How the Brazilian FBI Fugitive Patrícia Lélis Hijacked Project Veritas for Personal Revenge
The fugitive influencer turned the once-mighty sting outlet into her private vengeance machine
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On October 11, the American conservative media group Project Veritas reported that two Brazilians had been arrested in Florida. According to the story, they were allegedly members of the Venezuelan criminal organization Tren de Aragua, involved in child sex trafficking and plotting an attack against a synagogue in Orlando — in addition to illegal immigration.
The plot was so outrageous that not even Hollywood’s wildest screenwriters could have imagined it. Still, the story went viral among right-wing audiences in the U.S. and was echoed by a few Brazilian outlets, including TV Record.
What Project Veritas failed to mention was that one of the central figures behind the story was Patrícia Lélis, a 31-year-old Brazilian influencer infamous in her home country for a long record of public lies, false accusations, and financial scams.
Lélis is currently wanted by the FBI, formally charged with immigration fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering — crimes that allegedly defrauded immigrants of more than $700,000. Despite this, Project Veritas has presented her in its recent “investigations” as a whistleblower.
Another key omission: one of the arrested Brazilians, Janaína Toledo, happens to be a long-time personal rival of Patrícia Lélis. Once friends, the two women have publicly feuded for years — trading accusations on social media and even suing each other.
When contacted by A Investigação, Lélis denied any involvement with Project Veritas, insisting she “did not send messages or evidence” to the outlet and had “never worked with the FBI.” But videos posted by Lélis herself on TikTok tell a very different story. In clips published on October 10 and 11, she appears euphoric, celebrating Toledo’s arrest — calling her “my stalker” — and describing in detail her supposed role in the case.
“I gathered a group of badass journalists and we started investigating,” she says in one video. “We worked together with local Florida police and the FBI. [...] She was arrested — and my work was well done.”
In another video, she again claims to have been actively involved in the operation, saying she worked “alongside other investigative journalists” and that “all the material would be published on Project Veritas.” She boasts that the group “went to the police station,” delivered “evidence,” and that “the FBI got the judge’s warrant to enter the hotel.” According to Lélis: “Our journalism group made this deal with the police, and we’re going to post everything on Project Veritas.”
However, the recordings contradict her later statements. At one point, her own audio reveals that the “location” of the suspects was not discovered through any police or journalistic investigation but through a private message — “Janaína told Juliana where she was.” This raises serious questions about how the “evidence” was obtained — and whether private communications were illegally accessed.
The woman Lélis mentions, Juliana Santos, is a fashion designer who has accused the influencer of leading an online smear campaign against her through a page called “Victims of the Stylist.” In one of the TikTok videos, Lélis ends by threatening her directly: “You’d better watch your back.”
Public records reviewed so far indicate that the two Brazilians are in immigration custody (ICE) and face no formal federal charges for terrorism or sex trafficking, contrary to what Project Veritas claimed.
The TikTok videos completely undermine the official statement from Lélis’s team and confirm her direct involvement with Project Veritas — as well as her personal motive: revenge. “Be vengeful,” she says in one clip. “I waited five years to get this woman.” Hardly the language of a credible journalist.
This is the third “investigation” published by Project Veritas targeting individuals who have clashed with Lélis, suggesting the outlet has become a tool in her personal feuds. In another report, the group claimed to possess messages in which Republican strategist Jason Miller supposedly discussed CIA support for Brazil’s Bolsonaro family — a claim that quickly circulated in conspiracy circles before being debunked.
Once known for undercover videos and sting operations targeting liberal groups, Project Veritas has seen its credibility and finances collapse since the ouster of its founder James O’Keefe. Now, by platforming a fugitive influencer facing FBI charges, the organization may have finally hit rock bottom.
In her videos, Lélis brags: “I used my intelligence and my resources to take that bitch down. I worked 24 hours a day to make it happen.” Her words reveal both the obsessive drive for revenge and her self-image as the mastermind of the operation — in direct contradiction to the sanitized version given by her PR team.
Whether Project Veritas is being paid or manipulated by Lélis remains unclear. What is clear is the timing: her involvement began precisely as the organization was collapsing — and she was facing federal prosecution in Virginia over a fraudulent visa scheme, posing as an immigration lawyer and promising expedited green cards through the EB-5 investor program.
A Investigação dug deep into Lélis’s activities in the United States and found a pattern of deception now exported from Brazil to American soil — a web of fraud and manipulation that has reached even U.S. federal authorities.
The Ex-Friend
The feud between Patrícia Lélis and Janaína Toledo goes back years. In May 2019 — six years ago — I interviewed Janaína, in a conversation that was never published. She told me she first met Patrícia in 2017, after following her on social media. At the time, Janaína said she was skeptical about the wave of criticism surrounding the journalist — who was already notorious in Brazil for fabricating rape and abuse accusations, and for psychiatric reports diagnosing her as a compulsive liar.
Their virtual friendship soon turned into an in-person relationship. But according to Janaína, she quickly noticed signs of manipulation. “She would make up bizarre stories, like a pregnancy that never existed. She always needed to be at the center of some kind of drama,” Janaína recalled.
