Author's Statement
ANIMEME LLC
A Dissertation of Zack James
February 2nd, 2026
Written by koolaid4211
Author’s Statement
For clarification, this aspect of the document will be emotion based, all other entries will be based on available information unless stated. This document contains mentions of rape, suicide and has an archive of a pornagraphic video produced by Zack. If you are under the age of 18, do NOT under any circumstances play that video link.
I originally created a document on January 25th, 2026 with the pieces of information I found to be most damning, however within the time of the document’s release - Zack has made it clear that he will continue to lie through his teeth and so I’ve decided to unleash every bit of information I have collected. One mistake I made was switching back and forth using Brody and Zack interchangeably, but I will not be doing that this time. Every mention of “Brody Foxx” is going to be Zack’s name instead, since there is confusion on if Brock Baker is affiliated with that account (which he is not).
I am not someone to be quick to anger, but being told that my work was “misrepresentative”, “narrative driven”, “lying” or “faulty” I am going to respond by being so thorough that Zack cannot ignore it, as much as he inevitably will.
My goal throughout all of this is to make sure no animators have the chance to be hurt by Zack again, and to make him acknowledge what he did - I don’t want anymore lies where he misrepresents or hurts the same animators who built his empire, nor do I want him to avoid criticism like he always does. Again, I do this for the animators.
I won’t stop until Zack acknowledges the hurt he’s caused others.
And to Zack, if he even fully reads this document, I don’t fall for your lies or manipulative behavior and I know that angers you. You are a 36 year old man who has been time and time again picking on those you believe can’t fight back, and I am someone that constantly will fight back because I stand for justice. All you stand for is assets made by an artist you’ve demeaned over the past few years, and whatever makes people like you - because if they did know you, they’d see how truly pathetic you are. You don’t like knowing someone can fight back and give others the power to fight back, and so no matter what, I will continue to cover everything you do, say and I’ll make sure to archive everything you delete.
To the readers of this document, I encourage you to read through the entire work, analyze it, and make your own conclusion from there.
Zack James
Who is Zack James
Zack James is a 36 year old man and he originally had his own channel named OutbackZack, which he abandoned after he grew frustrated with how the platform was going (Zack James - Age, Bio, Family | Famous Birthdays). He was also part of a failed influencer business RISE9, which he ran with Alex Negrete (Meet the duo behind Rise9, the most exclusive club at VidCon, check ANIMEME LLC: A Disseration of Zack James's Legacy which is the section Doc Creation, UFOs and Message for Zack for the reason I didn’t elaborate more on this project).
As of 2026, he is the CEO of ANIMEME LLC, which was established in 2014 and has been inactive since 2024 - with no employees working under him since late 2023 to early 2024. He had a failed music career in 2021 (Zack James | Spotify), and his modern-day career is using X (formerly known as Twitter) to shill his cryptocurrency $Yo mama using the alias of Brody Foxx (the titular character from the Yo Mama animations), reuploading old compilations of work made by Redminus, and allegedly working for the government on AI regulation, but I could not find any public documentation of this, nor is it on his Linkedin profile, shown and linked here - Zack James - CEO at ANIMEME Studios | LinkedIn
This may be inaccurate however, as he has not posted since 3 years ago, which is also around the time a majority of his employees had left.
I could not find any documentation on his impact on AI regulation, other than Tweets/Reddit comments he made saying he “spoke with Congress” and is attempting to run for Congress, however this does not have any proven documentation publicly and so we can only rely on his words.
Yo Mama
Yo Mama
Yo Mama was a collaborative effort between Zack James, Alex Negrete and Redminus, with Redminus being the lead animator and working directly with Izzi8bit. The channel was created on September 18th, 2005 and has amassed over 5.23 million subscribers. The animations were made in Adobe Animate, with sound design done by Max Repka. Brock Baker voices the titular character Brody Foxx. Zack just owns the channel/X account.
The first episode was released on YouTube on June 8th, 2011.
This section will go over Zack’s treatment of his animators and the sexual content geared towards children.
The Animators and their Stories
The Animators and Their Stories
“Right? I just happen to have a conversation with this person that just happened to go in that direction… and it begs the question how many people out there- how many conversations that I won’t have with people could there be where Zack’s been running his mouth all over town just telling whoever the fuck he pleases right? More than zero, that’s for sure. I mean I know you told Brock and Max cause Izzi told me that - right away you just yap yap yap running your mouth like it’s your story to tell even though you know it’s not and then acting - the nerve of you to act like this is somehow something that I did to you. That is textbook narcissism and I think you should reflect on that. You should reflect on what it is that when you're caught doing something that you know you aren’t supposed to do, that you have no excuse for, that you sit there and think about why it's someone else’s fault - this is on you, and there is no excuse for it. There is no excuse for this breach of supposed friendship because a friend would not do this and then refuse to apologize and blame it on the other person, and there is no excuse for this breach of professional ethics and conduct, deeply, deeply unprofessional. There is no excuse for it. You can apologize if you want at this point you’ve made it pretty clear that the only thing that affects you is public embarrassment. And there’s plenty more coming your way, if you don’t keep my name out of your mouth.” - Redminus, 2025 in a leaked voice memo to Zack posted on the Brody Foxx account.
With this, I’ll be going over the two animators who worked under them: Izzi and Red (as those are both their respective screennames).
I’ll first cover Redminus, since Red has been very open about his experiences publicly with Zack.
Zack’s claim is that Red couldn’t meet deadlines, misled/misdirected the team, got upset because he explained to the team why his work was late and that he “only speaks for himself” …these parts are only discussed on the Brody Foxx account, while on the Zack James personal account he claims that his grievances are fair within reason.
Zack acknowledged that Red did tell him why his deliveries were late, and due to those circumstances it could be completely understandable why he may have missed deadlines and Zack should’ve respected that. Red is also allowed to leave his job if it is a hostile environment, and with him explaining his circumstances and still being hounded, it would make sense to find other work that would be less stressful with his situation. Red also does not need to share why he left his workplace publicly as that information is private and up to him to share.
If you agree his grievances are fair within reason, you should be able to acknowledge that you aren’t owed an explanation as to why someone leaves or why someone is upset.
If we compare Red’s statements to Zack’s, we see a consistent pattern where Red lists:
- There were no deadlines for the projects he worked on, and if there were, Zack would consistently miss them.
- Zack paid for the rights to the IP, but not the assets themselves.
- Zack leaked Red’s personal affairs to a drama YouTuber and his fellow coworkers, which was against his wishes.
- If we are to take the law into consideration, by blasting Red and sharing his personal details, Zack can be sued for that, especially since he still leaks that information to this day.
- Red has not engaged with Zack publicly since leaving the studio, while Zack constantly mentions Red as his more difficult animator.
- Zack has barely used these assets for anything, including any new animation. The latest use is seemingly his shady cryptocurrency site.
Another noteworthy thing is Zack mentioning Red deleting Tweets, which is incredibly hypocritical when Zack deletes a majority of his, while Red has a primarily art focused page and professionally for an artist, it’s better to focus on the artwork you create rather than constantly fighting online. In fact, one such Tweet he deleted was him revealing the location Red lives because Zack was convinced I was him and he threatened legal action. To clarify, no Zack, I am a 20 year old woman. I’m not Red.
