I Think I Solved the Mystery of the NFL's Secret Scammer and a $5 Billion Check

Summary

Pablo Torre Finds Out – “I Think I Solved the Mystery of the NFL's Secret Scammer and a $5 Billion Check”

Host: Pablo Torre
Guests/Contributors: Ryan Cortez, Kenny Blakeney
Air date: September 8, 2023

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Episode Overview

In this riveting “talkumentary,” Pablo Torre dives into the wild story behind a mysterious $5 billion bank draft that nearly upended the sale of the Washington Commanders (NFL team). Torre traces the web of real estate entrepreneur and former Duke basketball player Brian Davis, his outlandish bid to buy the team, a legendary fortune linked to WWII-era Filipino gold, and the con artistry at the heart of American capitalism. The episode unwraps layers of scams, desperate dreams, and the quest for sports glory, ultimately revealing how even serial scammers can themselves become prey.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Genesis: A $5B Bank Draft & a Tuna Wrap

• Pablo receives an unforgettable text from Kenny Blakeney (Howard University basketball coach/Duke alum): a PDF of a $5 billion bank draft, purportedly a certified check meant to buy the Commanders (03:56).
• “The amount of money associated…was $5 billion.” – Pablo (03:56)
• Pablo’s curiosity is piqued, sparking a personal investigation that spirals into the depths of sporting, financial, and human folly.

2. Brian Davis – The Would-Be NFL Owner

• Background: Davis, former Duke captain, with limited NBA success, subsequently built a career in real estate and claimed to helm a green energy infrastructure business (10:26).
• After news broke of Josh Harris’s $6 billion deal for the Commanders, Davis emerges—claiming a $7 billion counter-bid, with a promise to be the NFL’s first Black majority owner (07:48).

3. The Problem: “Where Did the Money Come From?”

• Skepticism abounds:
  • Press and bank officials question the legitimacy of Davis’s claim.
  • “Are you able to send us some background and further details regarding the $10 billion of cash…?” – Bank of America MD (08:24)
• Davis evades specifics, repeating (multiple times, forcefully):
  • “My money comes from white people. White.” – Brian Davis (11:24)
  • “I don’t even know what that means.” – Pablo Torre (11:27)
  • Davis continues, vaguely referencing Jewish, Italian, and Sicilian partners but offering no concrete proof.

4. Legal Baggage & Past Humiliations

• Torre recounts Davis’s troubled financial past:
  • Lawsuits for unpaid loans and failed investments.
  • Failed efforts to buy the Memphis Grizzlies, resulting in high-profile lawsuits from the likes of Scottie Pippen (12:51-13:11).
  • Despite vehement denials, Davis’s checkered history lends suspicion to the Commanders’ bid.

5. The $5 Billion Bank Draft — Too Good To Be True?

• Kenny Blakeney and Pablo scrutinize the check; it appears official, but is notably drawn from an estate, not a personal account – the estate of Severino Garcia Santa Romana (20:14).
  • “The name of the estate…was Severino Garcia Santa Romana.” – Pablo (21:45)

6. The Legend of Severino Garcia Santa Romana

• Pablo embarks on a deep dive:
  • Santa Romana: A real (now deceased) Filipino figure, allegedly linked to “Yamashita’s Gold”—a WWII legend about a vast, secret treasure said to be buried in the Philippines (22:03).
  • Santa Romana’s name is attached to myriad conspiracy theories, online scheme forums, and fantastical documents—often used by fraudsters as collateral.

7. The Real Scammer: Donald Norvell Calhoun, a.k.a. Donald Demery

• Pablo tracks the two trustees named on the document: Tarsiana C. Rodriguez and Demery Donald Norvell.

  • On further investigation, Demery is exposed as Donald Norvell Calhoun, a convicted fraudster with a history of financial scams (33:06).
  • “Donald Calhoun is a career con man who has swindled millions...” – Lawsuit excerpt (33:06)

• These individuals, through “Quantum Trust SGSR” and a slew of aliases, have used the Santa Romana estate myth to peddle fake instruments for decades.

8. The Shell Game: Davis as Victim or Co-Conspirator?

• Pablo pivots: Maybe Davis isn’t the original scammer, but a desperate man duped in his quest for redemption and wealth.
  • “What if Brian Davis…was not the only scammer in this story?” – Pablo (35:38)
  • Explains how Davis’s lawsuit (seeking the return of his “bank draft” from Bank of America) might be the act of a man who truly believed in the legitimacy of his fraudulent fortune.

9. Absurdity, Delusion, and the American Dream

• Pablo underscores the blurring lines between redemption, delusion, and predation in American finance and sport.
  • NFL teams are “money-printing machines that seem impossible to mess up” (41:10), irresistible to ambitious risk-takers like Davis.