The friendship didn’t last long. After a breakup left Janaína emotionally shaken, Patrícia offered help — saying she knew an excellent fortune-teller.
“She told me the woman could predict whether I’d get back together with my ex. The consultation was through WhatsApp. The psychic refused to send voice messages, saying her microphone was broken. I went ahead with it, and at the end, she asked for a bank transfer. I sent the money,” Janaína said.
A few days later, when a mutual friend showed her a receipt from a cash transfer Patrícia had requested, Janaína realized the “psychic” was actually Patrícia herself.
“He showed me the receipt. It was the same account used by the fortune-teller — same bank branch, same account number, same tax ID. Only one letter was different in the name. That’s when it all clicked: she was the psychic,” Janaína told me, adding that Patrícia denied everything. After that, their friendship ended for good.
But the breakup didn’t end the conflict. The two began trading public insults. Patrícia called Janaína a “prostitute” and created a Google Drive folder where she stored screenshots, videos, and private conversations to “prove” she was being harassed. The files also included private messages from Janaína’s friends, exposing their phone numbers and personal data.
Helping her compile this “dossier” was Deise Ellston, the author of a self-published biography of Patrícia Lélis — and someone who also claims to have been stalked by Janaína. Deise Ellston is a Brazilian living in the United States who describes herself online as an “internationalist, political scientist, and expert in International and Civil Law.” She came to public attention earlier this year after claiming her 13-year-old son had been assaulted at a school in Virginia, allegedly suffering partial facial paralysis. Her story led to an online fundraiser that collected over $6,000. Before that, Deise had filed a federal labor lawsuit against a company called Via Satellite Inc., alleging harassment, discrimination, and retaliation after she reported racism at work. The case — filed without a lawyer — was dismissed by a Virginia federal court for lack of factual evidence. Formerly a friend of Janaína and an adversary of Patrícia, Deise switched sides — becoming Patrícia’s ally and Janaína’s rival.
Janaína, on the other hand, is believed by multiple sources to have created the Instagram account “O Fantástico Mundo de Lelé” (“The Fantastic World of Lelé”), used to mock and expose Patrícia’s contradictions. Attempts to contact Janaína and Leonardo’s relatives in Brazil were unsuccessful. People close to the couple said the family does’nt want to talk about the case.
Over time, the online feud spilled into the courts. In 2023, Patrícia sued Janaína — and lost. In February 2024, a new court ruling ordered Lélis to delete defamatory posts and forbade her from mentioning her former friend’s name on social media.
One day before her arrest, Janaína Toledo told friends about a disturbing incident at her hotel. Someone had gone up to her room door and left an iced Starbucks coffee with her name on the cup. The delivery, according to the hotel front desk, was made by “a friend of the couple.”
In private messages obtained by A Investigação, Janaína described the gesture as a form of psychological harassment. “Imagine someone going up to your apartment and leaving something at your door,” she wrote. “She’s a psychopath — obsessed. This is psychological warfare, and it works.”
Days later, Project Veritas released hidden-camera footage showing that very scene with the Starbucks cup — using it as supposed “proof” that the couple had been located.
The Legal Status of the Arrests
Although Janaína Toledo denied being in the United States illegally when she spoke with A Investigação, official ICE records show that she was initially held at the Broward Transitional Center in Florida and was later transferred to the Eloy Federal Contract Facility (CoreCivic) in Eloy, Arizona, where she remains under the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Her husband, Leonardo Antonio Corona Ramos, also remains in ICE custody. He was first detained at the Florida Soft Side South Detention Center — commonly known as “Little Alcatraz”, a federal security facility in Miami-Dade County — and, as of early November 2025, was transferred to the Glades County Detention Center in Moore Haven, Florida, according to the official ICE Detainee Locator System.
Both are being held on immigration violations, which indicates that their cases are administrative, not criminal. So far, there are no public records of formal charges for terrorism, child trafficking, or connections to the Tren de Aragua criminal organization — contrary to the allegations circulated by Project Veritas.
Sources in the U.S. told A Investigação that the arrests were carried out by federal immigration agents, not local police. The same sources said the case is being handled confidentially by ICE, possibly with limited oversight from the FBI. According to one of them, the level of secrecy is unusual: state and local authorities reportedly have no access to arrest records, suggesting a tightly controlled federal process.
The current context of U.S. immigration policy helps explain this opacity. Since the beginning of Donald Trump’s second term, the immigration system has faced a severe operational crisis. ICE and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) have been overwhelmed by backlogs, inter-agency communication failures, and a mass-deportation policy often carried out without minimum humanitarian conditions or proper legal representation.
This overload has led to a practical collapse in the investigative capacity of some federal agencies.
“ICE is overcrowded and the FBI has other priorities,” one source said. “They’re deporting hundreds of people every week and can’t even handle the serious cases. That’s why situations like Patrícia Lélis’s are ignored — not because they’re unimportant, but because the system is collapsing. The FBI simply doesn’t have time to chase a foreign national over fraud or false claims when there are real immigration and border crises to manage.”