If we are to analyze both Red’s statement and Zack’s, the picture shows an employee who had his personal details leaked and with all this stress over his head, left a terrible environment with his employer still berating and lying about him to this day.
This is not the worst treatment an employee of his has gotten however. I would like to share the entirety of Izzi’s statement which will start on the next page. I removed the images included in the statement mainly to have it less intense in length. Her statement was from 2023.
“Greetings Izzib8it faithful, I am so thankful so many of you stayed with me despite the huge unannounced hiatus. Going forward, the Izzi8bit Patreon, socials, discord, and youtube will be converted to Pumpkin Dragon! Why? Well, despite having a strong focus on pixel art, I also want to explore other mediums and thought Izzi8bit was too limiting. It'll still be my handle on social as a personal brand, while Pumpkin Dragon will be my professional brand! Maybe even be a studio of its own. I was the entire visual production team at ANIMEME for a few years... why not... just start my own? I am not going to justify going on an unplanned hiatus, as I am truly sorry for those who supported me during this time with no content, and while I'm trying not to excuse it, I do want to offer an explanation. Also, I am open to suggestions on how to make this up to you all who stuck around.
So What Happened? (TW Suicide)
Last Year I moved to San Diego to be with my wonderful domestic partner Chanelle. Soon I realized that I miscalculated my budget and things got rough. Then I got covid from Momocon, lost my prescription to Pristiq, and started going through dangerous withdrawals, was getting down with all the anti-trans registration getting thrown out there left and right and the one thing that I hadn't talked too much about on Twitter was a big factor was my job. I was miserable and losing myself in a resentful depression. You may have noticed this last year I haven't produced much personal art, and even more, eagle-eye people might notice my output of personal art picked back up after leaving ANIMEME.
I was very miserable at ANIMEME Studios, it's not a great work environment. The workers are constantly misled, the producer uses personal grudges in professional meetings, and there's a lot of stuff I had to fight from happening such as Yo Mama (Asian/race) jokes. My ethics, values, and intent rarely lined up with the companies. Which is run exclusively through one man's ego and is currently on the verge of going under because of it. All the work wasn't to build IPs to be proud of, it was all so that this one person can brag and promote himself with the hard work others did.
I was told that the studio needed to convert to a web3 studio or shut down. So holding my job over my head, I did ask for 3x my rate to go against my ethics to work on NFTs, and he agreed to get what he wanted. But as usual, he didn't honor that agreement, moved it behind the success goal, and now I was working on a thing I hate, which could've got me blacklisted from the art community and had nothing to show for it. I resented myself for allowing this dude to constantly lie to my face, but I needed that stable income...
I did try looking for jobs on Linkedin, but couldn't find anything that paid well enough or was interested in me. And I gave up. This is my life, this is all I am good for. I'm only good enough to trace memes and make thoughtless maternal insults, and NFTs. I tried working on stuff like Bowser World to counter its balance, but I was just so tired and unmotivated after working on ANIMEME stuff all day. I almost didn't want to be an animator anymore, I barely wanted to live. At one point I was researching life insurance policies hoping I could give my partner a better life... She didn't deserve this depressed shell of a person.
So basically.. I stop having the will to live or to create. I did try to do video essays as a way to still be creative without drawing, but even though couldn't get myself to stay with it.
Getting Laid Off
Eventually, things did get a little better at ANIMEME, because the company was able to convince their Youtube MCN to a big $250K grant for a cut of ad rev for a few years. And because my producer was expecting to get a huge payout from the NFTS, specifically half a million dollars, he started carelessly spending and I got life-changing raise AND I got to direct something worthy of my skills, the Furby Chucky Short.
Small tangent, I really hate that because he didn't have any involvement with the Chucky short, he did absolutely no promotion for it, he buried it behind a bunch of traced memes and a Family Guy skit about how Disney bought fox (5 years too late my dude) and Peter lets a homeless guy rape Meg (the Sonic short also had sexual assault as a joke too). And after that, he still had the balls to purposely leave out my Director credit and give himself a writer credit, directly and indirectly, a director credit for the whole video. Asshole.
Then the week of hell happened. I had drama from the Pizza Party fallout, I got sexually assaulted and had to end my valentines vacation early, and when I got home I was let go of my job of 12 years. So ANIMEME's money ran out and to keep the company afloat the owner had to lay off his production staff so that he coast off what was left til he can trick some Venture Capitol into thinking that his clearly failing company is worth investing in.
I was given 2 weeks to produce a decent Trans Harry Potter short I pitched, but the following work day he wanted me to switch over to work on NFT assets. I asked him why I hadn't received my royalties for the previous mint (it was a failure, but I'm still supposed to get 4-5% of sales) and it had been 2-3 months since he received the money and the artist haven't seen our payment. He said he was instructed by his tax to hold payments and then implied that if I wanted to ensure payment I needed to get a lawyer to take care of an unrelated contract. I've never signed a contract for the company and legally still own all of my work and assets. In fact, none of his animators have. He's bad at business.
I'm out. I quit that day and gave up the needed 2 weeks of pay. Now for the first time in 12 years... I am unemployed.
What Now?
I am looking for a potential industry job and I have a few leads. But it's gonna take a lot of time to get my portfolio and reel to a point that makes it appealing to people who hire. Almost everyone with who I worked in the past is willing to work with me to help me get myself off the ground, many for free. Red Minus did the lettering for my logo, Max is doing the sound design, Angela is doing the backgrounds, and my voice actors are willing to work with me just because they like the characters I write.
So I figured I would restart my Youtube channel, partially in the hopes of monetization to get myself some kind of income. It would help me build my portfolio by documenting the process of character designs, storyboarding, and pixel art.
I do have a few leads as I mentioned, and almost all of them are extremely exciting. They're just all gambles or waiting out for something.
Future Projects
- Pixel & Bits - I want to spend time creating minute or less pixelated shorts for Twitter, Youtube Shorts, etc. The goal is to compile these shorts into one show "Pixel & Bits". The shorts will bring in subscribers and be fast to produce due to the length of the content, and after getting 10 minutes worth of shorts I'll rerender in 16:9 and brand them Pixel & Bits. Later I'll do this again when I have an hour's worth of content. This is pretty much the only sustainable way to maintain an animation channel on Youtube without having a workforce to back it.
- Untitled Trans Support - I want to create a library of admiration, advice, and encouragement for the trans community who are struggling. Suicide rates are up and after being someone who was on the verge.. I want to do something. So I'll be creating a website and Youtube channel that will take real people's words and animate them into approachable cartoons. I just want whatever trans kid who couldn't convince themselves to bother someone in a time of need to have something out there that can remind them that despite all the hate there are people who care and want you to live.
- Two Sugars - I want to eventually animate a single scene for my original story Two Sugars. It is an adult cartoon about two sapphic women exploring an alternative lifestyle, superficially s power exchange dynamic. The goal is to take this taboo subject like Kink and show the more wholesome and romantic side of the people involved. How they support each other in their own ways. I've drawn these two characters and put them out there and people really gel with it. An animation friend I deeply admire looked at my concept art and flat-out says, "This is your strength".