10. Brian’s Disappearance—and Return

• Following public humiliation, lawsuit withdrawal, and vanishing act (his phone/email go dead), Davis suddenly resurfaces, emailing Bank of America an even larger “offer” – over $10 billion for the Commanders (43:37).
  • “We would like to give Mr. Snyder 8.1 billion…” – Davis’ email (44:13)
  • Davis’s self-belief and relentless pursuit of legitimacy remain undimmed, even as reality repeatedly refutes his claims.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• [04:02] Pablo Torre: “The amount of money associated with this bank draft…was $5 billion.”
• [11:24] Brian Davis: “My money comes from white people. White.”
• [20:14] Pablo Torre: “Brian’s $5 billion bank draft…was not coming from Brian’s own bank account. It was coming from…and was funded by…an estate. That was why Wells Fargo SGSR Statutory Trust, was attached...”
• [21:45] Pablo Torre: “The name of the estate on Brian’s $5 billion bank draft was Severino Garcia Santa Romana.”
• [33:06] Lawsuit Excerpt: “Donald Calhoun is a career con man who has swindled millions of dollars from people and businesses across the United States…”
• [44:13] Kenny Blakeney (reading Davis’s email): “We would like to give Mr. Snyder 8.1 billion, 7.9 billion for the acquisition of the franchise, 100 million for the breakup fee…”
• [45:27] Brian Davis (singing Bob Marley): “All pirates…”
• [End, 45:40] Pablo Torre: “If you dare to run a black light under the motel couch of the American economy, what you’ll discover inevitably are these Nutz—with a Z.”

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Important Segment Timestamps

• 03:56 The $5 billion bank draft and its intended use
• 07:48 Brian Davis’s backstory and his audacious NFL bid
• 11:24 Davis’s evasive explanation of his financial backing
• 20:14 Discovery of the estate (Santa Romana) behind the check
• 21:45 Unpacking the Santa Romana legend and Filipino gold
• 33:06 Demery/Donald Calhoun’s checkered history of fraud
• 35:38 Theory: Davis as a victim of a larger scam
• 43:37 Surprise: Brian Davis makes a final, bigger “bid” for the Commanders

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Tone, Style & Approach

Pablo Torre’s narration is by turns witty, incredulous, deeply skeptical, and empathetic. The episode employs soundbites, direct quotes, and narrative digressions to humanize its players while exposing the absurdity and peril of American get-rich-quick schemes. The mood oscillates between comic disbelief (“I don’t even know what that means”; “these Nutz with a Z”) and genuine concern for desperation’s consequences.

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Conclusion & Takeaway

Pablo closes by reflecting on the relentless, almost mythic American chase for sports ownership, status, and redemption—whatever the personal or moral cost. The episode is ultimately a cautionary (and darkly comic) tale about how the most persistent scammers can themselves fall prey to deeper schemes—and how, beneath the shiny surface of big-money capitalism, lie scammers in perpetual wait.

“If you dare to run a black light under the motel couch of the American economy, what you’ll discover inevitably are these Nutz—with a Z.” – Pablo Torre (45:40)

Transcript

[Pablo Torre]

Welcome to Pablo Torre Finds Out I Am Pablo Torre. And today we're gonna find out what this sound is.

[Brian Davis]

My money cuts from white people. White.

[Kenny Blakeney]

I don't even know what that means.

[Pablo Torre]

But okay, right after this ad, you're listening to Giraffe Kings. So, Cortez, do you notice anything different about me today at the last show of our week here?

[Ryan Cortez]

I mean, instead of wearing, like, purple pants like you have in the past with me, you're wearing shorts for some reason.

[Pablo Torre]

We have found out a lot this week on Pablo Torre Finds out why I'm Wearing Shorts. Go listen to yesterday's episode with Katie Nolan to find out why I will never wear pants again. That's one thing we found out.

[Ryan Cortez]

I'm so impressed with your calves, dude. As someone who used to do calf raises in high school, like, yours are better than anything I've ever put out. Like, for sure.

[Pablo Torre]

I do want people to understand that Ryan Cortez used to be a member of a thing called Roid Crew.

[Ryan Cortez]

Allegedly.

[Pablo Torre]

That's a separate Finds out investigation. But we learned, speaking of investigations, that Stu Gods did better pee tape journalism than Rachel Maddow.

[Ryan Cortez]

This week, we learned that Dan Soder has the best Macho man savage impression I've ever heard.

[Pablo Torre]

It's incredible. It's incredible. But today, Cortez, because I consider us a show on a mission, right? A journalistic mission, I want to talk about how we all have that one, like, message, email, phone call, letter that we received at some point in our life that we vividly remember receiving, right? You remember where you were, what you were doing, how it felt to receive this thing.

[Ryan Cortez]

Dude, you know what's funny is five years ago, on this day, you and I were working together on High Noon. This is the fourth show you and I have worked together on. Debatable. Highly questionable High Noon. Pablo Torre finds out. Five years ago, on this day, when I was getting ready to go to work for High Noon, I got a text message from one of the producers. And I remember that message. I remember where I was, how it made me feel. The message said, are you cool pouring maple syrup in Pablo's mouth? And I was like, dude, I wanted to be a journalist. And this is what my career has come to now.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah. YouTube.com Pablo Torefindsout Find the archival footage of that happening. That's a thing we did on ESPN1, but for me, cool, Cortez. The message I most remember receiving, the. The message that still is sort of like cattle branded into my brain, happened just this spring. And it was a text message that I got on a lazy May afternoon in New York City. I remember I was eating a whole wheat tuna wrap alone. You're pathetic. Staring out the window of a diner counter. What's wrong with. I mean, I guess I have been yelled at before.

[Ryan Cortez]

Now that tuna's disgusting and you're eating it alone. That's what's wrong with it.