According to immigration attorney Luana Biagini, from the U.S.-based Biagini Law Group, anyone who stays in the country beyond their authorized period automatically begins to accumulate unlawful presence.
“If your visa expires and you don’t apply for a new status — through work, marriage, family petition, or political asylum — you become ‘out of status,’” Biagini explained. “Those who remain illegally for six months to a year and then leave the country face a three-year reentry ban. If they stay longer than a year, the ban extends to ten years.”
Biagini noted that even in such cases, detainees have the right to a hearing before an immigration judge and cannot be deported automatically.
“ICE must issue a Notice to Appear before the Court,” she said. “The judge then evaluates whether the person poses a danger to society or a flight risk. If not, they can grant bail, which typically ranges from $1,500 to $50,000.”
For those seeking to remain in the United States, several forms of immigration relief are still available — such as asylum claims, U-Visas for victims of crime, T-Visas for victims of human trafficking, or status adjustments based on marriage or family relationships with U.S. citizens.
However, Biagini emphasized that deadlines are strict, and the government often denies asylum requests filed more than one year after entry, unless there are exceptional circumstances.
“It’s important to understand that ICE can’t just put someone on a plane and send them away,” Biagini added. “That only happens when a final removal order has been issued by a judge.”
The “Redhead from the Psych Ward”
Patrícia Lélis is a near-mythical figure in Brazilian politics — known as much for her shifting political allegiances as for her instability. On social media, she’s often called the “ruiva do CAPS” — literally, “the redhead from the mental-health clinic.” The nickname combines two of her trademarks: her chemically dyed red hair — she once digitally altered a childhood photo to make it appear natural — and her erratic, attention-seeking behavior, mockingly linked to Brazil’s CAPS centers, government clinics for psychiatric treatment.
Lélis first emerged as a conservative activist, a vocal supporter of Jair Bolsonaro and a self-declared anti-feminist. But after accusing then-congressman Marco Feliciano and his aide Talma Bauer of attempted rape and kidnapping — claims later debunked due to contradictions and lack of evidence — she reinvented herself as a victim of abuse, embraced by sectors of the Brazilian left.
A 2016 investigation by the major news outlet Metrópoles, published during the Feliciano controversy, profiled Lélis as someone who “collected poorly told stories.”
The report described a pattern of contradictory and unverifiable accounts about both personal and professional events. By then, she already had at least five police reports filed in her name with the Civil Police of Brasília.
Among them was an alleged rape case that Lélis said occurred when she was 15 — supposedly committed by a washing machine technician who visited her home. Metrópoles journalists interviewed her for a series about assault victims but later decided not to publish the story. They found her account overly detailed yet inconsistent; as questions grew more specific, her narrative began to unravel.
While still a journalism student, Lélis interned in several Brasília newsrooms and press offices, leaving behind what colleagues later described as a trail of fabricated personal stories. In one instance, she told coworkers her car had been stolen and used in a fatal accident — but police found no record of any such crime. She also claimed to have interned at The New York Times, served as a UN “ambassador”, survived a brain tumor, and planned a Disney “Cinderella Castle” wedding — an event Disney confirmed was not even permitted. None of it was ever substantiated.
During the 2016 investigation into her accusations against Feliciano, the São Paulo Civil Police included in the case a psychological report from Brasília that described Lélis as emotionally unstable, manipulative, and prone to histrionic personality traits and pathological lying (mythomania).
The report noted that her statements “diverged arbitrarily and systematically,” oscillating between incompatible versions of the same events.
Its conclusion was blunt: there was no evidence of sexual crime, and the case should be archived.
The lead investigator, delegate Luiz Roberto Hellmeister, cited the diagnosis as proof that Lélis was a “compulsive liar” who posed “a risk to society” for fabricating crimes she knew never happened. Lélis’s defense, however, contested the validity of the report, alleging that the psychologist was linked to an evangelical church and that the evaluation lacked scientific rigor.
The New “Psychological Report”
In recent months, Lélis has tried to rewrite her own history, now brandishing a new psychological evaluation that she claims proves she is not a mythomaniac.
The document was signed by Cláudio R. Garcia, a self-styled “analytical psychologist” who also describes himself as a pagan priest, theologian, occultist, and graduate student in “creative mythology, fairy tales, and homeopathy.” His conclusion: Lélis merely suffers from generalized anxiety and emotional instability.
One thing that stands out is that Garcia advertises his services on a witchcraft website, offering custom “rituals” priced between R$600 and R$666 — including one titled the “Ritual of Demonolatry.”
Even so, Patrícia has used the new report as a kind of mystical shield against criticism. In a recent post on X, she threatened to sue anyone calling her a liar or mythomaniac, insisting that the document “proves her sanity” and that she was “never examined by the far-right psychologist who forged the first report.”
When A Investigação reached out for comment — asking whether her sessions with Garcia were conducted remotely — Patrícia declined to answer directly. She simply stated that “the only thing that matters is that his professional registration is valid.”
Early Controversies
Even though Patrícia Lélis insists she is not a pathological liar, her public career has been marked by more than a hundred contradictory or unverified stories. Below are some of the most notorious ones.