I'm not foolish enough to try and create a full pilot, but I can write and direct a scene as a proof of concept.
The Thank You's & Promises
I can't promise you the world, but I can promise a few changes to ensure that you get something out of your support. And I can't thank you enough for listening to me ramble and offering financial support. Especially to those who have been with me for a while. You're amazing. Thank you.
To ensure that I don't let this Patreon go to waste side again, I am enlisting my domestic partner Chanelle to be a pseudo-producer and help me "manage" myself. I'll be creating some kind of schedule of updates so that there is a reasonable expectation. And I will be pretty active with WIP and previews using the official Pumpkin Dragon discord. My schedule might be just compiling a gallery of upsets from the week for those who aren’t as interested in Discord servers.
If you choose to support me, I will do anything and everything in my power to not let you down again.”(Updates, Thanks you, and Promises | Pumpkin Dragon)
Zack claims she left due to turning off the Yo Mama pipeline, and that she was awful to work with. His statement is here:
There are multiple instances of this statement that make Zack look worse:
- In response to a statement about one of his employees nearly killing herself, Zack makes her out to be an abusive and vindictive person, when Izzi has been very distanced from the internet and avoids speaking about her experience working at ANIMEME LLC publicly aside from this post.
- Why was Zack in the personal space of his employee? If she felt safe enough to speak about her experience in her Discord server, that implies that Zack was using an alternate account to spy on her which makes it worse that he read her story and continues to spin her like a villain. This seemingly happens with Red as well, as if his Tweets are deleted quite fast, how do you know he’s making those statements?
- Zack makes himself out to be the one affected when a statement is made public, saying it impacted his mental health in a very basic way, while Izzi’s statement is drawn from so much baggage that it is criminal to paint her as the bad one in this.
- If what Zack is saying is true, then why did Red help her with her logo? If Red complains about her to the extent you say, then why is he still actively supporting her new projects and her career? If she was supposedly this bad, why would everyone who knows Izzi be so nice about her.
- Both Red and Izzi discuss issues with payment, both claim it took a long time to be paid (if at all) so we have these two stories that corroborate each other when it comes to the payment aspect.
Since making the original document, Izzi has made a statement in regards to the post and document:
I want to specifically highlight this point;
“Okay, so Zack accused me of making the men on the team uncomfortable, Which is weird considering I am on good terms with everyone except for Zack. For example, Max and I collaborate often! He did music+SFX for my clown game!”
This point of mine is purely speculative so take it with a grain of salt, however Izzi is the only openly transfemme animator who has worked under him. Zack alleges that she “made everyone uncomfortable”, “wasn’t friendly”, “walked on eggshells around her” when most of her colleagues who worked at ANIMEME have done work with her including Brock Baker who’s done some voice work for her projects. Zack is the only person who is alleging any of this bad behavior and this reads as transphobia leaking into how he treats/discusses Izzi.
He actively paints this picture of a terrible employee and nobody has corroborated that claim and most in fact went against that claim entirely.
Then another aspect is crediting.
Zack has scrubbed their names from being credited on the main channel since the final volume of Yo Mama released. In the newer compilations, there are no end credits and no intro highlighting their talents. For a while, he switched from their names to ANIMEME and attempted to have the works labelled as Zack James Productions, and seemingly wants to erase them from the history of the channel. Zack has become synonymous with the brand and therefore most think he is Brock Baker, or that he animates that work.
He does acknowledge the animators sometimes, but that’s if he gets into a situation where he has to address them.
Statement to Izzi
I’m deeply apologetic for throwing you into this mess. I didn’t expect myself to do all of this research until I saw that statement of yours. That statement fueled my drive to do the right thing and to make sure Zack wouldn’t hurt more artists, and I hope that with my actions I’ve had that happen. I am someone who very much values artists, and seeing the way he treated you and Red made my blood boil - and so I made sure to keep track of his lies because you’re someone that didn’t deserve those actions that he did to you. I hope that I haven’t brought back any more pain, and that I’m able to bring forth some positivity with getting people to look at your art instead of what work you regret. I’m glad that I was introduced to your work.
Current Projects
I wanted to highlight and bring attention to the animators' next big projects, since I failed to do so last time and I wanted to show more support.
Izzi created a demo for the game Just-A-Jest, a 8-bit side-scrolling platformer which is on both Itch.io and Newgrounds! Her post about it is here, which I highly encourage you to support and play (Post by @izzi8bit.bsky.social) - I urge you not to see her as an animator for this channel but someone pushing out some really amazing original works.
RedMinus now does work on Lythero’s channel, along with his own little bits of personal art. I encourage you all to look at his work, since he’s able to be a lot more creative now than he ever was on the Yo Mama account (redminus - YouTube).
Just because these artists had a job that made them do this work, it doesn’t mean we should dismiss how much hard work they put into this channel and the Yo Mama legacy as a whole. They built his empire after all.
The Content/Audience
The Content and Audience
The content of Yo Mama, along with ANIMEME studios is quite sexual, offensive and inappropriate considering the main demographic of his content is children.
This image was one of the jokes found in this content YO MAMA so Ugly! ZombiesThere’s also thumbnails and content like this:
Now compare that to the comments section:
It’s obvious that mainly children are watching this content, which baffles me considering that Zack had an episode that was hosted on PornHub as a clapback to the YouTuber Memeuluous’s light criticism, which included the YouTuber jacking off and cumming all over his mother, which cuts to his mother sucking the dick of a man on a toilet while ImAlexx watches from the window while masturbating. The video only got deleted AFTER PornHub implemented ID verification. An archive of this video was posted on r/Memeulous, posted here (The Memeulous Yo Mama Joke), which can count as sexual harassment due to it being based off of a real person’s mother and it being incredibly uncomfortable and disturbing to watch. There have been accounts of minors who have seen this exact video.
As much as Zack can claim ignorance, it does not negate the fact of there being children watching these videos due to using IPs like Baldi, FNF, FNAF, Poppy’s Playtime, Object Show, Uncle Grandpa, Teen Titans Go, SML, Roblox and many more IPs that attract a younger audience, which makes it especially worrying that Zack is now trying to have children buy his cryptocurrency.
Cryptocurrency/NFT Scandal
Cryptocurrency and NFTs, 2026
(1/22/26) - Zack posted about the Yo mama pump.fun coin which had statements such as “Today, a group reached out to me after creating yet another Yo Mama meme coin. It was made without my knowledge, already dumped, and I had nothing to do with it.”
This statement of his was a lie. Zack was approached on 1/21/26, responded on 1/22/26 and was directly involved in pumping the coin as he was paid upfront. We know this thanks to the original poster who leaked private messages with Zack sharing his wallet. He was paid 10k and he is the admin of the coin and the fees receiver. Zack, however messed up the pump leading him to get backlash from the cryptobros he was desperately wanting to impress.
Zack’s wallet is: GQ6cENi8L6E4svCTcebN4peUtve8hNRvrubdT8aKVYvm
In that same wallet, it was discovered he used some of the funds for Solana lootbox gambling.
