Official statement regarding my former employer Puzzle Financial

Former Puzzle employee documenting fraud + institutional complicity: LendUp (CFPB, 140K+ victims), Mission Lane (false founder), Puzzle (photoshopped metrics). YC/TC/affiliates notified, yet enabled.

patrick stoica · November 4-12, 2025 · Substack · Markdown

Official statement regarding my former employer Puzzle Financial

🔗 toxic.systems

SEC Whistleblower Complaints Filed

Changelog

  • Nov 2: published full evidence of ActualQuickBooks campaign and photoshopped metrics
  • Nov 4: initial publication of this document
  • Nov 9: whistleblower retaliation; termination agreement; internal evidence; informed entities
  • Nov 10: Kapor Capital/Ross Fubini LendUp connection; Forbes conflicts; Insights Servicing records; CPA partner notifications; media structural conflicts; real-time suppression evidence
  • Nov 11
    • SEC Whistleblower Complaint Filed (3:33 AM ET) - Submission #17628-500-136-464
    • 19 supporting documents attached (LendUp Asset Sale, Rolling Loud lawsuit, photoshopped metrics, separation agreement, CFPB orders)
    • Applied for whistleblower award eligibility; permanent federal record established
    • Updated original August 11, 2023 complaint (Submission #16917-772-564-515)
    • Documentation expanded: TechCrunch comprehensive timeline (August-November 2023, 2025), Rolling Loud Final Judgment coordination, Kinly/FirstBoulevard post-shutdown fraud, systematic CPA testimonial deployment and evidence suppression, partner network notification
    • Network documentation: Fairfax Studios/NAACP connections, Jotaka Eaddy/Marvin Bing diversity theater, The Fraud Pattern, Network Structure, Network Chart
    • Second Cease-and-Desist Letter Received (6:02 PM ET): Orrick law firm same-day retaliation; criminal prosecution threats; 48-hour takedown demand
    • Response to Second C&D (6:05 PM ET): Cited federal whistleblower protection (15 U.S.C. § 78u-6)
    • Supplemental SEC Whistleblower Complaint Filed (6:32 PM ET): Submission #17629-039-523-592 documenting federal retaliation; C&D letter attached as evidence
  • Nov 12
    • Gaslighting in Legal Language; Weaponized Empowerment (Women Tech Meetup reputation laundering); Media and Founder Network Complicity
    • Dasha Shunina Forbes Conflict: 48 articles (200K+ views) December 2023-October 2025 covering YC startups/fintech/accounting while employed as Puzzle GTM strategist; competitors coverage; systematic undisclosed conflict across 22 months; November 14, 2024 article promoting Puzzle and quoting Sasha without disclosing employment relationship
    • Sasha Orloff Forbes Contributions: Forbes Finance Council contributor 2016-2017 during LendUp CFPB violations, published three articles between first and second CFPB violations positioning as thought leader on employee retention and financial wellness while LendUp defrauded 140,000+ consumers; “Banker to the Poor” narrative promoted on Forbes platform during systematic consumer deception
    • Forbes Midas List / Prestige List Conflicts Documented: Hemant Taneja (General Catalyst, Puzzle lead investor) ranked #8 on Forbes Midas List 2025; Blake Byers (Google Ventures, Insights Servicing director) featured on Forbes 30 Under 30 (2015) with profile explicitly mentioning LendUp investment; Ross Fubini (XYZ Capital, Puzzle investor) ranked #88 on Midas List 2025; LendUp board chair/director (### Investors) ranked #90 on Midas List 2025. Former Forbes senior writer David Jeans dropped fraud investigation after initially responding “Yeah, I know of Sasha” — structural conflict prevents coverage when lead investor ranked #8 on publication’s prestige list

“In exchange for two weeks’ severance, they required me to waive claims against not just Puzzle, but ‘its predecessors, successors, past, present or future subsidiaries, affiliated companies, investors, branches or related entities‘“

The Fraud Pattern

This documentation concerns a pattern of deceptive practices spanning 13 years across multiple companies, with evidence from public records, corporate filings, and federal regulatory enforcement.

The Companies:

The Pattern: False credentials across multiple companies, regulatory violations, fire sale returning $0 to shareholders after raising $150M+, new entity launched with same leadership, pattern continues.

Key Connections:

This isn’t about one company failing. This is about systematic deception across multiple entities, false credentials maintained across platforms, and ongoing fraud despite federal enforcement and whistleblower documentation.

Network Structure

NETWORK STRUCTURE - 13 YEAR PATTERN

========================================================================
INVESTMENT LAYER
========================================================================

                            ### INVESTORS
                                  |
                 +----------------+----------------+
                 |                |                |
          Credit Karma       LendUp          Mission Lane
        (FTC Settlement    (CFPB Shutdown)  (Incorporated 2018
         Illegal Ads)      140,000+ victims  Asset Acquisition)
              |                  |                 |
              |                  +--------+--------+
              |                           |
              +---------------------------+
                     Timing correlation:
                 Credit Karma FTC settlement
                 Mission Lane hiring freeze

========================================================================
CORPORATE ENFORCEMENT LAYER
========================================================================

LendUp (2012-2022)
    |
    +---> ### INVESTORS (Early investor, backed through shutdown)
    |         |
    |         +---> Also invested: Credit Karma, Mission Lane
    |         +---> Portfolio pattern across financial services
    |
    +---> CFPB Violation 1 (2016): $6.3M settlement
    +---> CFPB Violation 2 (2018): Consent order
    +---> CFPB Violation 3 (2021): Permanent shutdown
    |     "Repeatedly lied to consumers" (CFPB)
    |     140,000+ victims, $40M restitution (2024)
    |
    +---> Asset Sale (December 2018)
    |         |
    |         +---> Mission Lane (###-backed) acquires for $29M
    |         +---> Golden parachutes (4 executives)
    |         +---> $0 to shareholders (after $150M+ raised)
    |         +---> Conflicts of interest documented
    |         +---> ###-affiliated directors involved
    |
    +---> Insights Servicing Inc. (2015-2023)
    |         |
    |         +---> Incorporated: DE November 6, 2015
    |         +---> NOT disclosed to LendUp shareholders
    |         +---> Blake Byers (Google Ventures) as Director
    |         +---> Shared LendUp headquarters address
    |         +---> Tax delinquent March 2023
    |         +---> Domain registered: [email protected]
    |
    +---> Ahead Financials (2020-2022)
              |
              +---> Incorporated: DE April 2020
              +---> "Coming soon" page Aug 2019 (16 months before launch)
              +---> Announced as LendUp "subsidiary" Dec 2020
              +---> Targeted Black/Latino demographics
              +---> $2.5M Rolling Loud sponsorship budget
              |
              +---> Fairfax Studios Inc. (2021-2022)
              |         |
              |         +---> Incorporated June 7, 2021 (7 days before contract)
              |         +---> Rolling Loud contract signed June 14, 2021
              |         +---> Payment intermediary scheme
              |         +---> Rolling Loud Lawsuit (Case 2022-003284-CA-01)
              |         +---> $1.575M unpaid sponsorship fees
              |         +---> Default Judgment: $800K (May 23, 2022)
              |         +---> Judgment remains uncollected
              |         +---> Fairfax defaulted rather than defend
              |
              +---> Closed operations June 2022 (4 months after lawsuit)
              +---> "Acquired" by Kinly June 17, 2022 (25 days after judgment)
              +---> Domain transferred to Kinly/FirstBoulevard
              +---> Customers reported locked out of funds
              +---> Kinly → Greenwood (lawsuit July 2023)

========================================================================
PARALLEL OPERATIONS LAYER
========================================================================

Puzzle Financial (2020-present)
    |
    +---> CEO: Sasha Orloff (same individual as LendUp CEO)
    +---> False credentials: Claims "founded" Mission Lane
    |     (Corporate records: hired as advisor Dec 2018, post-acquisition)
    +---> False credentials: Claims "$1B+ raised"
    |     (Aggregates debt/equity, omits $0 to LendUp shareholders)
    +---> Photoshopped social media metrics (October 2025)
    |     Evidence: 3 likes altered to 12,362 in screenshot
    +---> ActualQuickBooks campaign (police intervention, Oct 27, 2025)
    |     Evidence deleted within 24 hours after posting
    |
    +---> SEC Whistleblower Complaints Filed (November 11, 2025)
              |
              +---> Submission #17628-500-136-464 (Securities fraud)
              +---> Submission #17629-039-523-592 (Retaliation)
              +---> 19 supporting documents attached
              +---> Applied for whistleblower award eligibility

========================================================================
LEGAL RESPONSE PATTERN
========================================================================

Cease-and-Desist Letters (Coordination Demonstrates Network)
    |
    +---> August 11, 2023 (Dual letters, same day)
    |         |
    |         +---> Puzzle Financial C&D (former employer)
    |         +---> Mission Lane C&D (never employed, same day)
    |         +---> Mission Lane letter specifically addressed
    |         |     "Credit Karma/FTC connection" documentation
    |         +---> Coordination proves network awareness
    |
    +---> November 11, 2025 (Hours after SEC filing)
              |
              +---> 3:33 AM: SEC complaint filed
              +---> 6:02 PM: Orrick C&D received (14.5 hours later)
              +---> 6:05 PM: Response citing 15 U.S.C. § 78u-6 (3 min)
              +---> 6:32 PM: Supplemental SEC complaint filed (30 min)
              +---> C&D attached as evidence of federal retaliation

========================================================================
ONGOING OPERATIONS POST-SHUTDOWN
========================================================================

LendUp.com (Active as of November 2025)
    |
    +---> CFPB permanent ban: December 21, 2021
    +---> Domain still operational: 35+ months post-ban
    +---> Directs consumers to tribal lenders
    +---> Claims "solid reputation for responsible lending"
    +---> Domain renewed through 2028 during liquidation (July 2022)
    +---> Nameservers migrated to Cloudflare July 2022
    +---> Infrastructure investment during liquidation period

========================================================================
KEY DOCUMENTED CONNECTIONS
========================================================================

### Investors → Credit Karma (FTC) + LendUp (CFPB) + Mission Lane
Sasha Orloff → LendUp CEO + Mission Lane Advisor + Puzzle CEO
LendUp → Ahead → Fairfax Studios → Rolling Loud (Court Judgment)
Asset Sale → Mission Lane Acquisition → False Founder Claims
Coordinated C&D Letters (Aug 2023) → Network Proves Consciousness

========================================================================
TIMELINE: 2012-2025 (13 YEARS)
JURISDICTIONS: CA, VA, DE, FL, DC (Interstate Commerce)
DOCUMENTED VICTIMS: 140,000+ (CFPB enforcement orders)
FEDERAL RECORD: SEC Whistleblower Submissions #17628-500-136-464,
                #17629-039-523-592 (November 11, 2025)
========================================================================

Note: ### indicates redacted entity name. Complete unredacted
information provided to Delaware DOJ (August 2023), FBI (2020, 2023),
SEC (2023, 2025). All connections verified through corporate filings,
regulatory enforcement orders, court judgments, and public records.