The Marco Feliciano Affair
In 2016, Lélis became a national scandal in Brazil after accusing pastor and federal congressman Marco Feliciano (PSC–SP) of attempted rape and assault. She claimed the incident took place in Feliciano’s official congressional apartment in Brasília and that he had offered her about $3,000 per month to be his mistress.
Soon after, she filed another police complaint in São Paulo, alleging that Feliciano’s aide Talma Bauer had kidnapped and held her captive to cover up the alleged abuse. Police investigations, however, proved her story false. Security footage from the hotel showed Lélis and Bauer walking freely through the halls, talking and hugging — far from the captivity she described.
The São Paulo Civil Police later found that Lélis had tried to extort Bauer, demanding R$50,000 (about $10,000) to record videos absolving Feliciano. The payment was made through an intermediary, Arthur Mangabeira, then the boyfriend of right-wing influencer Luana Basto, who falsely presented herself as an agent of Brazil’s intelligence service (ABIN). Mangabeira allegedly kept R$40,000 for himself and passed only R$10,000 to Lélis. In recordings obtained by police, Lélis complained: “I want my ten [thousand], you’re screwing me over,” and at one point ordered Bauer to “kill” her partner. Both she and Mangabeira were indicted for extortion, though Mangabeira disappeared soon afterward.
Luana Basto, meanwhile, reinvented herself multiple times. Years later she resurfaced as a fitness influencer promoting anabolic steroids, later pivoting again to become a body-positive and relationship coach with over two million Instagram followers.
Confronted on television with evidence that Feliciano had been physically present in the Chamber of Deputies at the exact time she claimed to have been assaulted, Lélis mocked the contradiction, saying that as a “man of God,” he could have “the power of omnipresence.”
The Eduardo Bolsonaro Allegation
In 2017, Lélis accused far-right congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of Jair Bolsonaro, of threats and harassment, claiming they had once been romantically involved. She submitted screenshots of alleged text messages to the Federal District Civil Police as evidence.
A forensic report later found signs of digital manipulation, concluding that the screenshots could not be authenticated and that there was no proof the phone number belonged to the congressman. The investigation was closed for lack of evidence, and Lélis was indicted for filing a false accusation.
Despite this, several left-leaning news outlets treated the supposed affair as fact, using it to embarrass Bolsonaro politically. Lélis herself mocked him on social media, claiming he had a “small penis” — a line that went viral and was gleefully spread by his political opponents.
Eduardo Bolsonaro denied any romantic relationship and presented proof that he had been dating his now-wife Heloísa long before the allegations — something Lélis never disproved. Still, parts of the press continued to describe her as his “ex-girlfriend.”
At the time of the accusations, Lélis was actually dating a public relations executive, who later broke up with her and publicly wrote that he had “escaped the biggest trap of his life.”
The Glauber Braga Incident
In December 2017, Lélis posted a series of Instagram Stories showing herself with a black eye, claiming she had been assaulted by left-wing congressman Glauber Braga (PSOL–RJ). Using hashtags like #MenosGlauber (“StopGlauber”) and #ParaQueTáRidículo (“Stop this is ridiculous”), she denounced “violence against women committed by politicians who hide behind parliamentary immunity.” One of her posts read: “Threatening a woman’s integrity with intimate photos and videos is a crime. No matter who you are — a congressman, whatever — it’s still a crime.”
Hours later, however, Lélis reversed her story, claiming her accounts had been hacked by pro-Bolsonaro trolls and that the accusation was “fabricated.” She further claimed that the “Glauber Braga” mentioned was not the congressman but an ex-boyfriend with the same name, allegedly aligned with Eduardo Bolsonaro.
The problem was that Lélis herself had already posted a video showing what appeared to be an official police report from the Women’s Protection Unit (DEAM) in Brasília, naming “Glauber Medeiros Braga” as the aggressor. The document, bearing the Federal District Police letterhead, described “visible physical injuries” and referred her for a medical exam.
Even so, Brazilian fact-checking outlets Aos Fatos and Lupa later labeled the case “false,” reproducing Lélis’s revised version — that she was “hacked” and “never accused the congressman.” Both outlets repeated her explanation without independently verifying the document’s protocol number or digital record, ignoring the original evidence she herself had posted.
The Georgetown “Master’s” and the Fake Pregnancy
One of the few times Patrícia Lélis faced firm, public scrutiny came in 2019, when she clashed with journalist Cleuci de Oliveira, a reporter for Metrópoles with previous bylines in The New York Times and The Guardian.
According to Cleuci’s reporting, Lélis had been posting photos from Washington, D.C., claiming to be pursuing a master’s degree in International Relations at Georgetown University. Suspicious of the claim, Cleuci contacted the university and received an official response: no student named Patrícia Lélis was enrolled.
When confronted, Lélis claimed she had “switched programs” but failed to produce any supporting documentation. It was later confirmed that she had merely attended a short English-language course, not a graduate program.