“They then randomly offered to send me the trading fees for using my brand. No promotion was asked for. They just sent it.” his first statement said, shown here:
This statement was made a day after he was approached. With him later following up stating:
He has since promoted the coin non-stop, creating several articles to advertise the coin to his audience.
You can read both articles here:
He’s also doubled down on it, now collaborating with the Solana trading company Trojan:
During this time, he’s alleged to stop a woman from being raped, if that is the case - it is incredibly convenient that he mentions this after he started getting into deep controversy. If this is real, Zack is using a woman’s sexual assault to make himself look better. If this is false, Zack is using the concept of a woman’s suffering to get out of controversy. He used this same post in his crypto community tab:
What makes this ironic is that during this time he told a woman this:
He has since doubled down on this statement, saying she doesn’t deserve respect because she is a right winger (this Tweet has since been deleted):
Earlier Attempts in the Market
Zack’s first times showing interest in the crypto market was in 2021, where he began discussing NFTs and creating Slimy Mama NFTs, citing that:
Only four exist, and are now worth 53 cents (or 0.0003 ETH).
A few months later, Zack would state
Then in 2022, that’s when Zack began to look into producing more WEB3 content along with discussing what legal precedents need to be set for that content
He began discussing his employees as purely assets to his company
And then, he released a teaser for the ANIMEME Lab NFT
(Note, only wave one has happened. It was a massive failure.)
He had more than one collection however, one of them being DEKOH, which was a limited project with very few NFTs made.
The next year he kept working within the NFT community to shill “his” work
He even drew his NFTs
He eventually stopped posting on the ANIMEME Labs account in 2024, around the same time all of his employees left him, with the ANIMEME Labs Discord seemingly shutting down for good.
$Yo Mama Lounge Chatlogs
Yo Mama Lounge
Video Recording: Brody Foxx's Crypto ChatLogs
Drive of Screenshots: Brody Foxx Crypto GC
More Screenshots: Brody Foxx/Yo Mama Photos
How I Got In
I made a fake alternate account in order to infiltrate the space, I collected messages for several days, and I still check here and there. Any new images are likely to be uploaded in the drive folder. This section is short because I don’t feel like it’s necessary to just upload every single image I have in this document to lengthen it more than it already is.
Observations
There’s been a lot of fighting and uncertainty with the group, since Zack isn’t posting as much as he should for this kind of project, since every attempt has either been deleted or has gotten severe negative attention. Some of the members in this chat are minors mixed in with men in their 20s and 30s, which leads to racial slurs being thrown around often.
Most times they’ll send a post and beg everyone in the group to interact with it.
Modern Day Controveries
Zack’s Modern Day Controversies
In this section I will be breaking down a few of his newest controversies and elaborating on some of the research I found.
Response to Allegations for Connections to REGISTERED AGENTS LLC
Zack first responded to my allegations of his connection to REGISTERED AGENTS LLC with this statement (which he later deleted)
This is Semaphore’s website
Semaphore is not listed on ANY of the legal documentation of ANIMEME LLC, this information is publicly available via the official California Secretary of State Business lookup.
The address listed is the Registered Agents Inc headquarters which hosts thousands of other businesses.
I’ve included the entire Wired article regarding this company right here:
“Inside a drab one-story office building in Post Falls, Idaho, a little-known American company has built the machinery that enables hundreds of thousands of businesses to operate in near-total secrecy. The company, Registered Agents Inc., is a one-stop shop for people seeking to incorporate a business in any US state, often in those with advantageous tax policies, while obscuring their identities. According to five former employees of Registered Agents Inc. or its subsidiaries, the company routinely incorporates thousands of businesses on behalf of its customers using fake personas. Former Registered Agents Inc. employees say that the company’s widespread use of personas is an outgrowth of its founder’s obsession with privacy and a desire to push the boundaries of incorporation laws.
The registered agent industry, which incorporates businesses and acts as a point of contact for legal notices, is already effective at masking the identity of who owns a company. Registered agents have many legitimate uses, and states often require that a company have a registered agent. In some instances, however, these services have benefited “oligarchs, criminals, and online scammers,” according to a 2022 investigation by The Washington Post and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Experts say a lack of adequate federal and state regulations of registered agents helps to make the United States a hotbed for money-laundering and other shady business dealings.
In a typical scenario, a registered agent would incorporate a company on behalf of a customer. An employee of the registered agent company would list their name on the incorporation documents, sometimes providing the company’s email address and office as contact information. That process provides business owners one layer of secrecy, preventing anyone who looks at state records from determining the real owner of a company.
Registered Agents Inc., according to the former employees, routinely goes one step further, incorporating companies in the names of fictional personas created by the company’s founder, Dan Keen. It’s unclear what benefit Registered Agents Inc. or its customers receive when a company is incorporated by a fake identity.
Around the country, at least 1,463 companies incorporated by Registered Agents Inc. list a woman named Riley Park as an organizer or agent, according to a WIRED analysis of publicly available incorporation documents. But Riley Park isn’t a real person, the former employees say. She’s one of multiple fake personas used by Registered Agents Inc. Former employees identified at least 10 fake personas used by the company, including David Roberts, Drake Forester, and Morgan Noble.
Using business records made public by OpenCorporates, a website that shares and standardizes information sourced from business registries around the world, WIRED found 36,257 business listing company officers who share names that former employees say are fake. At least 3,735 of these businesses’ incorporation paperwork references Registered Agents Inc., either explicitly in the paperwork or by using an address known to former employees as belonging to Registered Agents Inc.
WIRED’s analysis found that these companies are registered in 20 different states and appear to provide services ranging from law enforcement training to landscaping. Many of these companies with officers using an alleged fake name were registered to addresses known by sources to belong to Registered Agents Inc. For example, six allegedly fake names were listed as officers for 887 of businesses registered to the same address in Sheridan, Wyoming—an office of Registered Agents Inc.
This is likely an undercount. WIRED looked specifically for company records indicating that Registered Agents Inc. incorporated the company alongside at least one of a dozen false names provided by sources. We additionally looked for companies registered by these same false names associated with addresses previously utilized by Registered Agents Inc. for incorporating thousands of other companies. Sources believe the true number is likely much higher.
Registered Agents Inc. declined to fully answer WIRED’s detailed set of questions about its business practices.
“To put it plainly, your assertions in this question set are outdated and patently wrong about Registered Agents Inc.,” the company said in a statement. “Therefore, at this time Registered Agents Inc. will provide no comment as it is apparent that you, Wired and its editors attempt [to] fit a pre-arranged narrative through publishing false facts and other blatant lies.”
Registered Agents Inc. says that it has offices in every state in the US and in Washington, DC, allowing it to offer its customers the ability to register a business anywhere. Many of those offices are small outfits located near state government offices, so its employees can easily submit paperwork. (The Sheridan office is located just a block away from city hall.)
Registered Agents Inc. has expanded beyond incorporation services, building custom software to manage entire businesses. Last year, it acquired Epik, a domain registrar and web hosting company that had previously catered to far-right extremists.
Much of the company’s high-level operations and development take place in the Pacific Northwest, including Spokane, Washington, and Post Falls, Idaho. The company has two major subsidiaries: Two Barrels LLC, which develops software, and Corporate Tools LLC, which enables its customers to manage the filings of multiple businesses.