[Pablo Torre]

I did get yelled at once for eating a tuna wrap on an acela.

[Ryan Cortez]

Ew, bro, you should be kicked off for that. That's foul.

[Pablo Torre]

Terrible. But I digress. The reason why I remember this tuna wrap was because I got a message, a text message from my friend Kenny, who happens to Live in Washington, D.C. and Kenny is a D.C. guy born and raised. He's actually now the head basketball coach at Howard University. Just made the tournament with Howard for the first time in 31 years in March. He is the MIAC coach of the Year, actually. Right. He's a big deal in D.C. but the text that Kenny sent me in May, I should clarify, was not about any of that. And it was not actually text. This message was just an attachment, actually. It was a PDF of a bank draft. What is a bank draft? So a bank draft is just like a guaranteed check. Basically, it's a form of check that carries a guarantee of funds. So it's like, as good as money, is what a bank draft is. And the amount of money associated with this bank draft funds guaranteed by Citibank, in this case, specifically certified by Wells Fargo, was $5 billion.

[Ryan Cortez]

You said B billion.

[Pablo Torre]

A $5 billion bank draft. Right.

[Ryan Cortez]

What was that for?

[Pablo Torre]

And so this bank draft, I learned, was going to be used to purchase the Washington Commanders.

[Ryan Cortez]

Okay, very good.

[Pablo Torre]

The NFL team. And so this weekend, as football is kicking off in earnest, we're gonna be on our couches just fusing to them all day, like those people in shows about how they need to be, like, you know, forklifted out of their homes.

[Brian Davis]

Right.

[Pablo Torre]

I'm gonna be thinking about the commanders most of all because of the mystery that I plunged into after receiving this text. My tuna wrap, delicious as it was, it sat there uneaten, and I just fell into a rabbit hole, inside of which I think I still remain today as we sit here at this table, because down in that rabbit hole with me, it turned out where the Imperial Japanese Army, Bob Marley, Christian Laettner, the worst owner in all of American sports, my family's ancestral homeland, of course. And also, of course, these nuts.

[Ryan Cortez]

Okay, I'm very. I'm very interested.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, I'll Explain after the break. Okay, so this story starts back in April 2023. Back when Dan Snyder, the worst owner in all of American sports, finally agreed to do the thing that he had refused to do for, like, a quarter century. The end of Daniel Snyder's era as owner of the Washington Commanders is rapidly approaching. According to CBS Sports, Snyder has accepted a 6 billion doll from Josh Harris's group to buy the team. Harris owns the Sixers. Before Josh Harris, that finance guy who also owns the 76ers and the new Jersey Devils, nobody had ever agreed to pay $6 billion to buy any team in the entire history of sports. But the day after this historic announcement, something happened that threatened to change everything.

[Kenny Blakeney]

With breaking news tonight, once again on the control of the Commanders. D I understand there is yet another twist in this.

[Brian Davis]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

So as record setting as the sale was, it was not final. Not yet. The agreement was still in principle, which meant that another bidder was very welcome to come along and pay Dan Snyder even more.

[Kenny Blakeney]

Yeah.

[Reporter]

So I just obtained documents that say a Washington, D.C. resident is in conversations with the Washington Commanders after placing a $7 billion bid to purchase the team. Now, according to these documents, Brian Davis, the founder of Urban Echo Energy LLC, an energy company, originally placed a bid on March 21. Now, Davis is a former basketball player for Duke. He won a national championship there. That's him in the middle.

[Pablo Torre]

So Brian Davis actually won two national championships at Duke, to be specific. And he was not at all the best player on that dynasty. From the 90s, Brian had averaged like seven points on teams that had Grant Hill and Bobby Hurley and Brian's roommate, Christian Laettner. But Brian was their leader. Brian was the captain they all elected. And once again, here was Brian Davis taking charge.

[Reporter]

We can confirm Brian Davis financial documents were sent this morning to the Washington Commanders. The documents give a general timeline that says the first first billion dollars could be released to Dan Snyder within 24 hours and the rest of the $6 billion in a week. Also in the letter I saw, Brian Davis is willing to indemnify Snyder as a condition of his offer. Now, if Dan Snyder accepts, it would set an NFL record for the most expensive sale in global sports history and the NFL's first African American majority owner.

[Pablo Torre]

But there was a problem. Everybody knew Josh Harris as a billionaire when he bought the Sixers. For instance, a New York Times headline called him a private equity prince. But nobody, nobody, including bank of America, the bank managing the team sale, had any idea how in the Brian Davis had all of this money the outlet, Front Office Sports, they reported that the true source of Brian's billions might be Saudi Arabian investors. Brian's college coach, Coach K. He had questions of his own, I am told. And as one bank of America managing director wrote, replying directly to Brian's submission of financial documents in an email, I obtained, quote, are you able to send us some background and further details regarding the $10 billion of cash that you have on your balance sheet? Many thanks. End quote. All right, hold on. My head is exploding. Brian, with all due respect. So I think what I. All of which is why Brian eagerly called into the Sports Junkies, a live super popular sports radio show in Washington, D.C. what I understood prior to having you on was that you were sort of like the lead guy, and somehow you had. You were kind of like the voice of this money that you had accumulated. But I never thought for a second that you were ever alleging that your personal net worth was in the billions.

