Call the office number listed for Brown Financial and Consulting Services Group, LLC – (202) 763-0143 – and it almost sounds like someone answers. There’s wind, a scrape across the speaker, a few seconds of ambient noise. Then the line drops at exactly 16 seconds.

Call again and the same thing happens. Identical sounds. Same timing. A recording meant to mimic an accidental pickup and hang-up.

That voicemail shell is what remains of Brown Financial Services now that its CEO, Yolanda Brown, is potentially facing criminal charges after allegedly siphoning more than $200,000 from St. Petersburg Mayor Kenneth Welch’s campaign PAC. Welch has since said he is pursuing both state and federal charges.

But Welch was not Brown’s first stop, and those close to Welch’s campaign expressed extreme shock at Brown’s actions.

Brown – who has also gone by Yolanda Cheers and Yolanda Rumph – has left a decade-long paper trail across multiple states. California. Florida. And now, by appearances, New York. The names change. The behavior does not.

In California, operating as Yolanda Cheers, Brown settled an embezzlement case for $330,000 in 2024. She had been indicted in Alameda County for awarding herself unauthorized bonuses while working as an accountant for BMWL & Partners, a financial management firm in Oakland, California. After her dismissal, she attempted to secure fraudulent lines of credit using the firm’s name.

It turns out it doesn’t take much to start over. A new state. A new address. A new last name. That’s all it takes to be listed as chair and treasurer of a political action committee without raising red flags. In fact, she was facing trouble with California law enforcement while simultaneously working on Welch’s first campaign.

There is no stopgap mechanism that vets the background of individuals listed on campaign finance filings. Everything is self-reported. And as both Chair and Treasurer, Brown had full access to Welch’s warchest.

Brown’s listed office address – 1931 Cordova Rd., Suite 2016, Fort Lauderdale – is not an office at all. It’s a Pak Mail location, which Brown listed as the principal address, mailing address and registered agent’s physical address (which it is not). When Poliverse contacted the business, neither Pak Mail staff nor neighboring tenants in the plaza had heard of Brown Financial and Consulting Services Group, LLC.

The company’s existence appears to be supported primarily by a website and its repeated appearance in campaign expense reports. Besides Welch’s campaign finances, Brown appears as treasurer on numerous other active and inactive financial reports listed through the Florida Division of Elections.

Public records show the consulting firm was first launched in August 2020 under Willie Rumph Jr., Brown’s now husband, with Brown listed as CEO. Rumph dissolved the entity in May 2024. It was re-registered in January 2025 with Brown as the sole registered agent.

Also tied to Brown is OReilly Business, LLC, the recipient of multiple allegedly unauthorized transactions totaling more than $207,000, taken from Welch’s campaign funds. Records show a $100,000 withdrawal in August, along with several transactions ranging from $20,000 to $25,000, all flagged as unauthorized.

Welch’s political action committee now has a new treasurer, Brandon Philipczyk, and a new Chair, Adrienne Bogen.