“Somebody will hire [Registered Agents Inc.] to create an LLC, and then [Registered Agents Inc. will] sign all that paperwork with fake identities and submit it to the Secretary of State,” says Mikhail Slyusarev, who worked as a senior software engineer at the company for more than six years. “There’s no oversight, you're not really answering to anybody, and you’re just making shit up.”
On July 29, 2015, Registered Agents Inc. updated the name listed on its own incorporation documents it had filed with the Wyoming secretary of state. While Keen had previously signed as president and registered agent of the company, the new registered agent for the company was a man named Bill Havre.
Registered Agent Inc.’s website featured a vivid yarn detailing Havre’s life story, according to an archived version of the site from December 2021. Havre grew up on a small ranch in Wyoming and studied medicine at the University of California, Berkeley in the early 1970s, the bio read. But shortly after enrolling in classes, Havre returned home to Wyoming to tend to a family emergency, eventually starting his own businesses in the state.
“After gaining some insight into the nature of starting a business, Mr. Havre was intrigued by the business entity formation process, particularly concerned by what at the time seemed exorbitant fees paid to attorneys to complete and file corporate formation documents,” the website said.
Havre was once listed on Registered Agent Inc.’s website as the company’s president and executive director. Havre has helped register 491 companies with Registered Agents Inc., WIRED found. He’s also an entirely fabricated persona, five former employees say, an invention of Dan Keen.
That 2015 document is the earliest recorded instance of the company using fake names identified by WIRED. Havre’s name was removed from the company’s website in 2022 following inquiries from The Washington Post and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
The Wyoming incorporation paperwork viewed by WIRED includes the full text of the state law against filing a false document, reminding registrants that doing so may be a felony punishable by up to two years in prison and a $2,000 fine. Former employees say that customers of Registered Agents Inc. typically aren’t aware that a fake name is used to sign their company’s incorporation documents.
Provided a copy of the Wyoming incorporation document, experts say using a fake person would likely violate the law. “This does look like it requires a real person to sign—Riley Park would seemingly be in violation,” says Gary Kalman, the executive director of Transparency International US, an anti-corruption group.
Former Registered Agents Inc. employees allege that Keen justified using fake names by saying it was a way to protect employees from being drawn into legal battles and being forced to testify about the company’s customers.
The laws for incorporating companies in America are decided at the state level, allowing a prospective business owner to shop around based on tax advantages, anonymity rules, and other considerations. Many state offices don’t fully investigate filings to determine if the signatories are legitimate, former employees of Registered Agents Inc. say.
“There is no federal requirement, there is no state-level requirement that these registered agents have any code of ethics. There’s no anything,” says Sarah Beth Felix, an expert on financial transparency. “For being essential gatekeepers to legitimize businesses, they’re grossly unregulated.”
Former employees say that the registered agents industry benefits from relaxed incorporation laws in states like Wyoming and Montana, where registering a completely anonymous company is as simple as paying a registered agent service as little as $200. That makes the US an appealing location for illicit financial activity even before the added layer of opacity by a registered agent.
According to two former employees, the company doesn’t screen to see if its customers are real people, or even if their email addresses are legitimate. Former employees say they raised concerns about not knowing the true identity of all of their customers to company leadership, but were dismissed. Experts and former employees said that verifying the identity of its customers is often not required for registered agents.
“You could say your name was Billy Bob and your email was BillyBob123, and we would have created an LLC for you,” the former software developer says.
“Dan takes it almost to an extreme. He tries to maximize what the laws allow in each state,” says Don Evans, who worked in a chief technical officer role at the company. “If people find ways to use his services that are in the gray area, he would turn a cheek to it.”
Since 2008, Dan Keen has grown his business from a small company serving customers in the Pacific Northwest to a major national player in what’s known as the corporate formation industry. The company and its competitors offer the ability to incorporate a business in the state of a customer’s choosing and receive mail and legal notices.
Keen started the company after running a tree trimming and landscaping business. Former employees said Keen worked tirelessly to build the business, often sending emails at all hours of the night.
“Dan put in a lot of effort, he worked nonstop,” says Matt MacKenzie, who worked as a legal compliance specialist for more than 11 years and was one of the company’s earliest employees.
When the company was a small upstart, Keen regularly listed his name on the formation documents of the company and its various subsidiaries in states across America. “It wasn't until down the road a couple years later, where he started wanting to use full-on fake names and take his name off all the corporate paperwork for Registered Agents Inc.,” MacKenzie says.
Keen is described by former employees as a driven but eccentric businessman who is prone to micromanagement and sudden shifts in mood. Keen dresses modestly, former employees say, wearing shorts and flannel shirts, and is an avid skier and outdoorsman.
Keen often took a passive aggressive approach with his staff, according to six former employees. Two recounted Keen begrudgingly offering health care plans to employees after being told it was required by the Affordable Care Act, allegedly telling his staff they were “whiners and complainers” for asking for it.
Multiple former employees described Keen as “inappropriate,” saying he often made comments about employees' physical appearance. Two former employees described him as making misogynistic statements, which allegedly included making sexual comments about women and frequently questioning their ability to perform their job.
Several former employees questioned the high-security nature of the office, which they say was filled with security cameras and required them to lock their cell phones in boxes. Slyusarev, Registered Agents Inc.’s former senior software engineer, says the phone system, which he says he installed, was capable of surreptitiously recording employee phone calls.
Former employees say that Keen chafed at government regulations and exercised complete control over the company and its operations. Keen has no website or social media profiles and doesn't give interviews about his business.
“He thinks people are out to get him, or out to get the company,” Evans, the former senior employee, claims.
Details about its inner workings, including the ownership and management structure, are concealed from employees, who say they were discouraged from discussing it at the office. And the practice of using fake personas extends even to Registered Agents Inc.’s own workers.
When Don Evans began interviewing at Registered Agents Inc., he recalled first speaking over LinkedIn with Diane Brunner, who identified herself as a recruiter at the company. When he arrived at the office for an interview, he asked to speak with Brunner and was told nobody by that name works at the company.
Jack Stephenson, who claims to be a vice president and client relations director at Registered Agents Inc. on LinkedIn, is another fake persona, employees say. Stephenson frequently comments on the registered agents industry on LinkedIn. He lists a Bachelor of Business Administration from Utah State University on his profile, but an official from the university told WIRED they couldn’t find any records pertaining to Jack Stephenson.”
The full article is paywalled, but this information is highly important to this discussion, so I pasted it in this document, please support the original writing here: Inside Registered Agents Inc., the Shadowy Firm Pushing the Limits of Business Privacy | WIRED
Another story revolving this company (also on Wired, also paywalled) is here:
“For years, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been unraveling what it asserts is a scam perpetrated by agents of North Korea, which used fake companies employing real IT workers to funnel money back to the regime’s military.
An American company played a key role in creating shell companies used as part of the scheme, a WIRED review of public records shows. Elected officials are now contemplating addressing loopholes in business-registration law that the scheme exposed.
In May, Wyoming secretary of state Chuck Gray revoked the business licenses of three companies linked to the North Korean scam: Culture Box LLC, Next Nets LLC, and Blackish Tech LLC. Gray said his office made the decision after receiving information from the FBI and conducting an investigation.