Days later, the controversy escalated. Cleuci published screenshots showing that Lélis had posted photos suggesting she was pregnant — prompting internet users to suspect digital manipulation. In response, Lélis uploaded a mirror selfie showing a visibly swollen belly, calling it “the real photo” and accusing Cleuci of “illegally obtaining” her private images.
But online sleuths soon uncovered a more disturbing layer. Twitter users analyzed the metadata of baby photos Lélis posted after claiming to have given birth, discovering that the images had been taken from other mothers’ social media accounts. At least three different infants appeared across her posts, all presented as her own child.
The most widely circulated image belonged to an American woman, who went public on her own platforms to denounce Lélis for stealing her premature baby’s photo.
Lélis dismissed the revelations — including the stolen images — as part of an “orchestrated attack by Bolsonaro’s far right” aimed at destroying her reputation. In sporadic posts on X and in later interviews, she described herself as a “victim of fake news and stalking” by journalists such as Cleuci, whom she accused of being “aligned with hate groups.”
She maintained that all criticism against her was “ideologically motivated persecution” in retaliation for her past accusations against Marco Feliciano and Eduardo Bolsonaro.
From the Right to the Left
Despite being publicly exposed multiple times — including through psychological evaluations suggesting traits of pathological lying — Patrícia Lélis managed to reinvent herself politically. Once a far-right activist, she was later embraced by segments of the Brazilian left, who saw her as a symbol of resistance to Bolsonarism.
In 2017, she publicly apologized to former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for having supported protests against him, a move that cemented her ideological shift and marked the beginning of her effort to rebuild herself as a progressive activist.
Today, Lélis still commands a sizeable online following — over 400,000 followers on Instagram and about 250,000 on X (Twitter). Yet that popularity never translated into political influence. In Brazil’s 2018 elections, she ran for Congress and received a negligible number of votes. Soon after, former campaign staffers accused her of failing to pay debts, including unpaid marketing professionals, aides, and volunteers.
In the following years, she intensified her social-media activism, aligning herself with feminist and identity movements. She joined the Workers’ Party (PT) in 2020, but the relationship quickly soured. By July 2021, she was expelled for a series of posts deemed transphobic — among them the statement that “a transgender person is not a woman.” Ironically, many online observers called it “the first true thing she had ever said.” Lélis later sued the PT for her expulsion — and lost.
Even after being expelled, she continued to campaign for Lula, using the same tactics of fabrication and sexualized smears she had once deployed against her personal enemies. During the 2022 elections, she spread false and salacious allegations against right-wing figures such as pastor André Valadão, whom she accused of participating in “gay orgies,” and congressman Nikolas Ferreira, to whom she falsely attributed a gay pornographic video.
The real actor from the video later came forward, publicly confirming he was the person in the footage. The Minas Gerais state court ruled against Lélis and ordered her and Twitter to delete the posts, recognizing them as defamatory.
A few days later, she admitted to deliberately using lies as a political strategy:
“Today I proved that the Bolsonaro method of campaigning works! It drives engagement, sparks debate! (…) Against Bolsonarism, everything goes,” she wrote on X.
The U.S. Chapter: From a Luxury Penthouse to a Federal Indictment
With mounting lawsuits, political failures, and growing discredit even among former allies, Patrícia Lélis left Brazil to start a new life — and a new narrative — in the United States.
Settling in Arlington, Virginia, she began introducing herself as an international journalist and human-rights activist. But before long, the same behavioral patterns that had defined her career in Brazil re-emerged.
In 2019, Lélis posted photos of a luxury penthouse overlooking the Washington Monument, claiming she was the new owner. Internet users quickly discovered the photo came from a real-estate listing, with the property still for sale at over $2 million. According to journalist Vanessa Bigaran, Brazilian resident Júnior Campanhola, who lived in nearby Maryland, personally checked the address and confirmed with the building’s concierge that Lélis had merely visited the unit with a realtor.
The episode spiraled into a series of fabrications involving forged documents, fake police reports, and impersonated emails. Lélis even posted what she claimed was a police complaint against Campanhola, alleging the FBI was investigating him for stalking. The story collapsed when the Arlington Police Department publicly replied on social media, confirming that the document she had shown was false. The file’s metadata dated back to 2006 and originated from a vehicle-crimes division, entirely unrelated to her claims.
This marked the beginning of her American downfall. Not long after, Lélis was formally charged in Virginia for filing a false report to law enforcement in connection with an invented $500 theft case.
She was convicted and sentenced to 179 days in jail, but the sentence was suspended and converted into probation due to the minor nature of the offense. Her mugshot eventually leaked online, circulating widely as a symbol of her fall from grace abroad.
Lélis denied ever being arrested, insisting the photo was “from her green card.” But immigration experts quickly debunked the claim: the background was dark, and she wore glasses — both forbidden under U.S. immigration photo standards.
The Armstrong Williams Connection
Despite her chaotic record in Brazil, Lélis managed to insert herself into American conservative circles through her association with Armstrong Williams, a right-wing media entrepreneur and owner of Howard Stirk Holdings (HSH).
By 2021, she was presenting herself as an “immigration attorney”, though she held no law license. In March that year, HSH officially hired her as an “immigration paralegal.” On January 12, 2024, Williams admitted publicly that he had trusted fake credentials she had provided.