[Brian Davis]

Yeah, my personal network because of my partners. You know, as I said, I wasn't born with a billion dollars, but my partners are multibillionaires.

[Pablo Torre]

Right, so you're representing them. That's what I'm. That's what you're doing.

[Brian Davis]

I'm representing them, but I've sold my intellectual property, which allowed me to have, you know, a large. A large amount of capital. And as I said, I'm not Nikola Tesla, but I am a person who's been doing the same thing for 25 years.

[Pablo Torre]

No, Brian had never replicated his success at Duke in the NBA. The guy was out of the league after playing less than 70 games with the Timberwolves. But over those subsequent 25 years, Brian had helped develop a real estate venture with Christian laettner in Durham, North Carolina, called the West Village, which eventually sold for $275 million. Then they bought and sold an ownership stake in D.C. united, the major League Soccer team. And since then, and this is the most important part, Brian had launched his own green energy infrastructure business, which he called Urban Echo Energy.

[Brian Davis]

I have $20 billion in my holding company through my business. That's a fact. Whether you believe it or not, it's up to you. Okay, but I don't want it. It's the NFL's job to make that decision. I don't want to. I don't want to people to issue statements about me having Saudi money or any of these things that are not accurate.

[Pablo Torre]

Instead, what Brian wanted to do was issue a statement of his own.

[Brian Davis]

My money comes from white people. White.

[Pablo Torre]

I don't Even know what that means. But.

[Brian Davis]

Okay, no, let me finish. Let me finish. White people who are Jewish, who are Italian, who. Sicilian. White people. Right. And the NFL to find that out. It comes from white people. Those are my partners. White people. All right.

[Pablo Torre]

I think that that's hilarious. So, yeah, look, if it sounds like Ryan's a bit defensive about his partners here, it's for good reason.

[Reporter]

A source tells me they don't believe Mr. Davis has the money. And we learned that Davis has been sued several times. He's faced civil lawsuits for not paying back loans, breach of contract, failed failure to appear in court, and defaulted on loans.

[Pablo Torre]

So take the aforementioned real estate development in Durham, for instance, that became that big success. What Brian doesn't love discussing is how he had tried to replicate that same model in bigger cities and then got sued for loans he could not repay, which was a giant humiliation. Or take that ownership stake in D.C. united that I told you about. Brian had also agreed to buy a majority stake in the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies for nine figures, but then he failed to produce the money he had to personally guarantee. With that, another giant humiliation. And in fact, Ryan has been sued by NBA hall of Famer Scottie Pippen, who invested in that Grizzlies deal, and his fellow Duke basketball alum Johnny Dawkins and NFL star Sean Merriman, who immediately called bull on Brian's commander's bid on Twitter.

[Brian Davis]

That was 25 years ago. You asked me about the athletes. That was a different life. This life. I have an energy company. It's called Urban Echo Energy, where I develop infrastructure. It's a whole different level.

[Pablo Torre]

What Brian really wanted America to know here was that he, like, his net worth had changed. All right, so if you're the owner, let's just fast forward.

[Brian Davis]

No, no, no. This is the learning lesson. This is what I'm trying to. This is my redemption song. Imagine me. Is that hoops? Bob Marley. That's who I am. I'm a good guy.

[Pablo Torre]

All right, Brian Davis. Brian Davis. If you take over as the owner in this song, the song that Brian claimed as his own redemption song by Bob Marley, that's what played in the my head for months.

[Brian Davis]

Old pirates.

[Pablo Torre]

Yes. In May, about a month after that interview, Brian Davis was back at Duke for his son's graduation. It was supposed to be this big nostalgic celebration, but instead, what I learned was that Brian was enraged. Not only was bank of America refusing to take him seriously, still, as the gatekeepers managing the sale of his childhood team, bank of America, Brian claimed, was actually refusing to give him back his money. You see, this whole time, everyone had been asking for proof of Brian's billions. But what Brian says is that he had already sent by courier a signed and barcoded bank draft, a guaranteed uncancellable check from Citibank for $5 billion. That's with a B. And by the way, Brian didn't just send this document to bank of America. He had forwarded the PDF to one of his Duke teammates, a guy he knew from back in D.C. who is now the head coach at Howard University, and also an old friend of mine, Kenny Blakeney, who sent that same PDF at Bryant's request to me. I mean, I very vividly remember how I got sucked into this story, because you sucked me into it.

[Kenny Blakeney]

I did.

[Pablo Torre]

I mean, I remember getting that text that was just a PDF, and I click that PDF, and inside of it is, is this $5 billion bank draft.

[Kenny Blakeney]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

And when you sent it to me, did you know that it was going to take over my life?

[Kenny Blakeney]

I think that was the whole point of sending it to you. So Liz and Violet can be like, what the hell is wrong with Daddy?

[Pablo Torre]

Why is Daddy constantly googling? Why did Brian want to talk to me?

[Kenny Blakeney]

I think, Pablo, at the end of the day, when you look at it, probably the track record over the last 10, 15 years with Brian, you know, people, if he's trying to use his own voice to get this message out, it's not as effective.