“The communist, authoritarian Kim Jong Un regime has no place in Wyoming,” Gray said in a May press release.
The companies posed as legitimate operations where businesses could hire contract workers to perform IT solutions, complete with fake websites featuring smiling photos of apparent employees. The companies all had one thing in common: Their incorporation documents were filed by a company called Registered Agents Inc., which says its global headquarters is in Sheridan, Wyoming.
Registered Agents, which provides incorporation services in every US state, takes the practice of business privacy to the extreme, and regularly uses fake personae to file formation documents with state agencies, a WIRED investigation previously found.
Culture Box LLC, one of the companies that Gray and the FBI linked to North Korea, listed “Riley Park” as the name of a Registered Agents employee on documents submitted to the Wyoming secretary of state. Park, according to several former employees of Registered Agents, is a fake persona that the company regularly used to file incorporation documents.
In a statement provided to WIRED, Registered Agents wrote, “The Wyoming Secretary of State dissolved the entities and we initiated the 30-day process to resign as their agent in mid-May. Ours and Wyoming's processes to identify bad actors works. It strikes the best balance of individual privacy and business transparency supported by an entire ecosystem that cares about supporting entrepreneurs while rooting out the small percent of scammers.” The FBI’s St. Louis office, which led the investigation, did not respond to a request for comment.
The North Korean operation worked like this: Agents of the regime created fake companies purporting to be legitimate firms offering freelance IT services. Workers hired by North Koreans, or North Koreans themselves, would then perform legitimate contractor work, often using assumed identities.
In some instances, Americans would set up low-cost laptops with remote-access software, allowing North Korean workers to perform freelance IT work while appearing to use American IP addresses. The FBI referred to these Americans as “virtual assistants.”
The payments for the IT work were eventually funneled back to North Korea—where, the Department of Justice asserts, it was directed to the country’s Ministry of Defense and other agencies involved in WMD work. The scheme was so expansive that any company that hired freelance IT workers “more than likely” hired someone involved in the operation, according to FBI agent Jay Greenberg.
The shell companies created in Wyoming were used to hire virtual assistants and receive payments.
“I discovered that North Korean IT workers create and use domain names and limited liability companies (LLCs) in furtherance of their fraudulent activity and to mask their true identities as North Koreans. The LLCs are used to recruit ‘Virtual Assistants’ who can receive and ship devices needed for the North Korean IT workers as well as recruit and employ software developers from countries such as Pakistan, India, and China,” an FBI agent wrote in a May affidavit. “These LLCs are often registered in the United States through business registry services and sometimes use the identities of individuals who had a previous relationship with North Korean IT workers.”
The affidavit alleges that money from North Korean workers was used to purchase domain names for the IT front companies, in violation of sanctions laws. The domains were purchased using “payment service providers” with accounts belonging to the Wyoming companies.
In response to a request for comment from WIRED, the Wyoming secretary of state’s office said that it has “increased the number of complete, in-person audits of commercial registered agents, resulting in several ongoing investigations, as well as the issuance of findings and orders.”
The secretary of state has offered proposals to the Wyoming state legislature “aimed at preventing fraud and abuse of corporate filings by commercial registered agents, as ways to strengthen the Wyoming secretary of state's administrative authority to dissolve business entities controlled by foreign adversaries,” said Joe Rubino, the chief policy officer and general counsel at the Wyoming Secretary of State's Office.” (Original article here: A US Company Enabled a North Korean Scam That Raised Money for WMDs | WIRED)
When I discussed Zack’s involvement with REGISTERED AGENTS INC, I highlighted that due to their links of fraud. I mentioned the other aspect (being the links to 8Chan/Kiwifarms) as mainly something ironic (i.e, he expresses leftist politics yet lets a company that hosted these domains. This company Zack owns has not had a statement of information made since 2024, around when he stopped using Animeme Labs
Animeme Token LLC, also has a similar story, using LegalZoom and names that are already attributed to several other businesses that stopped around the time the NFTs went nowhere for him.
Zack’s copyrights for both “Yo Mama” and “Animeme” are under the ANIMEME LLC company, and due to the company being inactive, the only way he can prove he’s still using these copyrighted terms is with reuploading that old content. It’s even more ironic since the copyright expires this year (for ANIMEME, the Yo Mama one was made in 2023).
It’s since been revealed Zack will not be releasing new Yo Mama content.
Zack’s Legal Threats to 17 Year Olds/His Former Animator/Me
Some of the animation assets for the Yo Mama channel got leaked by user M3MO, who worked under Zack for a brief amount of time due to Zack trying to create a Friday Night Funkin mod for Yo Mama (which is the second time he attempted that).
At first, Zack thought this was done by Redminus, and was under the impression I was an alt account of Red’s, leading to Zack leaking some of Red’s information and threatening legal action.
During this he also threatened to sue animator LeDerpSilly, a 17 year old from Canada:
He later backtracked on all of this due to the backlash.
The “Commission”
On 2/4/26, this post was made by the same animator who leaked some of the assets. Included was a screenshot of the original conversation, along with a conversation RedMinus had with the animator.
Originally when I had covered this, I was under the impression that this was a commission, however I was wrong and it was a tip. However, Zack did say he would pay a tip of 30 dollars and then ghosted the artist.
Zack now has been attacking the artist, using their poor wording against them.
Zack also claimed to have never gotten those payment details when he did.
Zack has since paid multiple other artists 30 dollars instead of the original artist.
His Social Media Presence
Zack’s Social Media
This section will touch on Zack and how he uses social media, along with the hypocrisy of how he expresses his opinions or uses the same technology that he is outwardly against on the BrodyFoxx account.
His Hidden Channels
Zack Steals Content and Reuploads It on Secret Accounts
This is something not many have discussed. Zack uses other people’s content and makes money off of it, which is ironic considering Zack is in the Jacksfilms Discord server. I’ve included those posts here:
His Political Discourse
Zack and His Political Discourse
Zack uses his leftism to farm engagement. He claims to get distracted when discussing actively going out to combat real issues, when that can be further from the truth.
Zack used a teenager’s suicide for this. He says he wishes he did more, but the day she killed herself was the day after he was supposed to protest.
He fought with those who grieved as well. Those people he fought with were grieving teenagers.
He hasn’t done much to be an actual activist.
Zack would rather dunk on things on social media, even if it leads to severe harassment for the party that can’t defend itself.
Some of his statements feel wrong after comparing it to how he actually does treat others (see the section on animators, for example)
Zack grifts off of the suffering of the left, specifically trans youth who want a place to be heard and to be safe. He earns revenue off of this, a lot in fact. He acknowledges it's a grift. He does this for profit, and quite a massive bit of it. He ripped off a 17 year old out of 30 dollars, yet he earns nearly thousands of dollars from Twitter.
Doc Creation, UFOs and Message for Zack
The Creation of this Document
In this section, I’ll be first going over the timeline of events:
1/24/26:
I discovered the cryptocurrency scandal Zack was going through, and I ended up posting a Tweet showing sympathy for the main character designer of the Yo Mama franchise Redminus. This eventually led to me digging deeper into the history of the company.