Network Chart: Key Players and Entities

LendUp (2012-2022)

Executives:

Leadership Transfer (January 2019):

Following the December 2018 asset sale to Mission Lane:

Organizational Restructuring:

In December 2018, LendUp sold its credit card business (LendUp Card Services Inc., LendUp Card Holdings LLC, LendUp Technologies Inc.) to create Mission Lane as a standalone entity. Following the asset sale, LendUp shifted focus to Ahead Financials (announced December 2020 as LendUp subsidiary, launched May 2021) targeting Black/Latino demographics under Shultes’ leadership. LendUp ceased loan operations summer 2021, with CFPB ordering permanent shutdown December 2021.

Corporate:

Golden Parachutes (December 2018 Asset Sale):

Insights Servicing Inc. (2015-2023): UNDISCLOSED

Officers:

Officer Transfer Pattern:

Multiple executives held simultaneous leadership roles at both LendUp and Insights Servicing, creating undisclosed parallel control structure. When LendUp underwent leadership transition in January 2019 (Orloff stepped down, Shultes became CEO), Insights Servicing officers maintained their positions until company tax delinquency in March 2023.

Corporate:

Mission Lane LLC (2018-present)

Leadership Timeline:

LendUp-Affiliated Advisors (Golden Parachutes):

Founder Claims Analysis:

Corporate:

Ahead Financials LLC (2020-2022)

Executives:

Corporate:

Fairfax Studios Inc. (2021-2023)

Key People:

Corporate:

Kinly/BeKinly (2022-2023)

Corporate:

Puzzle Financial (2020-present)

Leadership:

Corporate:

Puzzle Financial: Key Enablers

Dasha Shunina - GTM Strategist

Key Patterns

Media and Founder Network Complicity

The fraud pattern documented above persisted for 13 years (2012-2025) not through secrecy, but through systematic enablement by media outlets, Y Combinator, venture capital networks, and diversity-branded institutions that continued promotional activities despite comprehensive documentation.

TechCrunch (Connie Loizos, Senior Reporter):

Y Combinator (Sam Altman President 2014-2019, Garry Tan CEO 2023-present):

Kapor Capital (Freada & Mitch Kapor, Ross Fubini):

Forbes (David Jeans, former senior writer; Alex Konrad, Midas List editor):

Women Tech Meetup / Dasha Shunina:

$15 ticket charge to “Support Women Tech Meetup!” - monetizing progressive branding while serving as employer marketing platform.

Archie Group (Crisis PR / Reputation Management):

On Deck (ODF) / Erik Torenberg / Julian Weisser:

Capital One Connection:

The Pattern:

Not isolated failures of due diligence, but systematic network complicity:

Documentation provided to these entities included: CFPB enforcement orders, shareholder agreements, corporate filings, court judgments, photoshopped metrics, deleted equity, separation agreements. The choice to continue enablement was informed, not ignorant.

Intro

I am Patrick Stoica, a software engineer who worked at Puzzle Financial (briefly Valencia Data) from October 2020 to May 31, 2023. I established much of its frontend foundation which is still in use today. Now I work independently.

I was knowingly hired through a search by CTO/cofounder John Cwikla for employees affected by the NS8 fraud layoff. In my first interview, CEO Sasha Orloff asked if I was ready to move on from the NS8 fraud, acknowledging the irony while hiring me into what would become another fraud.

What This Documents:

The Evidence:

Primary sources only - CFPB orders, corporate filings, court documents, shareholder records, archived social media, contemporaneous documentation.

A Note on Evidence and Verification

This documentation relies exclusively on primary sources, each independently verifiable:

Public Records:

Primary Documents (Published Here for the First Time):

Contemporaneous Records Created in Real-Time:

Platform and Network Notifications (August 2023 - January 2024):

Evidence preservation methods include email archives, Wayback Machine archives, WHOIS records, manual screenshots with timestamps, and downloads of public filings—ensuring documentation remains accessible even if original sources are modified or deleted.

On Timing and Liability:

Every passing second that entities continue partnership, investment, platform access, or promotional activities after receiving direct notice with documented evidence creates timestamped records of knowing complicity. These aren’t abstract ethical concerns—they’re verifiable decisions that demonstrate consciousness of the fraud pattern and choice to proceed regardless. The documentation is permanent. The timestamps are immutable. Each continued association after notification becomes part of the permanent record.

On Legal Proceedings:

This documentation may be used in future legal proceedings, whether criminal, civil, or regulatory. All evidence presented here consists of primary sources, contemporaneous records, and verifiable public documents. I have made every reasonable effort to notify all relevant parties, platforms, investors, and media outlets over a 2+ year period (June 2023 - November 2025).

Should this matter proceed to litigation, discovery, or regulatory investigation, the record will show:

I am prepared to provide testimony, documents, and sworn statements to any legitimate investigative or judicial process. All claims made herein are statements of fact supported by documentary evidence, public records, or firsthand observation during my employment (October 2020 - May 2023).

The choice to publish this documentation publicly comes only after exhausting private channels and observing continued fraudulent conduct, including metric manipulation in October 2025, which demonstrated the pattern was ongoing and unlikely to cease without public accountability.

Ongoing Observation and Documentation:

This documentation is living. Reactions to its publication—including monitoring, suppression attempts, coordinated legal responses, platform manipulation, or network mobilization—are being observed and documented in real-time. Each response becomes additional evidence of consciousness, coordination, and pattern. Federal whistleblower protections under 15 U.S.C. § 78u-6 apply to all disclosures herein. Any retaliation, whether direct or through proxies, will be documented and reported to appropriate authorities. The pattern of conduct continues to be observed.

Continued Support Despite Notification

Following systematic investor and partner notifications (October-November 2025), key stakeholders demonstrated active continued support rather than investigation or distance:

Sterling Road (Ash Rust):

Dasha Shunina (Forbes Contributor / Puzzle GTM Strategist):

Matt Tait (Founder/CEO, Decimal - Accounting Partner):

Joe Faris, CPA (Accountalent):

Charles Crabtree (VP of Accounting Firm Partnerships, Puzzle):

Pattern Across Stakeholders:

November 2025 LinkedIn engagement on CEO posts shows multiple investors, partners, and affiliates actively supporting despite:

Behavioral pattern demonstrates consciousness:

This pattern of post-notification support establishes knowing complicity rather than passive ignorance. Each continued association after notification becomes part of the permanent record demonstrating consciousness of fraud and choice to proceed regardless. Immediate engagement (Matt Tait liking after evidence) demonstrates that notifications were received and processed—the choice to continue support or suppress evidence was conscious, not ignorant.

Ash Rust, Dasha Shunina, Charles Crabtree, and many others continue to show support since notification

Systematic Partner Notifications (November 11, 2025):

Following SEC whistleblower complaint filing, notified Puzzle’s accounting partner network of CEO’s CFPB enforcement history, recent metric manipulation, and professional liability concerns.

Firms Successfully Notified:

Each notification included: CFPB enforcement summary, recent photoshopped metrics evidence, false credentials documentation, SEC whistleblower complaint number, professional liability warning, and link to complete documentation (toxic.systems). Emails established partners’ awareness for future regulatory or professional liability proceedings.

ActualQuickBooks Campaign Evidence

Self-documented trademark infringement in and around conference. Mobile billboards; actualquickbooks.com fake airline tickets; actualquickbooks.com shirts. “Quickbooks just unveiled their new AI product at their annual conference. They are calling it Actual Quick Books.”

No alternative text description for this image Self-documented police intervention. “Oops! Intuit called the cops 😅 Guess our airline-themed campaign really took off ✈️ Guess we left a mark.”

Photoshopped comment praising idea shared on Twitter/X: “@Sasha Orloff wow. This is one of the best marketing strategies I’ve ever seen.” Green blocks added by CEO. Modified to show 12,362 likes only 3 hours from initial campaign tweet.

Cross-referenced comment revealing 3 likes. CEO was aware this was spotted, but deleted the question and left the edited screenshot up several more hours until the final sweep of campaign evidence.

No alternative text description for this image Puzzle spamming defunct actualquickbooks.com domain (redirect to puzzle.io) to Intuit Connect members on LinkedIn

Pattern of Deceptive Practices

This continues a pattern of deceptive practices I observed during my employment at Puzzle Financial and in recent history.

Credential misrepresentation

Systematic “Repeat Founder” Positioning:

In video introductions for his Tech Finance podcast (a16z acquired Turpentine in April 2025 through Erik Torenberg, who joined as general partner; founder of Turpentine, previous chairman of On Deck, cofounder and general partner at Village Global), CEO introduces himself as “repeat founder and current CEO of Puzzle” - a characterization that appears consistently across all platforms despite corporate records proving he was hired as an advisor to Mission Lane post-acquisition, not as a founder.

The “repeat founder” positioning implies:

This systematic misrepresentation appears across:

The consistent use of “founder” terminology for Mission Lane—despite corporate filings, shareholder documents, and timeline contradictions proving an advisor role hired post-acquisition—demonstrates deliberate credential inflation across all public-facing platforms.

“Now, it’s been a decade and @mission_lane (led by amazing new leadership and investors) has millions of customers and built an incredible franchise”- Tweeted May 22, 2023; 1 like; 9 days before termination

Shareholders received this letter December 17, 2018, with closing two days later on December 19. They were asked to separately vote on executive compensation while their own equity would receive $0: “This vote is entirely separate from the vote to approve the Asset Sale.”

LendUp claimed the credit card business was “dragging down” the company and Credit Suisse “did not materialize [any] actionable offers” after months of fundraising attempts. Ahead Financials was later launched as a LendUp neobank “subsidiary,” requiring similar capital to what they claimed was unavailable.

“…it is noted that the Company Board may consist of “interested directors” with respect to the Asset Sale.”

“Sasha Orloff […] will be engaged as an advisor by Purchase immediately after the Closing. Mr. Orloff will resign as the Chief Executive Officer of the Company immediately after the Closing Date. As a result, Mr. Orloff may have interests related to the Closing of the Asset Sale and the success of Purchase that are different from the interests of holders of Company securities generally”

“Blake Byers […] may have interests related to the closing of the Asset Sale that are different from the interests of holders of Company securities generally.”

Jeff Foster received success fees from both LendUp and Mission Lane in connection with the asset sale.

Two directors affiliated with a major investor (### and ### Fund II) who held convertible notes paid from sale proceeds and became major stockholder in the acquiring company.

Public Contempt for Regulatory Accountability

January 8, 2025: CEO mocked the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau while marketing Puzzle as QuickBooks alternative, quote-tweeting a founder complaining about QuickBooks: “But I have to say, great bullsh*t branding. Like ‘No child left behind’ or ‘consumer financial protection bureau‘” - openly deriding the federal agency that shut down his previous company for defrauding 140,000+ consumers and ordered $40M in restitution. The performative contempt for the CFPB came while operating accounting software trusted for financial reporting and tax preparation.