[Pablo Torre]

What Brian really wanted, I realized, was a journalist. He wanted a journalist who might put down the tuna wrap he was eating, sadly by himself, to personally verify the bank draft. The redemption of Brian Davis. Yeah, when I look at this stuff, it looks real. Like I've never seen a $5 billion bank draft before. But this is how I would imagine it comes. There is a stamp that says Wells Fargo Statutory Trust, sgsr. There's a serial number across the bottom. And the letterhead on this ICC Demand Guarantee page that says, this is all real.

[Kenny Blakeney]

No doubt about it. I've never seen a $5 billion check either, Pablo. So when I look at this, looks pretty official. There's some holograms, QR codes. It talks about the date that it was issued, the guarantee period of coverage, beneficiary names.

[Pablo Torre]

And what are the two signatures there at the bottom of the bank draft page?

[Kenny Blakeney]

Tarsiana Seed Rodriguez Demry, Donald Norvell.

[Pablo Torre]

These are the two named trustees.

[Kenny Blakeney]

Absolutely. Solely as trustees.

[Pablo Torre]

Now, those two named trustees are extremely important to the story, but I should also Note here that there is an attached and barcoded financing statement indicating that this whole document addressed to Urban Echo Energy, Brian's company had been registered with California's Secretary of State, which it actually was. I checked. So, Kenny, do you remember the first time you ever met Brian Davis?

[Kenny Blakeney]

I do. I probably was a sophomore in high school. So 14 years old, 15 years old. Brian was a basketball player that was in PG county, right across the road from us at DeMatha Catholic High School. And Brian showed up to DeMatha one day wearing a suit. And I knew who Brian was, but I've never met him at that point. And I was just kind of like, staring at this guy, like, who's this guy?

[Pablo Torre]

Why was young Brian Davis wearing a suit, showing up at DeMatha?

[Kenny Blakeney]

Well, not knowing it then, but that just who Brian was at the time. He's always wanted to present himself in a way that people took him very seriously.

[Pablo Torre]

Had you ever seen anybody that age wear a suit? A basketball player wearing a suit to.

[Kenny Blakeney]

School that wasn't a drug dealer? No.

[Pablo Torre]

So for people who aren't familiar with the dmv, explain where Brian came from.

[Kenny Blakeney]

He's from Capitol Heights, but Brian was born in Atlantic City and then moved to D.C. at a young age. Moved to Capitol Heights. And the time that we were growing up, Pablo, it was the crack epidemic. D.C. was considered the murder capital of the world.

[Pablo Torre]

Given everything you knew about Brian over the course of his life since he was a teenager, what was your first thought when Brian sent you this $5 billion bank draft?

[Kenny Blakeney]

I don't know if you have one of those friends. Right. But he is just one of those guys that you. I'm talking to our team about some of the things that's going on at Howard.

[Pablo Torre]

Yes, your basketball team.

[Kenny Blakeney]

No, our Duke team.

[Brian Davis]

Oh.

[Kenny Blakeney]

From, you know, the time when Brian and I are all on the same.

[Pablo Torre]

Team from the multiple national championship winning Duke dynasty.

[Kenny Blakeney]

Yes, sir. And we're kind of, you know, going around and having conversations about it, and, you know, everybody consensusly is thinking the same thing. Like, it can't be true, but it's. Brian, when someone sends you a $5 billion check and says that here are the things that I'm thinking about doing, it's kind of like, oh, like, let me. Let me kind of sit up in my chair a little bit.

[Pablo Torre]

Oh. Is also how I felt at this point, admittedly. But as Kenny and I were examining this documented proof, the proof of Brian's redemption, I started squinting at it and looking closer at it and at that point, we both noticed something else. Brian's $5 billion bank draft, very importantly, was not coming from Brian's own bank account. It was coming from and was funded by apparently an estate, an entity entrusted with a dead person's assets. That was why Wells Fargo SGSR Statutory Trust, was attached to this in the first place with all of that official letterhead. But this dead person, this dead billionaire, I realized, did not appear to be white or Jewish or Italian or Sicilian. No, this dead person was a lot more like me. The name of the estate on Brian's $5 billion bank draft was Severino Garcia Santa Romana. Say it again. Severino Garcia Santa Romana. This episode, we're going to talk about.

[Brian Davis]

A man named Severino Garcia Santa Romana.

[Pablo Torre]

Now, when I initially heard that name, I swear that a tiny radar deep inside my brain just started beeping. Because of course, this story, this specific story, of course it had to be like this. Of course Severino Garcia Santa Romana had to be like me and Dave Bautista and Olivia Rodrigo and any number of Asian looking people with Spanish names. Of course, Severino Garcia Santa Romana had to be Filipino. Santa Romana at Angkanyang treasure Operation. This is just one of many insanely detailed YouTube videos about Severino Garcia Santa Romana, many of which I found are in Filipino, in Tagalog, the main language. But what I also found was dozens of message board threads about him, with thousands of comments in English about how he was apparently a Catholic priest, CIA operative with a dozen aliases, a key figure in what sounded like a legendary treasure hunt. For 70 years, legends have been told of a buried treasure shrouded in danger. It's one of the great mysteries of World War II. Something very secretive and strange has got.

[Kenny Blakeney]

To be buried in that mountain.