1/25/26:
I started work on the document “The Real Brody Foxx (Zack James)” which I worked on until February 2nd, published that same day. I began documenting Zack’s Tweets, including the ones that would eventually get deleted. I reached out to Coffeezilla, and gave him some of the evidence I gathered.
1/26/26:
I dug into his personal Twitter feed, I grabbed anything that would relate to his NFTs. I also found Izzy’s Patreon post, which led me to dig deeper into statements he made about his animators. I attempted to reach out to Zack on the Brody Foxx account, but there was no response.
1/27/26:
Izzy’s statement about her potentially still owning the rights to her animations had me look into the legal documentation of ANIMEME LLC and the legal documentation.
1/28/26:
I started reaching out to others involved with ANIMEME LLC, including attempting contact with the attorney/correspondant on record for clarification on things, however he did not get back to me. I also gathered information on the agents on file, which led to the link to that shady company.
1/29/26:
I attempted to reach out to Zack on Discord, and I got no response. I also checked into ANIMEME TOKEN LLC, but I didn’t go further into it until the next day. I infiltrate his crypto chat and begin gathering documentation.
1/30/26:
I reached out to Zack on both his personal Twitter and his email account, and I got no response. I discovered the link between LegalZoom and ANIMEME TOKEN LLC, and matched the dates between when his crypto-grift started and when it fizzled out and therefore came to the conclusion it was another company run by Zack.
2/1/26:
I publish Izzi’s words, since I kept seeing him lie again and again about her. I then finalized parts of my document. I get blocked immediately by Zack.
2/2/26:
The document is released, and I get blocked instantly by Zack’s personal account. In the later hours leading up to the next day, Zack begins showing decline. I screenshot everything, including his threat to sue a 17 year old, threats to Redminus, and lies regarding Izzi. I also began talking a little with Chazington just to go back and forth with the information I had and to keep him in the loop of what was happening, along with making note of anything Zack may delete. I also get interviewed by the YouTuber Adv1ll later that day, and elaborate on some of the points I have made with the document.
2/3/26:
Zack releases an article, and I fully record the crypto chat. Zack begins threatening those who use those rigs, and I reach out to Redminus to clarify what is happening, I later get in contact with the person who leaked the rigs and find out it was for a cancelled Friday Night Funkin mod.
2/4/26:
I get information of a 17 year old not being paid by Zack, and I go ahead and bring attention to that. I will admit I got things wrong and that was not a commission, however with Zack still saying he would pay that artist, it is still strange for him to then put that 17 year old on blast with his large platform. I also bring attention to his Tweet that stated “The left eats its own, but I’m not gonna start supporting some weird anti-human propaganda” which was in response to a user stating “brody foxx i will support you personally if you start hating the jews, unless you wanna stay on epsteins side” - I admit I did cut out the context and I do apologize, however with his pivot into crypto, his much more open sexism and incidents such as him grifting off of a teenager’s suicide, my point was highlighting how he was already pivoting to that point socially (even if unintentionally), and with the original poster adding a drawing a nazi image of Brody Foxx, I interpreted that as him beginning to attract that audience that goes against the image he’s forced for years now. I realize that I may begin to plan a stronger, more concrete document.
2/5/26:
Zack responds to my claims, however he uses no evidence to back this up, and eventually deleted a Tweet saying he’d bring out concrete proof while lying more about his former employees and myself. I begin planning out my next move, which is this document. I reflected on how I shared that information, and I, after much deliberation, realized that it was easy for Zack to disprove SOME of the points I brought up. I also realized that some points of mine needed a lot stronger clarification, and that I needed to own up for some of the mistakes I made while covering this.
This brings us to the current day, where I’ve been working on this document.
Reflecting on the Previous Document, and Actions Afterwards
Note: This part is going to be more a personal explanation and dissertation of my actions throughout this, since I realize I have made mistakes and I want to own up to them.
I admit that with how I’ve handled this, I used a lot more pathos rather than a combination of logos and ethos.
I pride myself on my research abilities, and I went in a lot more emotional because I am someone who aspires to do animation/artwork professionally - and seeing/hearing what I did hit a lot closer than I thought. I admit some of what I said was rash and in the moment, and I will take accountability for the misinformation I spread with the commission and taking that Tweet out of context. I will not delete these however, as I would rather own up to these mistakes and leave it up and admit that I did make mistakes in my coverage. I will apologize to Zack for those two instances and my immaturity tackling some of his statements, but that is all I apologize for.
I do not like deleting Tweets, as I find that they never truly go away. If I did, I’d feel like an utter hypocrite considering I criticize Zack for the same thing. As I’ve been going through this situation it’s made me reflect on how I do this work, and how I present my evidence, and I agree that I could’ve used a bit more of Zack’s words and cross referenced them in order to make a stronger argument. I wanted to rectify those errors and make this more fair. I am still harsh on him, and I will be, but I do not want to be someone that doesn’t provide both sides to speak.
I’d also like to address two things I did not cover in this document:
- Zack and RISE9
- There’s very little information about it that’s reliable, and there seems to be weird information about co-ownership and most of the company’s information is seemingly lost media.
- Zack’s harassment towards VTubers
- I will be honest and say that his harassment is very much politically charged, and I don’t know how I’d begin to discuss this matter in a nuanced way when Zack did allege one of them to be doing a Hilter salute, and I keep getting mixed answers on if it was a mistake, or if it was genuine. The harassment towards Mizutamari however was more concrete and had evidence that was a lot less muddied. I’ll be honest and say I don’t know how to cover this harassment because it is politically charged and I don’t want this to be a leftist vs conservative issue that is the only thing discussed, I’d rather have this be a document that discusses Zack’s actions in a way that doesn’t lean one way politically or the other. I don’t want this to be adopted by just one side, but rather a document that can be indulged and respected by each party respectfully. However, I did want to show this screenshot, and yes. Zack made that original image.
Another I have to address is
- Zack’s conspiracy theories with aliens ruling the world
- I honestly just didn’t think this fit anywhere, and considering the more damning allegations I felt weird including something that ridiculous sandwiched in with his animators stories and his grifting off a teenager’s corpse. So I decided to just put it here as a bit of a thank you for reading, since it’s lighthearted but also just adds to the strangeness of Zack and his legacy.
“Last Tuesday, I was invited to attend The Age of Disclosure premiere in NYC. I'd like to share more of my thoughts and experience, so that it could possibly shed more light on what I feel are the intents behind the people in the documentary. Especially now that the film is available to the public, and there's a lot of chatter along with opinions.
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For context: I'm a social media content creator/producer with 16 years of experience. Most call me an “influencer,” but I've often found that title to be tacky. That said, I've found myself in various interesting environments, ranging from dinners with billionaires to private parties with celebrities. Each person deserves respect, but I've often walked away from those experiences feeling disappointed by the character of many individuals.
I didn't experience that last Tuesday. Instead, I found myself walking away both humbled and with greater respect for everyone I met.
Dan invited me out at the last second. This was after I shared some trailers on Twitter. He DM’d me thanking me for the support. I responded with some notes on ideal future trailers. He took the notes well, and he asked me to be his guest for Tuesday. This caught me off guard, but I was excited to accept. I wasn't paid to attend, nor am I being paid to post and talk about this. It’s genuinely my most talked about topic among friends for the past 5 years.
