotta ask the questions, right, But at the end of the day, please ask the question to the US attorney why that company, He'll Billy Barbecue was allowed when they didn't pay it back, was allowed to go to civil court instead of criminal court. Why would they a white company that's allowed to go to Silver Court, and why miss Brown is here today when their amount was way over the mount. I think that's a fair question, and the media, in fairness should ask the US Attorney's office, would you say that this is not a political case, because clearly he'll Billy Barbecue over here was given a chance to go to civil court and they didn't even. Pay it back. Okay, so you can hear where they're trying to apply the pressure in the court of public opinion. There. We'll see if it works. Pat McCrory was on earlier in the show, and I think he's exactly right. There needs to be a unified message calling for her to resign, and it has to come from the Mecklamer County Democrat Party. It has to come from the state Democrat Party, and it has to come from the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, like the big time movers and shakers black political caucus. They need to call for her to resign. Okay, when you get up there as the city council and you do a press conference because one of your members, Victoria Watlington, sent out an email fundraiser accusing the city and the council of an ethical and corrupt behavior, maybe illegal behavior, and you call a news conference to attack her and say, we are not corrupt, breaking news, we are not corrupt. We run a good government, clean shop here. We're not corrupt. We're not corrupt. You know what sends a message that you're corrupt? An indicted city council member, That's what sends a message that you are corrupt. Stan says, I worked for a nonprofit for ti twenty seven years, including time as an executive director. Nonprofits must be audited annually. I would love to see the audits of Beauty after the Bars. Spending money from the nonprofit on a birthday party is misappropriation of funds. Yeah, so there may be more layers to this. And just to address this guy, I think his name is Cedric Dean. I'm not sure, but I think that's who he is. He had the name on his ball cap, so I assume that's who he is. This is why I get kind of ticked off about these stories, particularly when I lost my job. It was January of twenty twenty. I was up in Ashville and I didn't get access to PPP loans or EIDL loans. I didn't get any of that. I launched my own company, my own podcast, and but for the listeners who came out of their own pockets to support me directly through the crowdsourcing platform Patreon, I would not have had money to pay rent or buy food. I am well aware of the situation that covid created, because within three weeks or so after I lost my job, everything started locking down. That's pretty It's a really tough environment to get advertising because that's usually the first thing that goes in a budget for a business. So I am well aware of it. And yes I take a little bit more personal offense and insult to people that abused that system, that privilege, but that's just me, all right. That'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and break anything while I'm gone