[Pablo Torre]

In a covert operation, infamous Japanese General Yamashita allegedly buried thousands of crates throughout the Philippines near the end of the war. They were just taking anything about that was from the History Channel. And after sifting through that and all these shows and movies and books and forums, all these threads, what became clear to me is that Severino Garcia Santa Romana was, yes, a legend unto himself. He was the person who allegedly wound up finding, stealing, really, all that Japanese gold, billions of dollars of imperial Japanese gold. But Severino Garcia Santa Romana, importantly, has also been dead for 50 years now. And so his estate, according to Brian Davis personal bank draft, was now controlled by two signed trustees. As aforementioned, there was a woman named Tarsiana C. Rodriguez, and there was a man named Demery Donald Norvell. And so, okay, what I want to do right now is just take a breath and I want to simplify things for everybody, including myself. Because at this point there were exactly two possibilities in my mind. So theory number one, Ryan Davis was legitimately in business with these two trustees. Ryan Davis had cashed in on this fortune that all of those treasure hunters had been chasing. And he had done it by selling his intellectual property with Urban Echo Energy, his green energy business. He had sold that IP to this Wells Fargo and Citibank certified estate. That's theory number one. Theory number two, on the other hand, is a bit simpler. Brian had just used this Filipino conspiracy to fill forge all of these financial documents himself. He had personally forged signatures for two undoubtedly imaginary trustees as part of another crazy scheme to finally buy his own professional sports team. And I should also admit that I, like everybody else, I was leaning extremely heavily toward theory number two. But then I got a call. It was Kenny Blakeney. And Kenny had Brian Davis himself on the other line. There is no recording of our three way conversation with Brian, unfortunately. But what you should know is that it was emotionally volatile, let's say. Instead of answering my many questions, which Brian found largely insulting, what he wanted me to do very simply was just report that bank of America was refusing to return his certified and barcoded $5 billion bank draft that he had received from this estate and that he, Brian Davis, now had a whole plan to get it back. So Kenny, I'm thinking about that call, the conference call in which you brought me into your conversation with Brian on the phone. Brian had a plan to get his bank draft, the $5 billion bank draft back from bank of America. What did he tell us he was going to do?

[Kenny Blakeney]

That he was going to sue bank of America in federal court to get his bank drafts back.

[Pablo Torre]

And then Brian Davis actually did and we caught some flack for having him on the show. Whatever. Most people think he's a joke. Well, just to give you an update on what happened over the weekend, Brian Davis and his group, they are suing bank of America. The civil case of Urban Echo Energy LLC vs Bank of America was filed the very same day as my call with Brian and Kenny, and they filed it at US District Court in Maryland. Bryan was seeking the return in front of a federal judge of his $5 billion bank draft, plus damages to be determined at trial. But that's not all. Brian had even signed and submitted a verified statement that declared under the penalties of perjury, that He, Brian Davis, personally had this bank draft issued and bonded and delivered to bank of America, and that the bank was. Yeah. Guilty of never informing the Snyders of its existence, and that it was now refusing to give it back to him. You should know here at this point that nothing about Brian's lawsuit was making sense to me as, again, a theory number two guy. And it also didn't make sense to at least one former federal prosecutor that I was speaking to, because if theory number two, that Brian masterminded all of this himself, if that was correct, Brian had just taken this verifiably fake Citibank check and handed it to federal authorities to investigate, which felt to me like shockingly suicidal. Right. And so what I started thinking about for the first time was a theory number three. So this is where I do need to reiterate that I spent months of my life turning Brian's bank drafts into my own insane personal treasure hunt. And I started with the Los Angeles phone number for Wells Fargo, SGSR Statutory Trust, the entity allegedly managing the Severino Garcia Santa Romana estate State.

[Brian Davis]

Hi, is this Wells Fargo? No, you got the wrong number. Sorry, what. Who. Who are you guys? Who am I calling? This is not. Well, Fargo. Yeah. Are you. Sorry, you guys. What are you guys?

[Pablo Torre]

I was just confused.

[Brian Davis]

This is a company.

[Pablo Torre]

A little fishy, this company, I would say, but it got even fishier.

[Brian Davis]

Yeah, what company are you guys? I'm just wondering why someone gave me the number for Wells Fargo. I just wasn't sure what you guys are. This is a seafood vendor. A seafood vendor, yes. Got it. Apologies. Thank you so much.

[Pablo Torre]

And so then I called the other number listed on the trust's website in Connecticut. And an actual office worker this time physically picked up in the office.

[Brian Davis]

This is Richard.

[Pablo Torre]

Richard was more than happy to double check any and all details that I had questions about with his bank draft. How the estate's chosen bank was indeed Citibank, how The amount was $5 billion, a number I felt insane saying aloud, but Richard apparently did not even blink at it. And also how this bank draft listed the signatures of those two specific trustees.

[Brian Davis]

Can I just read you the name one more time to make sure that.

[Pablo Torre]

It'S the same name?

[Brian Davis]

Persiana C. Rodriguez. Yes. That's the. She's the trustee. Yes.

[Pablo Torre]

My hairs at this point were kind of standing on end.

[Brian Davis]

Okay, great. And so. And the other person's name, Demery. That's another trustee, is that correct? That's correct.

[Pablo Torre]

So again, this person's first name typed out on this document Was Demery his kind of weird last name? One word was Donald Norvell. Demery. Donald Norvell. But here's what was even weirder. The signature below this name was signed in handwriting. Donald Norvell Demery, backwards. And Richard did not seem to care.