Insights Servicing Inc. (Delaware File #5768857, Virginia File #F2012534) was incorporated November 6, 2015, with Blake Byers (Google Ventures partner) and LendUp executives as officers. The entity shared LendUp’s physical address, had its domain registered under LendUp’s email ([email protected]), yet was never publicly disclosed to shareholders or mentioned in the December 2018 Asset Sale despite Blake Byers’ documented conflicts of interest in that transaction.

The timing of Insights Servicing’s creation (November 2015) and subsequent agent change (June 3, 2016) coincides with Google’s May 2016 ban on payday loan advertising, shortly after which CEO Sasha Orloff published a defense of LendUp’s short-term loans on Google Ventures’ own platform: “Google Is Right to Ban Short-Term Loan Ads, But I Won’t Stop Offering Short-Term Loans. Here’s Why.” The article, hosted by Blake Byers’ firm, includes the “Banker to the Poor” narrative repeated extensively since the 2013 “Disrupting payday loans” TEDx talk.

Both Insights Servicing and LendUp Global were abandoned simultaneously, with last filings in 2020-2021 and both becoming tax delinquent in March 2023. The stark contrast in structure—Insights Servicing with 100 authorized shares versus LendUp Global’s 372,129,965 shares—suggests different purposes for the entities.

Delaware filing history showing Insights Servicing incorporated November 6, 2015, with Change of Agent filing June 3, 2016 (one month after Google’s payday loan advertising ban). Status as of March 2, 2023: “AR Delinquent, Tax Due” with last annual report filed in 2021. Tax debt: $408.78.

California foreign corporation filing for Insights Servicing, Inc. (filed July 7, 2016, Delaware formation). Signed by Sasha Orloff as “President and CEO.” Corporate addresses listed at 225 Bush Street (San Francisco) and 237 Kearny Street. Service of process agent: Michelle Silva Fernandes, 225 Bush Street Suite 1100, San Francisco. This filing proves CEO Sasha Orloff personally established and controlled the undisclosed entity that was never mentioned to LendUp shareholders.

Virginia Annual Report (dated March 4, 2020) listing Blake Byers (Google Ventures partner) as Director alongside LendUp executives: President Anuradha Shultes, Chief Operating Officer Kimberly Morgan, CTO Kathleen Fitzpatrick, and Secretary Gizelle Barany. All officers listed at LendUp’s headquarters address (1750 Broadway Fl 3, Oakland, CA 94612). Total authorized shares: 100.

LendUp Global, Inc. (incorporated February 26, 2014) showing parallel abandonment: Status “Void, AR’s or Tax Delinquent” as of March 1, 2023, with last annual report filed in 2020. Total authorized shares: 372,129,965. Tax debt: $390,332. Both entities became delinquent within the same timeframe, suggesting coordinated abandonment.

Pattern of Deceptive Marketing

LendUp

Various CFPB enforcement actions against LendUp are publicly available online:

“LendUp was backed by some of the biggest names in venture capital. We are shuttering the lending operations of this fintech for repeatedly lying and illegally cheating its customers.”

- CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, December 21, 2021

LendUp.com continues operating via generic loan referral widget, listing the old San Francisco address and defunct phone number, directing customers to high-interest tribal lenders. The site prominently displays the Forbes logo, leveraging credibility from CEO Sasha Orloff’s 3 Forbes Finance Council articles published in 2017—a year after LendUp’s first CFPB violation and one year before the $29M fire sale. Forbes’ continued presence on a site operated 35+ months after permanent federal ban demonstrates how media credibility becomes infrastructure for ongoing consumer harm.

Forbes logo prominently displayed on LendUp.com, 35+ months after CFPB permanent ban.

The updated website notably used the phrase “When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade!” and revised it when I pointed out how tongue-in-cheek it seemed in my investigative journalism.

The website retains a blog post documenting a Q&A with Sam Altman (YC president 2014-2019): “On AI, the Future of America, and Being Gay in Tech.” In his 2017 YC Annual Letter, Altman praised as a YC company “innovating in financial services technology.”

Y Combinator’s LendUp page states: “Prior to Puzzle, I founded two startups that grew to over $100M ARR, LendUp and (spinout) Mission Lane (YC W12).” I notified Y Combinator of these false founder claims and social washing documentation in August 2023 (subject: “wtf happened at lendup”). The page remains unchanged despite corporate records proving Sasha Orloff was hired as an advisor** to Mission Lane post-acquisition, not a founder, and LendUp’s CFPB shutdown resulting in $0 to shareholders.

LendUp positioned itself as solving credit invisibility through an op-ed co-authored by Jake Rosenberg in the New York Times, stating: “Meaningful data such as on-time rent and bill payments, or even payday loan repayments, do not make it into traditional credit bureau data files.” LendUp then displayed this quote prominently on their homepage with the New York Times logo, using it as validation of their mission—despite the CFPB later documenting that LendUp failed to report to credit bureaus until 2014 (two years after launch) and charged 140,000+ borrowers the same or higher rates despite promises of credit building through the “LendUp Ladder.”

Self-referential quote by LendUp CTO Jake Rosenberg with misleading New York Times attribution.

Ahead Financials (incorporated April 2020) was a related “subsidiary” of LendUp which relied on pump-and-dump referral schemes and other questionable campaigns. Vague merger/acquisitions through common investors, as documented by Jason Mikula, were used to present a “successful exit” for various LendUp executives.

The shareholder documents justified the $29M fire sale by stating the credit card business “has had a negative impact on the Company’s loans business, the Company’s balance sheet, and the overall financial condition of the Company” and that management “sought, but has not succeeded in securing, additional equity financing.”

Roughly two years later, Ahead Financials launched, requiring:

If the credit card business was truly unfundable and “dragging down” LendUp, the existence of a funded credit card subsidiary immediately after the fire sale contradicts the stated rationale for selling shareholders’ equity for $0.

LendUp hired crisis PR firm Archie Group during its regulatory troubles. The firm “led a public change management initiative and raising new CEO’s profile” for LendUp.

The media strategy worked. Ahead received glowing coverage as an independent, women-led fintech startup, with features in MEFeater and Modern Luxury profiling the CEO and COO without mentioning LendUp. Archie Group lists LendUp and Ahead as separate clients, consistent with Ahead operating independently despite being announced as a LendUp subsidiary.

AheadMoney.com’s remaining “blog” was last updated August 2023, also notably at the end of my research.

California LLC-12 filing for Ahead Financials, LLC (filed March 29, 2021, Delaware entity #202024110747). Manager listed as Anuradha Shultes at 1750 Broadway, Suite 300, Oakland, CA 94612 - the same LendUp headquarters address and same executive who served as President of Insights Servicing. Type of business: “Digital Banking.” Registered agent: VCORP Services CA, INC. (same agent used by Insights Servicing and LendUp). This filing demonstrates the interconnected network of entities controlled by LendUp executives, all sharing the same physical address and registered agent.

FirstBoulevard and Kinly: Continued Exploitation Post-Shutdown

The pattern of creating new entities to exploit vulnerable communities continued even after CFPB enforcement and liquidation. FirstBoulevard, a digital banking platform “primarily targeting the African American community,” became entangled in the LendUp network through domain acquisitions and corporate shuffling.

The Timeline:

The Fake Acquisition Announcement (April 2023) states:

“LendUp, a pioneer in the online lending industry, today announced its acquisition of the FirstBoulevard.com domain which used to be part of First Boulevard, a financial services company offering banking options for Black America.”

This announcement appeared 9 months after the CFPB shut down LendUp (December 2021) and 10 months after LendUp’s liquidation (June 2022). The page describes LendUp as offering “transparent terms and no hidden fees” - directly contradicting CFPB findings that LendUp “repeatedly lied to consumers” and defrauded 140,000+ people.

The announcement continues:

“As a testament to its commitment to responsible lending practices, LendUp has established a solid reputation for offering a wide range of payday loan options with transparent terms and no hidden fees.”

This statement was published in April 2023, 16 months after the CFPB permanently banned LendUp from issuing consumer loans for systematic fraud.

AheadMoney.com Timeline:

The Pattern:

Greenwood (which acquired Kinly) faced its own lawsuit in July 2023. The pattern of shuffling troubled neobanks through acquisitions creates a shell game where victims lose access to funds and accountability disappears into corporate restructuring.

The FirstBoulevard.com fake acquisition announcement demonstrates continued fraudulent misrepresentation even after regulatory shutdown - claiming LendUp has “established a solid reputation” for “responsible lending practices” while the company was permanently barred from consumer lending for systematic fraud.

Rolling Loud v. Ahead Financials: $1.575M Sponsorship Fraud

February 21, 2022: Rolling Loud, LLC filed a lawsuit in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court (Case No. 2022-003284-CA-01) against Ahead Financials, LLC and Fairfax Studios, Inc. for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and conversion totaling $1.575 million in unpaid sponsorship fees ($1.375M under sponsorship agreement + $200K for livestream benefits).

The Pattern:

June 14, 2021: Fairfax Studios, LLC “o/b/o Ahead Financial, LLC” signed $2.5M sponsorship agreement for Rolling Loud festivals (Miami, New York, Los Angeles 2021-2022). Marvin Bing signed as “Founder + CCO Fairfax Studios.”

Payment Schedule (Section 3.a):

  1. $1,000,000 due within 5 days of execution (June 19, 2021)
  2. $375,000 due September 8, 2021
  3. $375,000 due 90 days before Rolling Loud Miami 2022
  4. $375,000 due 90 days before Rolling Loud New York 2022
  5. $375,000 due 90 days before Rolling Loud Los Angeles 2022

What Ahead Financials Received (Miami Event, July 23-25, 2021):

What Rolling Loud Received: $0

The Timeline of Deception:

The Default Judgment:

The judgment proved the shell company scheme: Fairfax Studios, incorporated 7 days before signing the $2.5M contract, defaulted rather than defend itself. The company had no assets to satisfy the $800K judgment—corporate records show it became tax delinquent in March 2023 with only $408.78 in unpaid taxes. The entity existed solely as a liability buffer.

The coordinated timing—judgment entered May 23, Kinly launched June 17, LendUp liquidated June 24—demonstrates the shell game in action: Fairfax took the legal hit, Ahead escaped judgment, customers transferred to Kinly, all within 32 days. Rolling Loud’s $800K judgment went uncollected while the fraud network continued operating under new branding.

The Allegations:

Count III & IV (against Fairfax Studios): Unjust enrichment and conversion - “Upon information and belief, Ahead Financials has remitted payment to Fairfax Studios for Rolling Loud’s performance” and “Fairfax Studios has wrongfully kept and continues to keep those funds from Rolling Loud”

The Middleman Scheme: Fairfax Studios operated as Ahead’s “agent” (per contract: “Fairfax Studios, LLC o/b/o Ahead Financial”), collected money from Ahead Financials, never remitted to Rolling Loud, then both companies claimed confusion about where the money went.

Ahead Financials closed operations June 2022 - 4 months after lawsuit filed, 11 months after taking $1.3M+ in Rolling Loud sponsorship benefits without payment.