Fast forward to Tuesday evening: I found myself sitting next to Senate staff members, engaged in a fun, rapid fire conversation. Ralph Blumenthal and Leslie Kean were sitting behind me; they called over James Fox to sit next to them. This was already surreal for me.
After the premiere, I attended a cocktail party, followed by being invited to a local bar for a smaller gathering. The next several hours gave me an opportunity to speak one-on-one with quite a few of them. Those conversations gave me a chance to see just how truly human and genuine these people are. I won’t share the details of those conversations; not because they’re off the record, but simply out of respect and common decency.
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Here are my personal takeaways:
James Fox has such a passion that it reminded me of someone walking into Disney World. You could see and feel that all his years of dedication led him to this moment. He’s the right man to cover this topic, travel the world, track down the witnesses, and push himself to cross the finish line on his films. He’s truly dedicated to bringing this topic to the public.
Leslie Kean carries herself like a seasoned reporter. Very nice, very formal, very matter of fact. My conversation with her was short, but you could tell she’s a no nonsense kind of person. That said, she always checked in with the people she cares about. It’s difficult to describe, but it’s like having that one friend at a party who makes sure everyone is okay, always thinking about others before thinking about herself.
The other conversations I had carried a certain weight I haven’t experienced in my entire career, except for the moments where colleagues would confide in me their own possible experiences with UAPs. The kind of weight you feel in both their voice and eyes.
Jeff Nuccetelli: He’s a man with courage. Someone who took a step forward that others will soon follow as they come forward. Telling his story was important to him, to his fellow Air Force veterans, and to the general public as a whole. He knew what he saw, and he knew how important it was to tell others. As such, Jeff wanted me to meet Chaz.
Chaz King: This was a new world for him in the sense of exposing himself to the public. He felt comfortable knowing that Jeff came forward. He's both processing and accepting what happened to him. Coming forward with his story seemed like a sense of duty, just like Jeff. Both he and Jeff expressed a desire for everyone else they knew to come forward.
Ryan Graves: Very friendly and aware of those who wanted to speak with him, which led to him giving each person an opportunity to have the conversation they wanted. You can tell he has gotten used to talking more openly with people, something that comes with years of becoming one of the “faces” of this topic. He gave honest responses to questions regarding other footage from a military technical background. He didn’t sign off on every video that was mentioned; instead, he approached each one subjectively and felt it was important to give an honest response. He’s a man with integrity.
Jay Stratton: We initially spoke at the cocktail hour and later spoke again at length over two glasses of whiskey at the bar. The weight I felt in his words and saw in his eyes was by far the heaviest I experienced all night. The topic is intense for him, and quite exhausting. This wasn’t the world he wants to be in, it’s the world he feels he has a personal responsibility for. There were a few times where I gave him a polite exit opportunity to walk away. Instead, he kept speaking with me and assured me it was a conversation he appreciated having. I pivoted the conversation to his personal interests outside of the UAP topic, and that’s where I felt like he got to really be himself. As someone on the spectrum, I don’t usually keep contact with someone that long. That moment I had with Jay felt like the longest few minutes of my life. He carried a weight of responsibility I haven’t seen from anyone else I’ve ever met. This was a man who saw what he said he saw. The only thing I could compare it to was when military veteran friends of mine spoke about their experiences during their tours.
Now let’s talk about Dan Farah. He called me the night before from Washington, D.C., which I believe was around 1 a.m. his time. Dan is a Hollywood producer, but not in a bad way - more so a man who puts a lot of thought into the projects he works on. This project, though, felt heavier on his shoulders. I attempted to give him a couple of polite exit opportunities to end the call. Instead, he wanted to express sincerity. This documentary really means a lot to him, because it means a lot to those involved. By no means am I a producer to the degree that Dan is, but I could relate to what it meant to create a piece of media that could shift or start conversations. Our post premiere exchanges expressed a mutual sense of appreciation for one another.
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What happened afterward? Talking more openly about this topic invited quite a few responses, ranging from profound interest to being called crazy and even being told they’re grooming me to be a mouthpiece. I lost about 200 followers out of nearly 250k followers, which was less than what I anticipated. That mostly stems from the goodwill I’ve created with my audience. Other influencers who focus on “gimmick accounts” gave me a platform to tell their followers what I knew on the UAP subject, even spending upwards of 3 hours diving deeper via their Twitter Spaces. The public does have an interest for this issue.
On the flip side, I’ve noticed a high degree of aggressiveness toward me, mostly from other UAP “influencers.” I don’t ignore them; instead, I try to take note of any reasonable concerns, but I’ve found their tones to often be dismissive and uninviting of any real discussions. Some would even tweet, delete, and create new tweets when their engagement didn’t meet a certain number threshold. I’m accustomed to drama in my industry, so this isn’t new, nor will it ever discourage me from speaking what I feel are honest intents.
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On a final note: meeting with Senate staff members has given me an opportunity to address an issue that’s important to millions outside of UAPs. There are other challenges we need to address, and I'm looking forward to making Congress more aware of AI moderation systems' false positives on social media platforms. My focus on that has been a goal of mine for the past 9 months, and if anything, I’m more than grateful to make the Senate aware of an issue that is facing us today. Which only happened because of this event” (My experience at The Age of Disclosure premiere : r/UFOs)
Final Thoughts: My Message to Zack
Zack, I want you to reflect on the legacy that you’ve made for yourself.
You’ve built yourself up on the work of others because you have nothing else. You use your autism as an explanation of your behavior, but I’m autistic as well. I know what the autistic experience is like, and autism doesn’t make you treat others this way or use others as a stepping stool for your success. I’ve learned from my own experiences that regardless of you having any sort of disorder, you make your choices in life. Your choice was to be a 36 year old man who still dangles the corpse of his IP he fell into rather than grow into a respectable man.
You lie to your audience because you’re afraid of rejection, and that too I understand. However your sensitivity to rejection has made everyone dislike you. You’re so afraid of being wrong that you hide from any criticism and you’re afraid of being seen as the true talentless man you are. I’m being harsh because you need to mature professionally and personally. You’re fighting with teenagers online, in fact, some of the people you pick fights with are nearly 20 years younger than you. It’s pathetic to watch.
There were points I did feel bad for you, but then I remember how you treated Izzi, how you treated Red, how you treated my words as if they were nothing. I don’t feel bad anymore because it’s clear to me that you won’t grow up even when everyone around you already did.
I remember the night I posted Izzi’s statement. I remember part of me wanting to be wrong after I saw you advocate for social justice. But you blocked me. That told me you didn’t want to deal with it. That told me that you did those things and that you’re scared of the fact I brought it up. I’m not afraid of a man who can’t confront his past, and clearly you’re still stuck in it. I wished I was wrong about you because so many people looked up to you in a time of hectic political discourse. I thought you did the things you said but all you did was make Tweets. You aren’t a hero for that. You’re just sad.
All you are known for is Yo Mama, all you have is the hard work of the people you bash when they’ve made more of an impact than you ever will.