[Brian Davis]

Yes. Yeah, you can say Mr. Demery is fine. Mr. Demery. Okay, great.

[Pablo Torre]

This was the precise moment when I felt myself falling down a rabbit hole that is so much deeper than I can possibly, I think, ever get into. Like, it got to the point where rabbit hole stopped being an appropriate metaphor for this. What it felt like was that I was running a black light under, like, the motel couch of the American economy. For instance, Wells Fargo SGSR Statutory Trust. What I realized about that was that they had no actual ties to Wells Fargo, the bank at all. Documents that I found showed that Mr. Demery was leasing. Yeah, a small office space inside the Wells Fargo center in LA. But Mr. Demery was not a Wells Fargo employee in any way. And in fact, until last year, I discovered Wells Fargo, SGSR Statutory Trust went by a different name. It was Quantum Trust sgsr SG Sr. As in man name.

[Brian Davis]

Severino Garcia Santa Romana.

[Pablo Torre]

But that's not all. No. Mr. Demery, it turned out, also had a ton of aliases himself, including but not limited to Demery, Donald Norvell, Donald Demery Diaz, and then his actual birth name, Donald Norvell Calhoun. So who is Donald Norvell Calhoun? Well, according to one lawsuit from July 2022, quote, Donald Calhoun is a career con man who has swindled millions of dollars from people and businesses across the United States. Donald Calhoun's scams all seem to share a common characteristic. Donald Calhoun makes promises of financing to people and businesses that need money. End quote. So in 2003, I discovered Mr. Calhoun Demery got sentenced to 37 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to a fraud scheme that cost investors $1.8 million. And in 2018, Mr. Demery was back and involved in a lawsuit from a movie production company over a fake $150,000 check. A check I saw that had the name of. Yes, I think you guessed it at this point. Severino Garcia, Santa Romana and Tarsiana C. Rodriguez. And then in 2021, I saw Mr. Demery and Ms. Rodriguez both signed a certificate from Quantum Trust, SGSR for $300 billion. This time to back a penny stock of some kind that listed the same exact Connecticut phone number that I'd called.

[Brian Davis]

Before in the office. It's a Richard.

[Pablo Torre]

All of which is how it became clear to me that theory number two, that, you know, Brian Davis made up all of this himself, that it was actually wrong. Brian did not invent the SGSR scam. For years and years, long before Brian's $5 billion bank draft ever existed, Mr. Demery had been running the same exact con. Preying on desperate people who desperately needed money and or redemption. People like Brian Davis.

[Brian Davis]

No, no, no. This is the learning lesson. This is what I'm trying to. This is my redemption song. Imagine me. Is that hoops? Bob Marley. That's who I am. I'm a good guy.

[Pablo Torre]

All right, Brian Davis. Brian Davis. If you take over as the owner of all of. Which finally brings me back to this theory number three, because what if, and I need you to stay with me here, what if Brian Davis, after decades of desperation, was not the only scammer in this story. What if in trying to scheme up the money to buy the Commanders by, you know, selling his supposed green energy IP to Mr. Demery, Brian Davis had also himself gotten scammed? If Brian had been conned, scammed by the SGSR estate into believing that the bank draft was real, it would at least explain why he had presented it in federal court in that lawsuit to get it back. Now, I tried contacting Mr. Demery to attempt to get to the bottom of this dude did not return my messages. Not totally surprised. But what I did wind up getting was a good look at him. Because another thing I discovered about Mr. Demery underneath this motel couch is that the guy loves trademarks. For instance, he recently tried trademarking the phrase King of NFTs, because of course he did. And what he also tried to do was trademark a cartoon. Now this cartoon is described in the US Patent and Trademark Office Records as, quote, tan animated cashew nut with human face, featuring black eyebrows and eyes, with muscular arms, hands and legs, wearing high top, gray and black tennis shoes. End quote. And I gotta say, if you're not watching this on YouTube. Accurate, very accurate. But the reason I bring up this insanely jacked California raisin ass nut is to say that when I first found a Getty image of a human being tagged as Donald Demery, I did not immediately know if this was the Mr. Demery. Like this Donald Demery in the Getty image photo was a happy looking black dude with a gray beard and black rimmed glasses and like an ornately patterned shirt and a leather Kangol style cap pointed forward. He was also notably throwing up deuces with both hands. But then I noticed something off to this Human being's right on the white backdrop, right behind him. Because there, right there, grinning back at me, was an insanely jacked animated cashew with a human goddamn face and tennis shoes right near the logo for what appeared to me as a trail mix company named these Nutz in all caps, these nuts with a Z nutz. And my first thought as I was processing all of this, which took a while, it was that here I was, gazing finally into the face of the real Mr. Demery, the Donald Norvell Calhoun, and that I really needed to talk to Brian. I really needed to tell him everything I had found here. But by then, Brian was back in the news, busy becoming a joke again. I have no idea what's going to happen, but it doesn't matter. No. I could have just taken Brian Davis's money, Eric. I'm not saying it. By May, bank of America had declared in federal court to a federal judge that Brian's $5 billion bank draft looked, quote, fictitious, end quote. Because, yeah, of course it did. But within days, what Brian did was hard. I imagine he voluntarily, shamefully withdrew his lawsuit entirely. And then Brian Davis just disappeared. The wireless customer you are calling is not available.