Fairfax Studios, Inc. corporate status (Delaware File #5976860):

Pattern Connections:

  1. Ahead Financials (LendUp subsidiary) operated May 2021 - June 2022
  2. Rolling Loud sponsorship executed June 2021, benefits delivered July 2021, $0 paid
  3. Fairfax Studios incorporated June 2021 (week before contract), operated as payment intermediary
  4. Mission Lane and Puzzle Financial both sent cease-and-desist letters August 11, 2023 (same day) for whistleblower documentation
  5. Marvin Bing (Fairfax Studios founder) used progressive/diversity branding similar to Ahead Financials’ POC-focused marketing

The lawsuit demonstrates the operational pattern: create progressive-branded entity, sign major contracts, take benefits, fail to pay, blame intermediary, liquidate, move to next entity.

Ahead Financials’ Final Act: The entity that stole $1.575M from Rolling Loud closed 4 months after the lawsuit, leaving customers unable to access funds before acquisition by Kinly (later Greenwood, which faced its own lawsuit July 2023).

Fairfax Studios and the NAACP Connection

Marvin Bing (Fairfax Studios founder) and Jotaka Eaddy (LendUp advisor) were both NAACP members - lending civil rights organization credibility to entities systematically defrauding the communities they claimed to serve.

Fairfax Studios described itself as a “purpose driven creative agency + experiential studio built at the intersection of culture & social impact” - the exact branding formula used by LendUp (“Banker to the Poor”), Ahead Financials (POC-focused neobank), and Mission Lane (“financial access”).

The Pattern:

The use of NAACP membership and “culture & social impact” branding wasn’t incidental - it was infrastructure designed to access vulnerable communities, deflect regulatory scrutiny, and create liability buffers through shell companies with progressive credentials.

Rolling Loud’s lawsuit (February 2022) exposed the operational pattern: Ahead Financials told Rolling Loud they’d “paid Fairfax Studios directly,” Fairfax Studios never remitted payment, both companies became delinquent within months. Marvin Bing’s week-old company served as payment intermediary/plausible deniability buffer for $1.575M in sponsorship fraud targeting a hip-hop festival audience - the same demographic Ahead Financials marketed to with POC-focused branding.

Media Structural Conflicts

The pattern of fraud documented above was known to major media outlets years before publication. Their silence was not accidental—it was structural.

Forbes Midas List Conflict

July-August 2023: I reached out to former Forbes senior writer David Jeans, who had broken the NS8 fraud story in 2020. During a phone call between July 17-24, 2023, Jeans responded “Yeah, I know of Sasha” before dropping contact.

On August 3, 2023, I sent a follow-up email:

“Forbes Midas List. Conflict of interest. Got it.”

The email included a link to my article documenting social washing and Capital One connections, making explicit what was already obvious: Forbes features Puzzle’s lead investor and major LendUp investors across its prestige lists - Hemant Taneja (General Catalyst, Puzzle lead investor) at #8 on Forbes Midas List 2025, Blake Byers (Google Ventures, Insights Servicing director) on Forbes 30 Under 30 2015 with profile explicitly mentioning “LendUp” investment, Ross Fubini (XYZ Capital, Puzzle investor) at #88 on Midas List 2025, LendUp board chair/director (### Investors) at #90 on Midas List 2025. Investigating fraud by portfolio companies would implicate investors featured prominently on Forbes’ own prestige lists, including the #8 ranked investor managing Puzzle’s lead investor firm.

I wasn’t asking Jeans to cover it anymore. I was documenting that I understood why he couldn’t. The link to full documentation served as evidence that this wasn’t a lack of information—it was a structural conflict that made coverage impossible regardless of evidence quality.

The institutional conflict:

TechCrunch’s Promotional Coverage and Investigation Abandonment

TechCrunch published 9+ articles about LendUp from 2012-2017, celebrating every funding round, product launch, and executive hire:

The Curious Silence on Mission Lane:

TechCrunch’s extensive LendUp coverage (9+ articles) contrasts sharply with complete silence on Mission Lane—the company CEO Sasha Orloff claims to have founded and that achieved unicorn status. In my August 1, 2023 email to TechCrunch, I specifically noted: “Curiously I’ve found a lot of TechCrunch press for LendUp, but none for Mission Lane.” This asymmetry is telling: if Orloff truly founded Mission Lane (achieving unicorn valuation), TechCrunch would have covered it—they covered everything about LendUp. Mission Lane’s absence from TechCrunch coverage suggests the “founder” narrative didn’t hold up to basic journalistic scrutiny. TechCrunch couldn’t cover Mission Lane as “Orloff’s company” because corporate records show he was hired as advisor post-acquisition, not founder. Their own archive reveals the fraud pattern—I simply pointed it out to them.

December 2020: Senior reporter Connie Loizos profiled XYZ Capital’s Ross Fubini, allowing him to describe LendUp as being “split into two businesses” without noting it was a $29M fire sale that returned $0 to shareholders after raising $150M+.

February 2023: TechCrunch published glowing profile of Puzzle (“building a modern accounting package for today’s API-enabled startups”) - 5 months before I documented the fraud pattern.

The Investigation That Never Happened

Email to TechCrunch (August 1, 2023): sent to [email protected] with initial fraud documentation. Email noted: “Curiously I’ve found a lot of TechCrunch press for LendUp, but none for Mission Lane”—specifically alerting them to suspicious asymmetry in coverage that suggested the “Mission Lane founder” narrative might not withstand scrutiny.

Email also disclosed timing manipulation of TechCrunch’s own February 2023 Puzzle article:

“You should know they intentionally delayed the Series A announcement in your article to avoid the LendUp newscycle. Most of this money was raised in 2021, and they’d already burned it down to $9M at the start of 2023 with no revenue until (possibly) this month after repeated callouts.”

The disclosure revealed Puzzle’s Series A was raised in 2021 but not announced until February 2023—a 2-year delay that allowed the CFPB shutdown news cycle (December 2021) to fade before the CEO sought credibility through media coverage. TechCrunch’s glowing February 2023 profile made no mention of the CEO’s previous company being shut down by federal regulators 14 months earlier, despite this being highly relevant context for a founder raising capital in financial services.

This disclosure revealed:

TechCrunch received this insider disclosure about their own article’s timing manipulation—that Puzzle coordinated a 2-year delay in announcing stale funding to avoid the CFPB shutdown news cycle—and chose not to investigate why a company would strategically time media coverage to obscure the CEO’s regulatory enforcement history.

August 11, 2023: Email to TechCrunch outlining Mission Lane asset sale structure: “Mission Lane was created to purchase LendUp’s credit card business. Instead of fixing LendUp’s compliance issues and dying loan business, they had long-term plans to create a pump-and-dump neobank they could sell to First Boulevard/Kinly. FirstBoulevard.com now redirects to a new misleading LendUp ‘acquisition’ announcement.”

August 16, 2023 (7:21 PM) - Comprehensive Network Documentation:

Sent TechCrunch complete investigative package with attached court documents and corporate filings:

LendUp Asset Sale:

Rolling Loud v. Ahead Financials / Fairfax Studios:

Shell Company Network:

FirstBoulevard / Kinly / BeTenth:

Key Questions Posed:

Mission Lane:

Email concluded: “I’m starting to think Ahead was a shell company.”

This comprehensive documentation included three attached PDF files:

  1. LendUp - Information Statement (Golden Parachute).pdf (671 KB)
  2. ROLLING LOUD VS AHEAD FINANCIALS LLC, FAIRFAX STUDIOS, INC.pdf
  3. MOTION FOR ENTRY OF FINAL DEFAULT JUDGMENT ON LIQUIDATED DAMAGES AGAINST DEFENDANT FAIRFAX STUDIOS, INC.pdf

August 17, 2023: Connie Loizos responded requesting timeline clarification and phone contact to “walk through” the comprehensive evidence package including court documents, corporate filings, and shell company analysis.

August 20, 2023: Final email to Connie Loizos during initial investigation period. Subject line: “Hey again, Connie. Last update for the weekend; no obligation to read or respond.” Email opened with: “It’s ironic I’m threatened with inflicting emotional distress when I can barely sleep or live my life for months. I’ve been unemployed and feel triggered just looking at job descriptions.”

The email detailed:

This email demonstrates the emotional state of a whistleblower three months post-termination: apologizing for providing evidence, worried about “scaring off” the reporter, unable to sleep, triggered by job descriptions, yet continuing to document systematically with primary sources. Connie Loizos had responded “we’re looking into this” three days earlier. After this comprehensive follow-up, TechCrunch published nothing.

December 12, 2023: Email to [email protected] acknowledging previous “spamming” and apologizing: “I got a reply from Connie, but was ghosted likely for spamming her with research. I apologize for that; I wasn’t in a good place, and I can’t say I’m fully healed.” Email detailed coordinated retaliation between Puzzle Financial and Mission Lane (dual cease-and-desist letters from two companies on same day, August 11, 2023). Included quote from an ex-employee who started after me validating concerns. Listed specific retaliation: wrongful termination cover-up, withdrawn severance, dual C&D letters, equity revocation.

December 14, 2023: Follow-up email with link to condensed outline showing “LendUp had no intent to clean up their act” and highlighting CEO’s failure.museum post: “This man conveniently ignores all the ‘failed startup’ lists that include LendUp.”

December 15, 2023: Multiple emails escalating in frustration:

The December escalation—from apologetic (“I wasn’t in a good place”) to accusatory (“you people are shameless”) to desperate (“Proof I’m a normal person”)—documents a whistleblower’s deterioration over five months of institutional silence. TechCrunch received comprehensive evidence in August, acknowledged investigating, then ignored increasingly desperate follow-ups while continuing to promote Puzzle-sponsored events in October 2025.

I sent ActualQuickBooks evidence November 4, 2025.

TechCrunch published zero investigative articles.

October 24, 2025: TechCrunch featured Puzzle-sponsored Women Tech Meetup in their Disrupt 2025 side events guide, promoting an event hosted by the same CEO they had acknowledged investigating 2+ years prior. The event occurred October 30, 3 days after the photoshopped metrics were posted.

The pattern:

Same CEO. Same outlet. 2+ years after acknowledging investigation.

Dasha Shunina: Forbes Contributor / Puzzle GTM Strategist

Dasha Shunina serves dual conflicting roles:

Her Forbes contributor bio makes no mention of Puzzle Financial employment:

“Dasha Shunina is a San Francisco-based contributor who covers venture capital, startup news, the latest tech trends, and major conferences. She has been in tech for over 10 years, working in different accelerators, incubators, and venture funds. Dasha is the Founder of Women Tech Meetup, a community of 5,000 female founders and women in tech, as well as a regular monthly event held in San Francisco, Miami, and NYC. She hosts her own podcast, Talks with Dasha, where she interviews tech leaders.”

The bio lists Women Tech Meetup (which Puzzle sponsors), her podcast (which features Puzzle CEO), and conference speaking, but makes zero mention of Puzzle Financial employment. This systematic omission constitutes undisclosed conflict of interest: using Forbes contributor credibility to cover venture capital and startups while simultaneously employed by VC-backed startup.

