Column: The secret moves of the Cyber Ninjas moneyman
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Once they finish finding voter fraud in the presidential election, and they will find it, the Cyber Ninjas should rappel down the Tomb of the Unknown Ballot Box and turn their considerable auditing skills to the real estate acquisitions of Patrick Byrne, Sarasota County's newest resident-in-hiding and conspiracy-spewing kook.
You know, just to see if someone who holds a Ph.D. in mathematical logic from Stanford University actually purchased six properties in our area – four homes, a condominium and a medical building owned by a Venice gynecologist – for $10.4 million, overpaying the current market value by $6 million in the process.
Byrne's illegal voting form: Finding election fraud where the Cyber Ninjas failed
What's in the mail?: Flynn’s post office box holds more than his mail
The Ninjas are everywhere: Cyber Ninjas' connection to Big Lie runs far, deep and dangerous
Just to ascertain if a woman in Nevada state prison for document fraud is actually the signed representative for the company Byrne used to buy the aforementioned properties.
Just to determine if the document that ties Byrne to the properties is a recently filed Sarasota County voter registration form, which would mean he is now registered to vote in two states, though in Utah he listed his business address as his primary residency.
Actually, you don't need to be a certifiable ninja to investigate any of this because everything is how it appears to be: Byrne, the multimillion-dollar moneyman funding the Sarasota-based Cyber Ninjas in the fantastical quest to find voter fraud in Arizona, thus handing the presidency back to Donald Trump, is a little on the questionable side himself.
Now, it's not that James and Jennifer Vett were looking to sell their six-bedroom, five-bathroom cul-de-sac home in the Oaks Club in Osprey. It's just that Byrne really, really wanted to buy it, and in June, his company offered $3.35 million for a house valued at around $1.5 million, according to the Sarasota County Property Appraiser's Office, whose records revealed even more notable purchases.
Byrne's company – originally called Manatee Investments LLC – bought two more houses and a condo in the Oaks recently, and he paid over $1 million above the appraised market value for one of the homes.
In June, his company also purchased a 10,000 square-foot building on Venice Avenue, which was the former home of Bayside Gynecology. Dr. Michael Wolpmann said he was not looking to sell, but who was he to turn down $2.5 million for a building appraised at $654,300?
More opinion from Chris Anderson:
Is there more to the photo of man accused of grabbing lectern at Capitol riot?
Sarasota County man faces prison while Bannon walks along and whistles
Sarasota chiropractor’s actions during Capitol riot are spine-tingling
Byrne, the former CEO of Overstock.com who resigned in 2019 after revealing he had an affair with Russian agent Maria Butina but not before he cashed out $90 million worth of stock, went to great lengths to stay anonymous in Sarasota County.
Byrne incorporated Manatee Investments LLC using a ninja-like company in Silver Springs, Nevada called Silver Shield Services, which is owned by a man named Aaron Shoaf. The reason Byrne took the Nevada route was twofold: The state does not require companies to name officers, thus keeping people anonymous, nor does it share information with the IRS.
Still, to conduct business in Florida, a Nevada company has to register as a foreign entity, which Manatee Investments LLC did, but the state of Florida returned a pair of applications in June because Manatee Investments resembled another company’s name, and a representative for the company did not sign one of the applications.
Silver Shield Services, acting on behalf of Manatee Investments, resubmitted new applications with the state of Florida in July, requesting variations of the company’s original name – Blue Manatee Investments LLC and Black Manatee Investments LLC.
The new applications also contained the signature of a representative, as required by the state of Florida: Danielle Shoaf, who is Aaron Shoaf's daughter.
Only one problem. She has been in prison for the past year at the Florence McClure Women’s Correctional Facility in Las Vegas for document fraud. She has a parole hearing scheduled for Thursday.
Byrne, meanwhile, is behind a pair of non-profits that have given the Cyber Ninjas nearly $5 million to audit 21 million ballots cast in Maricopa County, Az. during the presidential election. The long-overdue results have been delayed because some of the ninjas have coronavirus.
A recent Herald-Tribune column noted that Byrne had some voter discrepancies of his own that snuck under the noses of the ninjas. Registered to vote in Park City, Utah, he listed his place of business as his residence.
On Sept. 2, Byrne registered to vote in Sarasota County and he listed the address of one of the homes he bought in the Oaks as his residence. Matching his name and that address to the one listed for Manatee Investments with the Sarasota Property Appraisers Office is what tied him to the property purchases worth over $10 million.
And now he is our neighbor.
Throw in Gen. Michael Flynn, Byrne's partner and QAnon cult hero who owns two homes in Englewood and runs two businesses out of a P.O. Box in Ellenton, and Charlie Kirk, a Longboat Key resident and founder of a popular far-right group that is targeting local school boards around the country, and Sarasota County has somehow become the Conspiracy Capital of the World.
All that's missing is for Adam Johnson of Parrish to steal a lectern from Sarasota City Hall and Steve Bannon to move back in with Andy Badolato.
There are actually enough crackpot theorists living locally now to build their own gated community. Just one problem: How would they ever trust the election of the HOA president?
Contact columnist Chris Anderson at chris.anderson@heraldtribune.com. Please support local journalism by purchasing a digital subscription.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: First Flynn, now Patrick Byrne, the conspiracy kooks are flocking to Sarasota | Opinion