[Brian Davis]

Please try again later.

[Pablo Torre]

Kenny and I tried calling Brian over and over again, but that's the message we heard. And not only did his phone number just stop working, when Kenny sent an email to Brian's old Yahoo.com address, what we learned there was that that account was also deactivated. How much did Brian talk to you, Kenny, about what he was going to do once he bought the Washington Commanders?

[Kenny Blakeney]

Brian is one of those guys that like, and this is the beauty of him, he's on to the next project. So in his mind, it was like, I've already bought the Washington Commanders. These are the next things that we're going to work on. Like, here are the next things that we're going to take a look at. These are the next franchises that I want to buy. Properties I want to take a look at. So it was rolling conversations into the future of what he was going to do. Being one of the wealthiest guys in the world.

[Pablo Torre]

The question I have for you most of all is whether Brian believed that this bank draft, the $5 billion bank draft, his fortune, whether he believed that that was real.

[Kenny Blakeney]

From our conversations and from the tone, absolutely, he believed this was real.

[Pablo Torre]

All summer, all NFL off season, really, I could not stop thinking about Brian, about the difference between desperation and delusion and mental health, about how sports ownership actually was kind of the perfect treasure hunt for Brian Davis, specifically, I mean, Dan Snyder, let's do the accounting here. Had drawn state and national and NFL investigations into his own sexual and financial misconduct. And that dude cashed in for a record $6 billion. Because, yeah, an NFL team is a money printing machine. It really is. It's a money printing machine that seems impossible to mess up, no matter how embarrassing or embarrassed you are, so long as you buy one. And now, after 25 years, Ryan Davis had to accept the reality that he never would. But then, out of nowhere, I got a text from Kenny Blakeney, a text that told me to check my email because Brian Davis was back. Weeks before Josh Harris would be formally introduced as the new owner of the Washington Commanders, Brian had forwarded Kenny a new email out of nowhere. It was the first he'd heard from him all month. And this email was an email that Brian had just sent to bank of America. Bank of America. The same bank that he had recently sued and been humiliated by in federal court.

[Kenny Blakeney]

The subject line, Washington Commander's backup Offer.

[Pablo Torre]

I asked if Kenny would read the rest.

[Kenny Blakeney]

Good morning and happy 4th of July. I wanted to follow up with you to inform your group that we have posted in excess of $10 billion at BNY Mellon in New York City. We would like to have the opportunity to escrow the capital in your account immediately. We would like to wire it after the holiday this coming week.

[Pablo Torre]

To be clear, there was zero acknowledgement anywhere in this email that Brian Davis had just sued these same exact people.

[Kenny Blakeney]

We would like to give Mr. Snyder 8.1 billion, 7.9 billion for the acquisition of the franchise, 100 million for the breakup fee for the other group, 70 million for Mr. And Mrs. And it.

[Pablo Torre]

Kept going like this. Brian was offering more and more money, more than ever before. And it was almost like he was trying to prove that humiliation only hurt if you let it. If you acknowledged it and that he, Brian Davis and his checks could still be redeemed.

[Kenny Blakeney]

Our bankers at BNY Mellon & Wells Fargo are available at any time to answer any of your questions. We look forward to hearing from you and thank you for your time and consideration.

[Pablo Torre]

And then Brian Davis signed off.

[Kenny Blakeney]

Warmest regards, Brian.

[Brian Davis]

All pirates.

[Pablo Torre]

Yesterday Rabbi sold out to the merchant ships minutes after they took Guy from the. So at the end of every episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out, I take the time to sit down at my computer and tell you what it is exactly that I found out today. And today, as we reflect upon this Russian nesting doll of scams, I should really start with this. Brian Davis is the single most relentless human being that I have ever personally encountered. Because in Brian's mind, the game is not never over, even when it is actually, obviously, undeniably over. I fully believe that Brian is still attempting to purchase a pro sports franchise as we speak. And I expect him to resurface one day with even taller tales, taking even bigger, bigger swings. And despite all the lies, despite all the alleged scams, or maybe really because of them, this story, to me is just as much about Mr. Demery, the man who I suspect scammed a scammer. And so it's about the untold other predators. Also the predators who are still hiding right now in the nooks and crannies of fraudulent documents and pump and dump schemes and reverse mergers and these various Potemkin financial services websites, all waiting to scam you and me. What I found out today, in the end, is this. If you dare to run a black light under the motel couch of the American economy, what you'll discover inevitably are these nuts with a Z. This has been Pablo Torre Finds Out, a show that has way more producers than David Sampson's show. And they are Michael Antonucci, Ryan Cortez, Sam Dawig, Patrick Kim, Neely Loman, Rachel Miller, Howard, Ethan Schreier, Carl Scott, Matt Sullivan, Chris Tominiello, complete with studio engineering by Viridian Tech, post production by ngw, post theme song by Gian Bravo and also Mike Ryan, Dan Levatart, Stugatz. Thank you to you guys. John Skipper, Bimal Kapadia, Jenny Rutherford, Frankie and Frankie's Gun shout out to you, Violet Torre. Who could forget Liz, my wife. I'm so sorry for being an absentee father.