Her Forbes articles demonstrate systematic conflict:

While employed as Puzzle’s GTM strategist (undisclosed in Forbes bio), Shunina published 48 articles from December 2023 through October 2025 covering venture capital, startup news, and founder challenges - the exact market Puzzle targets for customer acquisition. Key articles demonstrating the conflict:

Direct Competitive Coverage:

YC Startup Ecosystem (Puzzle’s Primary Target):

Founder/Startup Operational Challenges:

Female Founder/Diversity Focus (Women Tech Meetup Audience):

Total documented reach: 200,000+ views across 48 articles - each positioning her as independent journalist while simultaneously serving as Puzzle’s GTM strategist. The YC coverage is particularly significant given Puzzle maintains dedicated landing page (puzzle.io/yc) for YC company customer acquisition - her Forbes articles about “most promising YC startups” directly feed employer’s sales pipeline while presenting as independent editorial coverage.

These articles position her as independent journalist covering startups, sales strategy, founder challenges, and VC funding - the exact areas where Puzzle operates and seeks customers. Her Forbes platform provides credibility for network access (Women Tech Meetup, THE GATHERING) and customer acquisition, while her employer relationship remains undisclosed. Readers encountering her at conferences, through articles, or at Women Tech Meetup events have no indication she’s simultaneously employed by a VC-backed accounting startup led by CEO with CFPB enforcement history.

The systematic omission across platforms (Forbes bio, interview disclosure, article bylines) demonstrates deliberate strategy rather than oversight. Each article, conference appearance, and community event serves dual purpose: genuine contributor content and undisclosed employer marketing, with Forbes credential providing legitimacy that facilitates both.

Sasha Orloff’s Forbes Contributions (2016-2017):

CEO Sasha Orloff was himself a Forbes Finance Council contributor during LendUp’s height (2016-2017), systematically using the platform to build credibility as “thought leader” on employee wellness and financial health—while LendUp was defrauding 140,000+ consumers:

2017 Forbes Finance Council Articles (Between First and Second CFPB Violations):

The Irony: Forbes contributor asked “Is It Ethical to Lend to Working People at a 200% Interest Rate?” (October 31, 2017) - while Sasha was using the same platform to promote LendUp as ethical alternative. CFPB later documented LendUp “repeatedly lied to consumers” about rates and credit building.

The Pattern: Both Sasha (2016-2017) and Dasha (2023-2025) used Forbes contributor platforms to promote LendUp/Puzzle without adequate disclosure of conflicts, continuing across CFPB violations and regulatory shutdown. Forbes provided credibility infrastructure for companies later shut down or documented for fraud.

The scale of undisclosed conflict is systematic: 48 Forbes articles over 22 months (December 2023 - October 2025) generating 200,000+ documented views, each covering venture capital, YC startups, founder challenges, and fintech/accounting technology - the exact market Puzzle targets. The November 14, 2024 article “Top Fintech Companies Helping Solve The CPA Talent Shortage” demonstrates the conflict: covering Puzzle’s direct competitors using Forbes contributor credibility while employed as Puzzle’s GTM strategist. This isn’t occasional conflict; it’s Forbes platform systematically exploited for employer marketing, competitive intelligence, and customer acquisition pipeline generation, all without disclosure required by contributor guidelines.

The Structural Problem

Media outlets that:

…cannot investigate fraud by those VCs’ portfolio companies.

The business model prevents accountability.

I documented this in real-time:

The email to David Jeans - “Forbes Midas List. Conflict of interest. Got it.” - was the moment I understood institutional media wouldn’t help. So I became the institution.

The documentation exists because journalism failed structurally, not evidentially.

Termination, Retaliation, and Legal Threats

May 31, 2023: Termination

After establishing Puzzle’s frontend foundation over 2.5 years, I was terminated on May 31, 2023, hours after management canceled my corporate card and the day after the cofounders posted job listings to replace my role while checking my LinkedIn at midnight. On May 30, VP of Engineering Radha Shenoy canceled our scheduled 1-on-1 and sent a vague ‘Catchup’ meeting invite for May 31 with no context—a deliberate misdirection while termination was already being planned.

The corporate card cancellation was a known termination signal at Puzzle. I had seen it used on other employees before their departures. When it happened to me, I recognized the pattern immediately.

After posting about the card cancellation and workplace conditions during mental health awareness month, management deleted my post and immediately removed me from Slack.

I posted this Tweet in #random; the post was immediately deleted and I was out of Slack. Their finger was on the trigger.

I received an email stating management had “received receipt of your resignation effective today.” However, the company simultaneously sent me a formal separation agreement offering 2 weeks of severance—standard termination protocol, not resignation procedure.

The termination was executed through HR Pals, a third-party HR services provider. HR Pals sent the separation agreement requiring me to waive claims for fraud, wrongful discharge, and retaliation—a document that suggests either they didn’t review what they were asking me to sign, or they knowingly facilitated an illegal termination.

The termination was executed through HR Pals, a third-party HR services provider. HR Pals sent the separation agreement requiring me to waive claims for fraud, wrongful discharge, and retaliation—a document that suggests either they didn’t review what they were asking me to sign, or they knowingly facilitated an illegal termination

“I am reaching out to you as I have received receipt of your resignation effective today. […] Additionally, to thank you for your contributions to Puzzle, we will be offering you a payment covering 2 weeks of your salary.”

“[…] you have no right, title, claim, or interest in or to any of the Company’s securities […] you acknowledge and agree that you do not have any right, title, claim, or interest in or to the option described in the employment offer letter […] which would not be vested in any event. […] Although you are not otherwise entitled to receive any severance benefits from the Company, subject to […] your timely execution of this Agreement, […] the Company will pay you a lump sum severance payment”

In exchange for two weeks’ severance, they required me to waive claims against not just Puzzle, but ‘its predecessors, successors, past, present or future subsidiaries, affiliated companies, investors, branches or related entities’ - language encompassing LendUp, Mission Lane, all investors, and any future ventures. The specific claims I was required to waive: fraud, breach of contract, wrongful discharge, retaliation, and all equity claims. This isn’t standard severance language; this is an attempt to buy permanent silence about a decade-long pattern across multiple companies.

“You agree that you will not disclose to others the fact of this Agreement or its terms. […] You agree that you will not disparage or encourage or induce others to disparage the Company or any of its Released Parties.”

The Separation Agreement Proves Termination

The email framed severance as a “thank you for your contributions,” while the legal document stated I was “not otherwise entitled to receive any severance benefits” except “in consideration for” signing away all rights to sue, speak publicly, or claim equity.

I declined to sign the confidentiality and non-disparagement agreements within the six-day window.

Days after my termination, I posted on LinkedIn that I had been “conditioned by workplace instability into thinking I was getting fired, but in reality I resigned,” showing how effectively the gaslighting had worked. I had changed my LinkedIn tagline to “this guy’s crazy i’m sure,” anticipating that people would dismiss my documentation of the CEO’s pattern as the ravings of a disgruntled employee. I was already doubting my own memory of what happened, despite the separation agreement proving it was a termination. CEO Sasha Orloff viewed my LinkedIn profile after this post, monitoring my public struggle with the false narrative he had created.

Attempts to Protect Remaining Employees

After my termination, I contacted HR Pals multiple times attempting to protect remaining employees and report leadership misconduct:

June 6, 2023 (6 days after termination): “I’m not signing that either. None of this would have happened if the raging Silicon Valley grifter ego didn’t take over this company throughout this past month. Something is very wrong with Puzzle and you need a third-party to look into it.”

“You need to save whoever’s left. This will not go well under the current leadership and anyone close to them is so blinded by what’s really going on.”

July 6, 2023: “John Cwikla [CTO/Cofounder] has been harassing many employees since the start. Now he’s telling […] he shouldn’t have won the hackathon. If that’s a joke, it’s cruel gaslighting. If it’s real, that’s incorrigible behavior for a leadership role. Contractually, I’m not convincing anyone to leave. They do it alone with poor leadership. Please do something.”

August 8, 2024 (insurance gaslighting): “I’m writing to inform you that Puzzle has thrown a wrench in my insurance situation that is out of alignment with anything that was communicated around my ‘departure.’ Anthem says I was laid off and have continued receiving insurance as an employer benefit. Execs told my coworkers I voluntarily resigned, made everyone think I’m crazy, and I never even used this insurance again because none of you ever communicated with me outside of sending me a cease and desist letter. You already revoked my equity and caused me endless damage to my mental health. Giving me insurance to wipe your hands clean of everything is psychotic. Stop playing with people. I once again wish I never joined Puzzle. Don’t do this with people.”

“If I was ‘laid off,’ I never even filed for unemployment. I’m beyond pissed off at you all.”

August 23, 2024 (final contact): “Whether I’ve misinterpreted any events or caught everyone in a lie is not the point. I’ve suffered before, during, and after Puzzle. I’ve worked with many people in my life and have never met such shameless people who can’t own up to their mistakes in life. People who can’t treat me with an ounce of dignity without brushing aside the very real things I’ve found and questioned. People who have no idea how to de-escalate a situation if it means they have to look inward for once in their lives. Refusing to acknowledge a single word while shuffling behind the scenes, setting up meetings without talking to me directly, stalking me, and trying to shut me up with money… It was ultimately a failure of their collective character and the exact type of brainwashing that is destroying the world every second. Their ‘emotional distress’ is a mere fraction of what I’ve gone through. Everyone failed me. That’s their karma to deal with. I’m not making threats. I’m not a violent person. I’m moving on as of today. This wound has festered long enough.”

HR Pals continued servicing Puzzle Financial throughout this period and never investigated the reported misconduct.

July 2023: Voicemail Restates False Claims

On July 26, 2023, after declining to sign the separation agreement and forfeiting the severance payment, I began publicly documenting the company’s false narrative. I posted on LinkedIn about my job search struggles while exposing that Puzzle was telling employees internally I had “resigned,” including screenshots showing this messaging.

Shortly after these posts, I received a voicemail from CEO Sasha Orloff offering to cover “transition costs” and COBRA premiums “for a few months,” acknowledging he’d seen I was “facing some challenges finding your next role.” I had not received any contact from Sasha since days prior to my termination. The voicemail repeated the false claim that I had “resigned,” despite the separation agreement proving I was terminated, and despite my having just publicly exposed this lie with internal evidence.

The timing was explicit: after I refused the formal severance agreement and began posting proof of their deception with screenshots from current employees, the CEO personally reached out offering money outside any formal process. This outreach came at a moment when I was publicly vulnerable—posting about recruiter difficulties while documenting his pattern of fraud across companies.

The personal nature of this contact—a CEO directly monitoring and reaching out to a former employee who had (1) refused to sign an NDA, (2) exposed their false internal narrative with evidence from current employees, and (3) was in financial distress—demonstrates a calculated attempt to secure my silence when I was most desperate.

Three months after my termination, I was conducting open investigative journalism that my former coworkers were observing in real-time. Between August 2-10, 2023, I published multiple substantive articles documenting the fraud pattern:

Hours after posting the Asset Sale snippet on August 11, 2023, I received cease-and-desist letters from both Puzzle (my former employer) and Mission Lane (a company I never worked for) on the same day.

