PORTLAND, Texas — A paper trail, or lack there of, has connected three people who believe they’ve been scammed out of thousands of dollars.
Rosie Davis hired Danna McKellar Ntaka to help her start a non-profit organization. Davis’ mother died from complications of COVID-19 in May 2020. She wanted to start the Yellow Heart Memorial, a service creating memorials across the country, so those who died of COVID-19 aren’t forgotten.
Davis met Ntaka several times in-person, and told her she filed the proper paperwork with the IRS to get the organization’s identification number back in July 2021. Ntaka was paid $1,700 to start out. As of Friday, Davis has not received any confirmation from Ntaka or the IRS.
“So, I told her,” said Davis. “I said ‘listen, I just got off the phone with the IRS and the IRS said they have absolutely nothing on me.’ I said, and ‘I’m very upset’. And I go, ‘what is going on?'”
Davis said Ntaka gave excuse after excuse on why she couldn’t give confirmation to Davis. First it was because the IRS was backed up with six million requests. Then it was that the confirmation was buried in 3,000 emails. Then it was that she might have filed the organization under a different name.
“I talked to another friend of mine that had filed after me and already got her number back,” said Davis. “And she was like, ‘that’s really weird.'”
Before any red flags appeared, Davis suggested Ntaka to Valerie Villegas. She was just starting a non-profit herself, in honor of her…