Multiple warnings had reached him about her past, but he defended her online, calling her critics “fake accounts” and praising her “professionalism and seriousness.” Ironically, his posts were written in such poor English that many suspected Lélis herself had authored them using his accounts. Still, Williams continued the association, even taking her to private events and family gatherings.
During this investigation, I discovered that Williams had blocked me on Instagram, despite us never having interacted — an odd move given the context.
The Fraud Scheme
According to federal court filings, Lélis used her position at HSH to set up a fraudulent immigration-visa scheme, targeting foreign clients seeking E-2 and EB-5 investor visas.
In January 2024, a federal grand jury in Virginia indicted her on 14 counts of wire fraud, 3 counts of illegal monetary transactions, and 2 counts of aggravated identity theft. Prosecutors allege she scammed clients out of about $700,000, promising guaranteed visa approvals through fake investment projects.
In one documented case, in September 2021, she sent a victim a contract for an EB-5 visa for the person’s parents and received $135,000, supposedly to invest in a Texas real-estate venture. Instead, the money went into her personal account and was spent on a luxury condo down payment, bathroom renovations, and personal expenses.
To sustain the fraud, Lélis allegedly forged federal case numbers, falsified immigration forms, and created fake identities and email accounts to pose as government officials. She even persuaded friends to act as “employees” of her fake investment fund. When one client stopped sending money, she threatened deportation and pursued extrajudicial collection.
Williams eventually realized the scam — she wasn’t attending court hearings or producing any legitimate case files — and fired her, later handing the evidence to the FBI.
On January 12, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (Eastern District of Virginia) publicly announced her indictment. The press release stated that Lélis was not in custody and urged the public to help locate her.
After being charged, Lélis fled. On social media, she mocked the investigation, claimed she was “safe in another country,” and declared herself a “political exile.”
Reports suggest she has been living in a shared residence in Mexico City since late 2023, though on her social networks she continues to claim she is in Washington, D.C.
Exile and a Digital Slip
On January 17, 2024, Patrícia Lélis claimed on social media that she was the target of international political persecution, saying an American journalist had corroborated her account. To “prove” it, she posted a screen recording of messages — but the clip itself displayed the location tag “Cuauhtémoc, Mexico City,” undercutting her narrative that she was still living in the United States.
She deleted the post and announced she was seeking political asylum “in another country.” Weeks later, she insisted asylum had been granted, though no Latin American government has confirmed either a request or approval. In a new twist, she said she had obtained “classified U.S. documents” and claimed there was an effort to turn her into a scapegoat. No evidence was provided.
The screen recording also revealed contacts in her online orbit: journalist Madeleine Lackso, attorney Wellington Arruda, an anonymous account known as “Lúcifer,” and the self-styled hacker AnonFSA — a Brazilian swindler who posed as a cybersecurity expert and even claimed to have hacked the account of Brazil’s First Lady, Janja Lula da Silva.
In conversations with A Investigação, AnonFSA admitted he had produced “dossiers” for Lélis, aimed at attacking her adversaries in Brazil and the United States.
Reinventing Herself as a “Whistleblower”
Outside the U.S., Lélis launched a counter-offensive against Armstrong Williams, layering on international allegations. Her first target: María Corina Machado, the main opposition leader to Venezuela’s chavista regime — a figure widely touted for the Nobel Peace Prize for her pro-democracy activism.
In May 2024, Lélis posted on X that she had “audios and proof” of U.S. lobbyists meddling in Venezuela’s elections. Pro-Maduro outlets such as teleSUR amplified the claim as fact. The centerpiece was an alleged audio in which Armstrong Williams supposedly admits to $3.2 million in payments to Machado via the Disenso Foundation. No independent outlet verified the material. A review by Cazadores de Fake News flagged signs of digital manipulation and inconsistent metadata in files posted by Lélis.
Some U.S. right-wing figures initially boosted her claims — including Trevian Kutti, who shared Lélis’s videos in December 2024. But Kutti later publicly broke with her, alleging a pattern of fraud. In a post on X, she accused Lélis of “lying about Fani Willis”, called Lélis “the biggest con artist on X,” and said she possessed a forensic report showing tampering in Lélis’s “evidence.” A Investigação requested the report; Kutti said she plans to use it in an upcoming project. Lélis responded that such an analysis would be impossible because her team had refused Kutti access to the files.
The Counterattack on Armstrong Williams
Despite the Venezuela debacle, Lélis found a platform at Project Veritas — an embattled conservative outfit — where she was embraced as a whistleblower. The group republished her claims and launched a video series relying almost exclusively on her testimony, without independent verification.
The offensive began on August 5, 2025, when Project Veritas released Part 1 of “Operation of a Shadow Government.” In it, Lélis alleged an illegal E-2 visa scheme tied to a fictitious company called Reis Cosmetics, which she linked to Armstrong Williams and former Attorney General Bill Barr. None of the documents shown had corporate records or official authentication, and authorities have not confirmed the claim.