The coordinated legal response—same day, two companies—demonstrates:

Neither entity followed through with legal action. Both letters targeted my documentation of public corporate records.

Mission Lane’s letter accused me of “publishing false and misleading information” about the company. I had alluded to the Asset Sale document the day before. Puzzle’s email was sent hours after I posted a redacted snippet.

Puzzle’s cease-and-desist letter, sent by Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, characterized my documentation of public corporate records as “accusing the Company and its senior leadership of fraud and conspiracy” and reference “potential workplace violence charges,” despite my having no physical access to either company’s premises.

Puzzle’s letter criticized my use of a Twitter account with Puzzle 🧩🚀 x LendUp in the display name. Mission Lane’s letter criticized my registration of missionlanetruth.com. Two years later, Puzzle ran an ActualQuickBooks.com campaign—infringing on Intuit’s trademark—that resulted in police intervention and subsequent deletion of all evidence.

Hours after I posted a redacted snippet of the December 2018 LendUp asset sale document, Puzzle’s law firm threatened claims for ‘fraud and conspiracy’ accusations, workplace violence restraining orders, criminal charges, and demanded removal of all social media posts. Neither Puzzle nor Mission Lane followed through with legal action.

Mission Lane operates independently today; this documentation addresses only the 2018 asset sale structure and subsequent false founder claims.

Equity Denial and Employee Treatment

When I attempted to exercise my vested options after receiving the legal threats, my equity grants were removed from Pulley. The company page remains visible with a message to ‘Contact *@puzzle.io for any questions regarding your equity.’ The grants themselves show ‘No results found.’

Pulley showing “No results found” under “Company Grants”

On October 31, 2025, I notified Puzzle’s investors (S32, Felicis Ventures, Sterling Road) of the equity deletion, stating: “After my resignation, I attempted to exercise vested equity in Puzzle. Days later, the shares were gone from the cap table with zero notice or contact.”

June 11, 2025: CEO posted celebrating a “breakthrough” for Puzzle:

I just saw it. Today is the day that saw a first hint of our true vision at @puzzlefin. It took 5 years, and we are far from done, but today was the breakthrough. I think we will make #accounting one of the most important things for every company. Every. Single. Company.

Within the same day, he quote-tweeted himself with an uncited testimonial: “This is amazing. Puzzle will easily be a billion dollar company. I hope you gave shares to your employees because, you know, you’re building something great.. No attribution provided.

This self-manufactured validation about employee equity was posted 2 years after my vested shares were deleted from the cap table without notice. Posting uncited testimonials projecting billion-dollar valuations while simultaneously deleting vested employee equity without notice may constitute securities fraud.

I replied to the fake testimonial: “lol”

Sasha Orloff’s uncited quote claiming “Puzzle will easily be a billion dollar company. I hope you gave shares to your employees because, you know, you’re building something great.”

Internal Messaging

The company’s internal narrative contradicted the documented evidence of termination.

The internal announcement of my departure, sent by VP of Engineering Radha Shenoy to the team, stated: “Today is a sad day. Patrick is no longer with the company.” The email claimed “A few weeks ago Patrick gave notice” and that I “decided to decline and resign immediately”—directly contradicting the separation agreement proving termination, the job postings created before my departure, and the corporate card cancellation used as a termination signal.

The email positioned my departure as voluntary (”gave notice”) while simultaneously acknowledging concerning behavior changes (”we noticed a change in his behavior that was unsettling to many at Puzzle”) and offering time off that was “refused.” The email also stated they had “opened up another role for a front end / full stack developers (3 roles in total)” to replace my position, demonstrating the scope of work I had been handling alone and their dependency on my contributions. This narrative served to preempt questions from the team while reinforcing the false resignation story, despite the separation agreement’s legal language proving I was terminated and required to waive claims for wrongful discharge.

In a prior conversation, I had mentioned I was considering leaving eventually and offered to stay to transition my work. I had not submitted formal notice or resignation. The CEO referred to the card cancellation post in Slack as “a message […] that was unfortunately confused for something that it is not, and was getting some questions.”

From May 2023 onward, I’ve been referred to as “mentally ill” within and around Puzzle Financial. The company’s narrative positioned me as someone they had “tried to help”—despite the documented evidence showing termination, legal threats, and equity denial as retaliation for questioning the CEO’s credentials.

I documented the termination and CEO’s monitoring behavior in an email to my therapist on June 4, 2023, four days after being fired. My therapist, reviewing the circumstances and documentation, maintained that this was not a lawful termination and that I was experiencing workplace gaslighting—a clinical assessment that contradicted the company’s characterization of me as “mentally ill.”

After this internal characterization, CEO Sasha Orloff shared a General Catalyst article about building “for the future of mental heath[sic] care.” General Catalyst is an early investor in Puzzle Financial that did not choose to lead the second unlabeled fundraising round. His LinkedIn profile displayed the “#Hiring” badge, added at midnight (in SF) before my termination, while I sought therapy to process being fired, gaslit about the termination, and labeled “mentally ill” by the company.

The Timeline

The sequence of events demonstrates consciousness of guilt:

Each action, from the carefully worded separation agreement to the personal voicemail to the dual cease-and-desist letters, represents an escalating attempt to prevent documentation of a pattern that was already established in public records.

The separation agreement required me to waive claims for fraud, breach of contract, wrongful discharge, and retaliation, a list that reads as a confession of what they knew they had done.

November 11, 2025: Second Cease-and-Desist, Retaliation Against Federal Whistleblower

Timeline of Retaliation:

November 11, 2025 (3:33 AM ET): Filed SEC whistleblower complaint (Submission #17628-500-136-464) documenting 13-year fraud pattern with 19 supporting documents.

November 11, 2025 (Morning-Afternoon): Executed systematic partner notification campaign, notifying accounting firms, business partners, and CPA organizations of CEO’s CFPB enforcement history and ongoing fraud pattern.

November 11, 2025 (6:02 PM ET): Received cease-and-desist letter from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP on behalf of Puzzle Financial, hours after SEC complaint filing and during active partner notification campaign.

The Letter’s Demands:

Response (6:05 PM ET - 3 Minutes Later):

I responded within three minutes, stating:

Supplemental SEC Filing (6:32 PM ET - 30 Minutes After C&D):

Filed supplemental SEC complaint (Submission #17629-039-523-592) documenting federal whistleblower retaliation. Submission detailed same-day cease-and-desist letter as retaliatory action under 15 U.S.C. § 78u-6, attached C&D letter as evidence, and documented pattern of legal intimidation spanning August 2023 (dual cease-and-desist letters from Puzzle and Mission Lane) to November 2025 (second C&D hours after SEC filing).

The 30-minute response window—from receiving legal threats to filing federal retaliation complaint—demonstrates preparedness and consciousness that retaliation was inevitable. The pattern was predictable: SEC filing → immediate legal threats → documented as additional evidence. Their attempt to silence became proof of consciousness of guilt.

This Constitutes Textbook Whistleblower Retaliation:

The timing—C&D received same day as SEC complaint filing and during active stakeholder notification—demonstrates retaliatory intent. The letter attempts to silence protected whistleblower activity by:

  1. Threatening criminal prosecution for documenting public records
  2. Demanding removal of CFPB enforcement documentation (public record)
  3. Prohibiting notification of stakeholders about securities fraud
  4. Characterizing truth-based disclosures as “defamation”
  5. Attempting to halt ongoing protected activity (partner notifications)

Every statement I made is supported by public records:

I will continue engaging in protected whistleblower activity, including notifying relevant stakeholders of documented fraud patterns.

The cease-and-desist letter, rather than silencing disclosure, serves as additional evidence of consciousness of guilt and systematic attempts to suppress accountability across a 13-year fraud pattern. The immediate response to SEC filing—threatening criminal prosecution for documenting public records—demonstrates the pattern of retaliation that has characterized this matter since August 2023.

The November 11, 2025 cease-and-desist letter from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP contains a revealing acknowledgment disguised as criticism:

“Your publications and outreach reprise the same themes the Company addressed with you in August 2023 and again contain false and inflammatory accusations that are defamatory on their face and designed to injure Puzzle’s business and reputation.”

This statement is gaslighting through legal language:

“Reprise the same themes” acknowledges the pattern documented in 2023 remained consistent through 2025 - exactly what fraud documentation should show. A pattern isn’t repetition; it’s evidence.

“The Company addressed with you in August 2023” characterizes legal threats (dual cease-and-desist letters from Puzzle and Mission Lane on August 11, 2023) as having “addressed” the documentation. They didn’t refute claims with evidence, correct false statements, or provide documentation. They threatened legal action and demanded silence. Legal intimidation isn’t refutation.

“False and inflammatory accusations” - no specific claims identified as false, no evidence provided contradicting documentation, no factual refutation attempted. The letter demands removal of all content within 48 hours but never states which claims are incorrect or provides contradicting evidence.

“Defamatory on their face” - all statements are supported by public records: CFPB enforcement orders, corporate filings, court documents, archived social media posts, shareholder communications. Truth is absolute defense to defamation. If claims were false, they would cite specific falsehoods and provide contradicting evidence rather than demanding blanket removal.

Pattern across both C&D letters (August 2023, November 2025):

The gaslighting extends to characterizing partner notifications about documented fraud as “interference with Puzzle’s relationships.” Notifying accounting firms, business partners, and investors of CEO’s CFPB enforcement history and ongoing fraud pattern isn’t interference - it’s professional duty and protected whistleblower activity. The characterization demonstrates consciousness that stakeholder awareness threatens the business model.

If the documentation was false, they would prove it false. Instead, they demand silence and characterize truth-telling as defamation. The legal strategy itself is evidence of consciousness of guilt.

The Human Cost

The professional documentation above—timelines, corporate filings, CFPB records—obscures something essential: I was breaking while building this record. The gaslighting was so effective that even with contradictory evidence in hand, I doubted my own memory. Days after termination, I posted on LinkedIn that I had been “conditioned by workplace instability into thinking I was getting fired, but in reality I resigned.” I changed my tagline to “this guy’s crazy i’m sure,” anticipating that people would dismiss my documentation as the ravings of a disgruntled employee. CEO Sasha Orloff viewed my profile after this post, monitoring my public struggle with the false narrative he had created.

Breaking While Fighting

The contemporaneous communications to HR Pals show someone trying to protect others while being systematically destroyed:

June 6, 2023 (6 days after termination):

“None of this would have happened if the raging Silicon Valley grifter ego didn’t take over this company throughout this past month. Something is very wrong with Puzzle and you need a third-party to look into it. You need to save whoever’s left. This will not go well under the current leadership and anyone close to them is so blinded by what’s really going on.”