It was a role reversal: up to that point, Williams had accused Lélis of fraud, forgery, and identity theft — allegations that led to a federal probe. With Veritas’s backing, Lélis flipped the script, casting herself as a “delator” (whistleblower) and claiming she was persecuted by Barr and the FBI.
In Part 2, released on August 7, Lélis alleged that William Barr and Armstrong Williams conspired against Donald Trump, asserting that Barr, Special Counsel Jack Smith, and Fulton County DA Fani Willis met in 2022 at Williams’s Virginia office to plot charges against Trump allies.
There was an immediate chronological red flag: as journalist Will Sommer noted in The Bulwark (Aug. 14, 2025), Barr left office in December 2020, long before the meetings Lélis described. There is no independent evidence that such meetings — or any direct ties among Barr, Willis, and Williams — occurred.
Project Veritas displayed “proofs” such as screenshots, messages, and a purported “enemies list” allegedly written by Barr — which The Bulwark reported was in fact produced by Lélis and handed to Veritas. The handwriting matches hers; there is no documentation establishing authenticity. The content is also illogical: the list includes people Barr supposedly targeted as enemies of Trump — Brad Raffensperger, Ruby Freeman, and Shaye Moss — who were, in reality, targets of Trump-world, not its allies. “If Barr were orchestrating a conspiracy against Trump,” Sommer quipped, “why would he go after people who challenged Trump?”
Other elements bordered on parody — like a message in which Williams supposedly asks, “Where is the gold bar you stole?” That line echoed Episode 3 of the series (August 2025), where Lélis claims she received a suitcase of gold bars from a Qatari driver destined for then-Menendez chief of staff Jason Tuber. Veritas tried to link the tale to the FBI’s later discovery of gold bars in Senator Bob Menendez’s home — a connection authorities have never confirmed. Even so, MAGA influencers Alex Jones, Dinesh D’Souza, Mario Nawfal, and Nick Fuentes amplified the claims; Fuentes even presented himself as a Barr “victim” for appearing on the fabricated list.
Armstrong Williams pushed back, calling the group “Project Falsitas” and the videos a “defamatory fairy tale.” He called Lélis a “Brazilian Jezebel” and said her story was inherently implausible because she misunderstood the United States. Williams said he fired her for fraud, confirmed she is a federal defendant (Case 1:24-cr-2, E.D. Va.) and a fugitive, and announced a defamation suit against Veritas.
Project Veritas stood by the series, claiming it had “vetted” the source and received “confirmations” from DOJ contacts — while providing no material evidence. The group even asserted that “Barr put the entire FBI on this woman to recover documents she has,” a claim The Bulwark described as absurd since Barr has had no authority over the FBI since 2021.
Sommer underscored the core flaw: Veritas built an entire series on the word of a fugitive indicted for fraud, ignoring years of public warnings by Brazilian reporters about her fabrications, mythomania, and criminal cases. “A simple Google search,” a Williams aide said, “would tell you who she is.”
Eduardo Bolsonaro and Jason Miller
Days later, Project Veritas unveiled a new batch of allegations — framed as a separate “special investigation.” This time, the supposed leak involved messages between Brazilian congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro and Jason Miller, a former senior adviser to Donald Trump. The chats, dated August 20, 2025, depicted Eduardo in a panic over a possible Federal Police charge, begging Trump for help and even referencing CIA support for the Bolsonaro government.
The timing was notable: two days earlier, Brazil’s Federal Police had recommended indicting Jair Bolsonaro and Eduardo for allegedly attempting to obstruct cases tied to the January 8, 2023 coup attempt; AFP broke the story on the morning of August 21.
But the screenshots drew attention less for their bombshell content than for their clumsy, self-incriminating prose — a hallmark of Lélis’s writing. She didn’t appear as the “whistleblower” this time, but replied to Veritas’s post on X, mocking Eduardo for previously praising the outlet. Many online commenters attributed authorship or orchestration of the leak to Lélis, though Veritas did not disclose the source.
One message attributed to Eduardo threatened to use “everything we have in Brazil against” Miller and claimed Miller was implicated in “a bunch of crimes.” Another complained that “tariffs should have been tougher.” The most viral line was the reply attributed to Miller: “Your damn father couldn’t be competent even with CIA support.”
The reaction was skeptical. Jason Miller responded the next day on X, calling the material “complete fiction,” saying the group had been legally notified, and branding Veritas liars and cowards. He added that Eduardo is a friend and that he had never exchanged messages of that nature with him.
Project Veritas nevertheless insisted the messages were authentic. No metadata was released, and observers noted formatting and timestamp inconsistencies. Even so, some left-aligned accounts treated the leak as fact and amplified it without verification.
George Santos
The latest controversy tied to Lélis features former U.S. congressman George Santos, often dubbed “the male version of Patrícia.” The comparison fits: like Lélis, Santos fabricated identities, lied about his background, and became mired in scandals. In April 2025, he was sentenced to 87 months in prison; on October 17, Donald Trump commuted the sentence, and Santos was released.
In an interview with Tucker Carlson days after leaving prison, Santos said he spent 41 days in solitary confinement after an alleged death threat engineered by Patrícia Lélis. According to Santos, she had sent Project Veritas messages saying “someone needs to get into the prison and kill George Santos.” His attorney alerted prison authorities, leading to immediate transfer to a protective-custody isolation cell.
Santos called the episode “absurd and destructive,” saying he had limited access to showers and wore recycled clothing from other inmates. He accused Lélis of being “obsessed” with him and said she had made similar threats in 2023, when he was still in Congress — threats the Capitol Police allegedly deemed not credible.
Asked for comment, Patrícia Lélis denied Santos’s accusations and said his attorney contacted her, not the other way around.
Inside Project Veritas’s New Management
A former Project Veritas staffer, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the organization as extremely fragile today — few active employees and virtually no operational capacity. According to this source, after James O’Keefe was ousted amid allegations of financial mismanagement, misuse of resources, and abusive workplace behavior, Veritas was left without structure or funding.
The crisis deepened in September 2023, when the group announced it was suspending operations after layoffs and the loss of sponsors. By December 2023, CEO Hannah Giles — O’Keefe’s successor — resigned, calling the outlet “irreparably chaotic” and citing serious indications of past wrongdoing and financial irregularities.
At the same time, Veritas became the subject of a federal investigation related to the Ashley Biden diary case. In December 2023, a judge authorized prosecutors to access more than 900 internal documents, tightening scrutiny over the group’s activities and finances. “Back then, there were still guardrails and fact-checks,” the ex-staffer said. “Now, any narrative — no matter how far-fetched — can become a story.”
Today, the group is led by Benjamin Wetmore, a conservative lawyer and activist with a history of covert operations, information manipulation, and financial misconduct. A mentor to James O’Keefe in the early 2000s, Wetmore was linked to staged stunts — including the 2010 faux ‘honey trap’ against a CNN reporter — and provided logistical support for the James O’Keefe/Stan Dai caper at Senator Mary Landrieu’s office in New Orleans.
Later, as head of the American Phoenix Foundation, Wetmore was accused of surreptitiously recording Texas politicians and misappropriating funds, contributing to the group’s court-ordered dissolution in 2017. In 2023, he became chairman of Project Veritas, inheriting a gutted organization, mounting legal exposure, and a reputation battered by years of scandal.
In that institutional free fall, Patrícia Lélis found room to push her stories — exploiting Veritas’s financial and reputational vulnerability to cast herself as a “whistleblower” and try to rebuild her public image.
By elevating Lélis as the sole, unverified source of explosive claims, Project Veritas appears to have buried what little credibility it had left — and may have entangled itself, even if indirectly, in the obstruction of an ongoing federal investigation.
Statements from Those Involved
Through her spokesperson Talita Vilani, Patrícia Lélis denied sending any messages, documents, or audio files to Project Veritas about the Brazilians mentioned, saying she has no formal or informal connection to the group, its director Benjamin Wetmore, or any financial arrangement with them.
She said any communication she had with the FBI was unrelated to George Santos and concerned reports of “harassment” that she claims involved Janaína Toledo and Leonardo Corona since 2019. According to Lélis, she filed a complaint against Janaína that year, resulting in a police report in Arlington, Virginia, and said she holds a protective order. She also claimed that Deise Ellston filed similar legal measures in the U.S.
Lélis maintains that Project Veritas merely helped locate Janaína and Leonardo, asserting that she did not know at the time that they were undocumented migrants. She added that part of the material was withheld from publication “at the request of authorities,” citing an alleged ongoing investigation.
Check out the email and the full response here.
Regarding her legal status in the United States, Lélis acknowledged the case United States v. Lelis (1:24-cr-2, Eastern District of Virginia), saying she has appeared in court and is represented by an attorney in Washington, D.C. She described the case as “still under investigation.” Lélis denied using public accusations to target enemies — saying she has “no connection” to any claims against Eduardo Bolsonaro — and stated that all evidence she possesses was turned over to the FBI after the Florida arrests.
Asked about the psychological report signed by Cláudio R. Garcia, she said the document was accepted in court, the sessions were verified, and that the psychologist’s religious background was “irrelevant to his professional work.”
Concerning George Santos, Lélis denied being the source of any messages, saying she was contacted by Santos’s lawyer, Joe Murray, for clarifications and later received his thanks after the sentence commutation. Regarding Trevian Kutti, she said any “forensic report” alleging falsified files could not exist because her defense did not authorize access to the material. She claimed to have all communications archived and reiterated that her evidence and documents were submitted to the FBI. Finally, she reaffirmed that any claim of collaboration with Project Veritas is “false.”
Requests for comment sent by A Investigação to the FBI, ICE, and Florida authorities regarding the arrests of Janaína Toledo and Leonardo Corona Ramos were met with bureaucratic delays. Both FBI and ICE said they could not process requests due to the federal funding hiatus. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office confirmed receipt — the only agency to accept the request — but has not yet provided an official response.
As of publication, Armstrong Williams, Project Veritas, and Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Itamaraty) had not responded to inquiries.
In loving memory of Vanessa Bigaran (1989–2023).