August 23, 2024 (over a year later):

“I’ve suffered before, during, and after Puzzle. I’ve worked with many people in my life and have never met such shameless people who can’t own up to their mistakes in life. People who can’t treat me with an ounce of dignity without brushing aside the very real things I’ve found and questioned. People who have no idea how to de-escalate a situation if it means they have to look inward for once in their lives. Refusing to acknowledge a single word while shuffling behind the scenes, setting up meetings without talking to me directly, stalking me, and trying to shut me up with money… It was ultimately a failure of their collective character and the exact type of brainwashing that is destroying the world every second. Their ‘emotional distress’ is a mere fraction of what I’ve gone through. Everyone failed me. That’s their karma to deal with. I’m not making threats. I’m not a violent person. I’m moving on as of today. This wound has festered long enough.”

The Isolation

When I reached out to ODF CEO Julian Weisser on January 19, 2024, after documenting the pattern comprehensively, I wrote:

“sasha let me blast him and mission lane for weeks on social media. his response? block me. then give me a call when i publicize the wrongful termination and the revoked severance, to tell me i resigned and yet he wants to offer severance one more time. then send me a cease and desist letter (along with mission lane) when i reveal the document proving **[…] bought him out for being a terrible leader. is this bullshit normal to you? because to me, this is a privileged narcissist without an ounce of empathy for the people who give him their lives. fuck this.”

ODF continued platforming him for 22 more months. This is what institutional failure looks like in real-time: a whistleblower asking “is this bullshit normal to you?” and receiving silence as an answer.

I registered toxic.systems January 21.

The Gaslighting Effect

Even now, with comprehensive primary-source documentation spanning a decade, I still question whether I’m hallucinating the pattern. The gaslighting was so systematic that I told family and friends pushing back on me: “you don’t know what this is. i don’t want to hear it. trust me.” Because explaining requires them to see what took me 2+ years to document, and they’re worried I’m being consumed by something that won’t matter.

They can’t see it yet. I can. And history will prove whether I was right.

Why The Pain Matters

This documentation exists because breaking me didn’t silence me. The system depends on:

I refused every exit ramp they offered:

Each refusal cost something. Financial precarity. Isolation from family and friends who didn’t understand. Psychological toll of being gaslit while gathering evidence. The exhaustion of fighting alone against institutional inertia.

The Inversion

I’m using AI—built and funded by the same VC ecosystem that enabled this fraud—to document their systematic deception. I’m inverting VC-backed AI to destroy the system that created it. Every fraudulent startup now faces the possibility that any technical employee can:

The marginal cost of exposing fraud just dropped to near-zero.
The marginal cost of committing fraud is about to become infinite.

What Breaking Me Created

The system broke me to protect itself. In breaking, I exposed how the system operates:

None of this would be documented if they hadn’t tried to destroy me.
My pain became the pattern.
My trauma became the evidence.
My breaking became the breaking point.

For History

Future whistleblowers will read this section and recognize themselves. The gaslighting. The isolation. The exhaustion. The self-doubt despite evidence. The family and friends who don’t understand. The institutional failure across every channel. The feeling of fighting alone against overwhelming resources.

This is what it costs to refuse to be silenced.
This is what it takes to create accountability when institutions fail.
This is what breaking looks like when you refuse to disappear.

The professional documentation—timelines, filings, corporate records—shows what happened.
These quotes show what it cost.
Both belong in the permanent record.

Outro

At the time of the legal threats, I had indeed called it fraud based on the evidence I obtained. By 2025, with CFPB enforcement actions documenting systematic deception of 140,000+ consumers, documented timeline contradictions across multiple platforms, photoshopped social media metrics, continued false statements in 2025 interviews after receiving proof of the asset sale documents in 2023, and undisclosed related-party entities, their own characterization in those legal threats was accurate.

Sixteen days before my termination, CEO Sasha Orloff posted a thread about financial discipline and avoiding fraud, specifically warning about “all-out (alleged) fraud like Frank and FTX.” The thread discussed the importance of founders “knowing your numbers” and maintaining financial discipline.

Nine days before my termination, he memory-holed LendUp, claiming Mission Lane had existed “a decade” with no mention of the company he actually ran.

In November 2024, over a year after realizing an ex-employee had the 2018 LendUp statement, Puzzle announced $30M in new funding. A week later, Orloff tweeted about “fake it til you make it” founders who defraud investors, stating “Investors should be suspicious that any portco using Quickbooks is potentially committing fraud or hiding something.”

The pattern is clear: he projects his own fraud onto others while memory-holing his failures, manipulates metrics when campaigns fail, and raises capital on a narrative contradicted by public records. The separation agreement required me to waive claims for fraud, breach of contract, wrongful discharge, and retaliation—demonstrating consciousness of guilt. Each reaction, from the carefully worded legal release to the personal voicemail to the cease-and-desist letters, represents an escalating attempt to prevent documentation of a pattern spanning a decade.

Someone who manipulates meaningless social media metrics shouldn’t be trusted with financial metrics. Puzzle positions itself as accounting infrastructure for startups - providing financial reporting, tax preparation, audit trails, and metrics for fundraising. Yet the CEO demonstrates:

Every startup using Puzzle for accounting, tax filing, or fundraising metrics is trusting their financial data to someone with a documented pattern of manipulating numbers and a decade-long history of financial fraud resulting in regulatory shutdown.

For accounting professionals: CPAs and accounting firms providing services to, partnering with, or recommending Puzzle may face professional liability and regulatory risk. State CPA boards require due diligence on business relationships. Continuing to associate with or provide services to an entity led by someone with documented fraud history and pattern of metric manipulation, after being made aware of this documentation, may constitute knowing participation in compromised financial reporting. Professional standards require CPAs to withdraw from engagements when integrity of financial data is questionable.

I share this to preserve the public record.

Patrick Stoica
[email protected]
LinkedIn

Homework

Does this LinkedIn post from November 7, 2025 count as continuation of fraudulent conduct? Yes!

Thanks for this birthday gift, Sasha! (Turned 34, spent my Jesus year documenting your fraud.)

CEO uses founder of financial planning startup as validator (”Sasha’s been there as a real support”), demonstrating self-legitimacy loops continuing post-documentation. The pattern persists: business partner endorsement, product integration positioning, targeting founders in the network.

Appendix: Pattern Recognition and Documentation

Over 2+ years of documentation, several patterns became clear that may be useful for others dealing with similar situations.

Reactive Monitoring

Performative Contradiction

Self-Legitimacy Loops

Credential Distribution and Access Building

Narrative Control Tactics

Gaslighting Indicators

Strategic Timing

Documentation is Protection

Progressive Branding and Linguistic Engineering

Watch: “Disrupting payday loans: Sasha Orloff at TEDxSacramento

“In all honesty, only watch that clip if you hate yourself”- Kadhim Shubber, 2016

Continuing Partnerships and Real-Time Suppression

November 10, 2025: Puzzle announced CPA.com partnership for Digital CPA Conference 2025 (December 7-10, Washington DC, Booth #8). The LinkedIn post stated “Swing by Booth #8 to meet our team and see a live product demo.”

Comment from Dasha Shunina (Forbes contributor, founder of Women Tech Meetup, Puzzle’s GTM strategist): “Puzzle 🧩🚀 I’m so excited! Please come say hi! We’d love to meet you!” The comment received initial engagement from Women Tech Meetup and THE GATHERING accounts, as with all Puzzle posts.

I commented on the post warning CPAs about the CEO’s CFPB enforcement history and professional liability concerns, and emailed [email protected] notifying conference organizers with complete documentation.

My comment was deleted within 4 minutes.

The sequence demonstrates active monitoring and immediate suppression: Partnership announcement → Warning posted → Conference organizers notified → Evidence deleted within 4 minutes. This mirrors the same pattern of evidence deletion seen with the ActualQuickBooks campaign and across the decade-long fraud pattern.

Sasha and Dasha, November 10 12:30PM ET

My warning to accounting professionals being exposed to ongoing fraud, deleted in 4 minutes

Sasha shared conference announcement again, November 10 3:00PM ET

Systematic CPA Testimonial Deployment and Evidence Suppression

Timeline of Testimonial Weaponization:

October 27, 2025: ActualQuickBooks campaign with photoshopped metrics (3 likes → 12,362), police intervention, evidence deletion

November 2, 2025: Published full ActualQuickBooks documentation with photoshopping evidence

November 4, 2025 (approximately, posted “1w” as of Nov 12): Charles Crabtree, VP of Accounting Firm Partnerships at Puzzle Financial, shared testimonial from Joe Faris, CPA (Corporate Tax Professional for Startups, Accountalent) stating: “We have been dealing with Puzzle 🧩🚀 for a few years and their commitment to firms like ours is the gold standard! Sasha Orloff and his staff are of the highest integrity.”

I left a comment on Charles Crabtree’s November 4 post linking to fraud documentation. The comment is no longer visible on the post. This follows the same suppression pattern as the CPA.com conference post (November 10), where my warning comment was deleted within 4 minutes of posting.

November 10, 2025: Puzzle announces CPA.com Digital CPA Conference partnership. My warning comment deleted within 4 minutes after notifying conference organizers ([email protected]) of CEO’s CFPB enforcement history.

November 11, 2025 (21 hours before Nov 12 noon): Charles Crabtree posted announcing Puzzle’s attendance at Digital CPA.com 2025 (December 7-10, Washington D.C.) - the same conference where warning was suppressed one day earlier.

November 11, 2025 (Noon ET): Puzzle company page reshared Joe Faris testimonial - second deployment following fraud documentation

November 11, 2025: Charles Crabtree notified via email ([email protected]) regarding systematic deployment of CPA endorsements despite partner’s prior notification and pattern of evidence suppression

Joe Faris was previously notified via LinkedIn message titled “Concerns Regarding Sasha Orloff” with comprehensive fraud documentation including CFPB enforcement, photoshopped metrics, and false credentials. Despite notification, the testimonial was deployed twice by Puzzle executives managing CPA relationships.

Evidence Suppression Pattern:

The systematic deletion of fraud documentation from CPA-focused posts demonstrates consciousness of fraud:

Charles Crabtree’s role as VP of Accounting Firm Partnerships involves:

This is crisis management using CPAs as human shields, not organic testimonial sharing. A CPA vouching for “highest integrity” of a CEO with CFPB enforcement history, deployed by the executive managing CPA relationships 3 days after metric manipulation documentation, with systematic suppression of fraud evidence from the same posts, demonstrates coordinated weaponization of professional credibility to deflect from documented fraud.

Professional liability concerns:

Someone who manipulates social media metrics shouldn’t be trusted with financial metrics. Someone who systematically deletes fraud warnings from posts targeting CPAs demonstrates consciousness that the evidence, if seen by accounting professionals, would damage the business relationship.

Crabtree sharing Faris testimonial “1w” as of November 11, 2025. My comment to this detailing ActualQuickBooks evidence was deleted.

Puzzle resharing the testimonial November 11, 2025 12PM ET.

Crabtree sharing Digital CPA November 10, 2025, a week after having deleted comment containing ActualQuickBooks evidence.

Y Combinator Continued Active Platforming (November 10, 2025)

Days after publication of complete fraud documentation (with continual updates and warnings), Puzzle reposted Y Combinator’s celebration of customer The Prompting Company’s $6.5M seed round. The post stated “Nothing makes us happier than seeing our customers thrive” - using YC’s 1.5M follower platform for customer acquisition and legitimacy positioning.

The customer amplification loop: The Prompting Company (Michelle Marcelline, CEO) subsequently reposted Puzzle’s celebration post, creating a circular legitimacy pattern: YC celebrates customer → Puzzle reposts YC’s celebration → Customer reposts Puzzle’s repost of YC’s celebration. This manufactured social proof obscures that all three entities are promoting accounting software led by someone with CFPB enforcement history for defrauding 140,000+ consumers. The customer becomes an unwitting participant in legitimizing fraud through standard “thank you for the support” social media behavior.

This demonstrates YC’s continued active role in Puzzle’s customer acquisition infrastructure 28 months after receiving notification (August 5, 2023: subject “wtf happened at lendup”), days after publication (notified again Nov 9, 2025) of complete fraud documentation including:

YC provides Puzzle with:

The timing is brazen: Celebrating how customers “thrive” while platforming a CEO with documented history of defrauding 140,000+ customers. The CFPB stated LendUp “repeatedly lied to consumers.” YC’s LendUp company page continues displaying false founder claims despite notification with corporate records proving Sasha Orloff was hired as advisor, not founder.

The repost occurred November 10, 2025 5:24 PM ET, demonstrating:

Puzzle reposts Y Combinator customer celebration, November 10 5:24 PM ET - using YC’s 1.5M follower platform days after complete fraud documentation published

Diversity Theater and Network Exploitation

Dasha Shunina serves as Puzzle’s Go-To-Market strategist while simultaneously working as a Forbes contributor covering venture capital and startups—an undisclosed conflict of interest. She founded THE GATHERING and Women Tech Meetup, which Puzzle sponsors and uses for network access and diversity positioning.

Shunina’s dual role mirrors the broader pattern: former Forbes senior writer David Jeans (covering tech) dropped contact after initially responding “Yeah, I know of Sasha” during a phone call when notified of fraud documentation in July 2023. Forbes prestige lists feature Puzzle’s lead investor and LendUp investors across multiple programs: Hemant Taneja (General Catalyst, Puzzle lead investor) ranked #8 on Forbes Midas List 2025; Blake Byers (Google Ventures, Insights Servicing director) on Forbes 30 Under 30 (2015) with profile explicitly mentioning LendUp investment; Ross Fubini (XYZ Capital, Puzzle investor) ranked #88 on Forbes Midas List 2025; LendUp board chair/director (### Investors) ranked #90 on Midas List 2025. Shunina uses her Forbes platform to cover the tech industry while simultaneously serving as GTM strategist for a company led by someone shut down by federal regulators for defrauding 140,000+ consumers.

November 12, 2024: Shunina interviewed CEO Sasha Orloff on her YouTube series “Talks with Dasha” without disclosing her employment relationship. The interview demonstrates systematic credential inflation:

“I think you are the most founder focused founder that I know… and now your thing is like, you’re a serial founder, right, and you have collectively raised over $1B in venture capital and debt, you’re a YC alumni, your company reached unicorn status before Puzzle, you’re CEO of Puzzle […] that I’m happy to be part of right now too, […] so you’re a speaker, you do multiple other things, so that is so so impressive, did i miss anything?”

  • Dasha Shunina; Puzzle GTM Strategies, Women Tech Meetup, Forbes Contributor

The “$1B+ raised” claim aggregates equity and debt financing without distinguishing between the two, and omits that the December 2018 LendUp asset sale returned $0 to shareholders after raising $150M+ in equity. The “unicorn status” refers to Mission Lane—the company Orloff falsely claims to have founded despite corporate records proving he was hired as an advisor post-acquisition. Mission Lane achieved unicorn valuation, but Orloff was not a founder and joined after the December 2018 asset sale structure. Shunina validates this false credential without challenge. The phrase “that I’m happy to be part of right now too” confirms Shunina was already employed by Puzzle during this interview while simultaneously maintaining her Forbes contributor role.

This wasn’t journalism. This was an infomercial produced by an employee.

The Women Tech Meetup sponsorship and diversity positioning follows the LendUp playbook: using progressive branding (”Banker to the Poor,” “financial inclusion,” Ahead Financials “women-led”) to deflect scrutiny while executing predatory business practices. Shunina’s networks provide access to underrepresented founders who may be more vulnerable to exploitation through manufactured trust and special access positioning.

Watch: Sasha Orloff, Co-Founder & CEO of Puzzle on Accounting, Fundraising, and Team Building

Tech Industry Network Complicity

October 10, 2023: OpenAI Head of Research Tal Broda posted on Twitter: “More! No mercy! @IDF don’t stop!” in response to Hillel Fuld’s tweet about Gaza bombing. I attempted to alert TechCrunch to this in December 2023 emails, noting their selective accountability: willing to criticize some tech leaders while protecting others. TechCrunch published nothing about either issue—neither documented fraud at fintech companies nor public genocide cheerleading by OpenAI leadership.

The pattern of selective accountability extends beyond fintech: major tech media outlets depend on access to companies like OpenAI (Sam Altman previously praised LendUp in 2017 YC Annual Letter as “innovating in financial services technology”). Institutions cannot investigate fraud or ethical violations by companies/individuals central to their coverage ecosystem without implicating their own prior promotional content and access relationships.

Weaponized Empowerment: Women Tech Meetup as Reputation Laundering

November 20, 2025: Puzzle Financial sponsored Women Tech Meetup event “Tell Me I Can’t” - themed around women building wealth and financial independence. The event was organized by Dasha Shunina (Puzzle’s GTM strategist, Forbes contributor, Women Tech Meetup founder) with messaging encouraging women to “become angel investors,” “build wealth confidently,” and “talk openly about money.”

The irony is systematic:

The event’s empowerment messaging (“For years, women have heard: I can’t”) positions financial risk-taking and wealth-building as acts of defiance - sponsored by a company led by someone whose track record demonstrates systematic wealth destruction:

The event theme “Tell Me I Can’t” takes on darker meaning when the sponsor’s CEO responded to federal shutdown (CFPB: “you can’t issue consumer loans”) by launching new entities and continuing operations. The phrase becomes less about empowerment and more about defiance of accountability.

Dasha Shunina’s role demonstrates the infrastructure:

As Forbes contributor, she covers venture capital and startups while simultaneously serving as Puzzle’s GTM strategist (employment relationship obscured in her November 2024 “interview” with CEO, stating only she’s “happy to be part of [Puzzle] right now too” while validating false credentials including “$1B+ raised” and “unicorn founder” claims contradicted by corporate records).

This follows the LendUp playbook: “Banker to the Poor” narrative while charging predatory rates, “financial inclusion” marketing while violating Military Lending Act against service members, “credit building” promises while failing to report to credit bureaus. Progressive branding as cover for extractive practices targeting the communities being “helped.”

Event messaging: “Your wealth is not a dream. It’s a plan.”

CEO’s actual track record: Plans that systematically destroyed wealth for shareholders, consumers, and employees across 13 years.

The event positions women taking financial risks as inspirational while obscuring that the sponsor’s CEO poses the financial risk. “Talk openly about money” is encouraged at an event sponsored by a company that deleted employee equity without notice and threatened legal action against whistleblower documenting financial fraud. The cognitive dissonance is the point; progressive cover enables continued operation despite documented pattern.

Women Tech Meetup provides legitimacy infrastructure (10,000-member community, safe space narrative, empowerment messaging) that Puzzle leverages for customer acquisition and reputation laundering. The community becomes unwitting participants in credibility theater, their authentic desire for support weaponized as cover for CEO with CFPB enforcement history targeting the accounting software their startups depend on.

Someone who deleted my vested equity shouldn’t be sponsoring events about women building wealth.

Weaponized Expertise

CEO Sasha Orloff holds a B.S. in Applied Math and Economics with a minor in Behavioral Psychology from UC San Diego, and an M.B.A. from Georgetown. The systematic use of gaslighting (making employees doubt termination vs. resignation), strategic timing of offers during vulnerability, mental health stigma as a silencing tactic, and performative contradiction (public mental health advocacy while privately weaponizing it) demonstrates applied knowledge of psychological manipulation rather than isolated incidents.

The “Banker to the Poor” narrative, credential inflation, and progressive branding are applications of behavioral psychology principles to manufacture trust, deflect accountability, and exploit cognitive biases in investors, consumers, and employees.

What to Watch For

For current/former employees: If you see card cancellations used as termination signals, separation agreements with unusual release language covering “predecessors and affiliates,” or “mentally ill” characterizations of departed colleagues, document everything contemporaneously.

For investors: If a founder’s timeline contradictions are verifiable through public records, or if “successful founder” claims don’t match corporate filings, the pattern deserves scrutiny before additional capital deployment. Look for self-legitimacy loops—constant credential inflation paired with vague answers when pressed for specifics.

For anyone documenting misconduct: Reactions are evidence. Monitoring, outreach during vulnerability, legal threats—each response validates the pattern being documented and demonstrates consciousness of guilt. The performative public persona and private retaliation are both part of the same system.

failure.museum

During the company rebrand from Valencia Data to Puzzle Financial (2020-2021), I remarked to colleagues that the old branded materials would be interesting to anyone looking for connections later - not knowing I would eventually document a decade-long pattern of fraud, hidden entities, and systematic deception. CEO Sasha Orloff seemed uncomfortable with the observation. What felt like casual pattern recognition at the time became documented reality years later. XYZ Capital partner Ross Fubini, who was present during this period, had previously invested in LendUp through Kapor Capital and now appears on Forbes’ 2025 Midas List (debuting) - the same prestige list ecosystem (Midas List, 30 Under 30) that featured Blake Byers with a profile explicitly mentioning LendUp investment, creating structural conflicts that constrained former Forbes senior writer David Jeans from pursuing the story after initially responding “Yeah, I know of Sasha.”

Ross Fubini (XYZ Capital, Forbes 2025 Midas List, former Kapor Capital investor in LendUp) during Valencia Data period. When the company rebranded from Valencia Data, I observed that old branded materials would be interesting to anyone connecting dots later. CEO Sasha Orloff seemed uncomfortable with the remark. In a 2020 TechCrunch interview by Connie Loizos, Fubini described LendUp as being “split into two businesses” - the $29M asset sale that returned $0 to shareholders. Fubini was notified of fraud documentation in November 2025. Connie Loizos was notified of fraud documentation in August 2023.

December 13, 2023: Six months after my termination, CEO shared “failure.museum” - a site documenting failed startups - with laughing emoji, commenting “Power law of venture capital at it’s finest. RIP FTX, Juicero, Hopin…” This was posted while LendUp (CFPB shutdown, 140,000+ victims, $0 to shareholders) was conspicuously absent from his reflection on startup failures. I forwarded this post to [email protected] in December 2023, adding to the documentation already provided to senior reporter Connie Loizos in August 2023. The performative contempt for regulatory accountability came while operating accounting software trusted for financial reporting and tax preparation.

← back to home