We have spent quite a bit of time combing through the City of Frisco elected officials’ campaign finance reports and as we come across items of interest that seem questionable, we bring them to the public’s attention.  In our recent dive, we came across the name Veton Krasniqi, and it appears he made two substantial donations to two sitting council members.  We did a simple Google search of the name in Frisco, and we found a LinkedIn page with no details except self-employed.

The first time we come across his name is in John Keating’s campaign finance report for the period of January 16, 2021, through April 1, 2021.  It shows Veton Krasniqi donated $10,000 to John Keating’s campaign on March 10, 2021.  The report shows the address listed as 6400 FM423, #15109, Frisco TX 75026.  Immediately we noticed a red flag, because the zip code for the address, 75026, is not a Frisco zip code.  It is a Plano zip code located near the George Bush Tollway and Coit, almost near Richardson.

We searched just the address without the zip code which came back to a company called German All Construction, LLC according to Open Corporates.  It shows the “Agent Name” as Veton Krasniqi and the agent address as 6400 FM 423 #15109, Frisco TX, 75036.  We expected to find an office building but instead, we found the Courtland Apartments at Phillips Creek Ranch.   

The registered address for German All Construction, LLC on opencorporates.com comes back to 2552 Stonebrook Pkwy, Ste 402, Frisco TX 75034.  We decided to google that address to see what we could find, and it came back to Lit Smoke & Vape.  We don’t believe it was there in early 2021 but it did open later that year to some controversy which is detailed in a Frisco Enterprise and Dallas Morning News article. The article talked about how many parents and residents living in the area felt a Vape Shop at Stonebrook and Teel near an elementary, middle, and high school was inappropriate. 

We decided to go to the Texas Comptroller to view the franchise tax certificate for German All Construction, LLC.  It was registered on November 11, 2019, and appears to be active today.  It shows the mailing address at 2552 Stonebrook Pkwy, Ste 402, which is the Vape Shop, and the registered address appears to be the same apartments at 6400 FM 423.  When we clicked on the Public Information Report for 2023 it came back with two addresses.  The first address we have already seen in previous reports is 2552 Stonebrook Parkway.  The second address was new and belonged to a 1.544-million-dollar home in Phillips Creek Ranch on Tailwater Trail.  We decided to look the home up on Denton CAD which shows a Veton and Lena Krasniqi purchased it in August 2021.  It appears to have been transferred to a Family Trust in June of 2023, then the trust sold the home in October 2023.  Are you confused yet?  We are!

We continued to look through more campaign finance reports for other council members when we saw the name Veton Krasniqi again. This time it was not Keating’s finance report, it was Angelia Pelham’s finance report.   It appears Veton Krasniqi also donated $5000 to the Pelham campaign on May 15, 2021, just a few short months after he donated $10k to Keatings. 

The original campaign finance report filed by Pelham has Veton’s name and email address, where there is supposed to be an actual physical address.  We found an ethics complaint on file with the Texas Ethics Commission because report after report was inaccurate with emails instead of physical addresses which are required by the state election code.  Pelham was ordered to fix the incorrect finance reports, and when she did, she showed Veton Krasniqi’s address as 2552 Stonebrook Pkwy, Ste 302, Frisco TX 75034.

Immediately we had a red flag with Pelham’s corrected report because she listed the suite number as 302, which is different from Keating’s report which is 402.  We Googled the address using suite 302 and it appears that is the Mexican restaurant Dos Amigos.  We decided to look at Denton CAD and Viton Krasniqi is listed at 2552 Stonebrook Pkwy in suite 300B and the legal description says it is a restaurant.   

Can you guess what we did next?  Well, of course, we googled 2552 Stonebrook Pkwy, Ste 300B and we pulled up a Community Impact article from Feb 2019 which reports the Berlin Café is now open in Frisco serving German-inspired cuisine.  The article states the café opened in late December and is located at 2552 Stonebrook Parkway, Ste 300B in Frisco.  We looked up the Tax ID for Berlin Café on the Texas Comptroller’s website which shows it was owned by Veton Krasniqi.  Then we came across another article in Community Impact in March 2021 titled Berlin Café Rebrands as Dos Amigos in Frisco.   We decided to look up Dos Amigos Frisco on the Texas Comptroller’s website which showed it was registered in November 2020, but the franchise tax involuntarily ended.  According to OpenCorporates.com, it shows that on July 28, 2023, the restaurant filed for a tax forfeiture.  The mailing address is 2552 Stonebrook Pkwy, Ste 302 but the registered office address is 6400 FM 423, which is the Courtland Apartments. 

After all this research that left us completely confused, we were still wondering, who is Veton Krasniqi that donated $10,000 to Keating and $5000 to Pelham?  We filed a PIR for any communications between Veton Krasniqi, Keating, and Pelham.  We were shocked when we received notice that no sufficient records came up.  Two council members, two large donations, and neither of them communicated even once with the donor, not even a thank you note.   Um, we smell some shady shXt!

We decided to do a court record search for Veton Krasniqi and started in Denton, County.  We found eviction case after eviction case for Veton and Lena Krasniqi starting in Dec 2018 up to June of 2023.  Then we looked up court records in Collin, County and we found multiple debt cases from 2020 to 2023.  One involves his company German All Construction and Italia Day & Night LLC, otherwise known as Italian Village, which is registered at 5840 Legacy Circle, Ste D100, Plano TX.  Italian Village located in The Shops of Legacy was featured in D Magazine back in September 2021 if you are interested in learning more.

Veton Krasniqi had lots of problems that’s for sure, and just when we thought we had hit all the shXt we were shocked to find two very important lawsuits.  The first was filed by Frisco Independent School District for a total sum of $24,093.74 in back taxes against Veton and Lena Krasniqi.  It appears they didn’t pay taxes when living in the fancy million-dollar Phillips Creek Home.  Remember, this is the same time they donated to both candidates’ campaigns.

With all the money issues the Krasniqi’s had, where did they find funds to be big spenders and donate to local political campaigns?  Maybe, it was the money they ripped off from the United States of America (aka you and me and our tax dollars).  Maybe the answer is in the case of the USA v. Veton Krasniqi filed In The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Sherman Division indictment on Jan 12, 2023.  Krasniqi is accused of unlawfully and unjustly enriching himself by obtaining The Paycheck Protection Program, the Economic Injury Disaster Loan, and Restaurant Revitalization Fund loan proceeds through materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, and promises.  NOW THAT IS A WHOPPER! 

The indictment goes on to say the defendant (Krasniqi) used numerous restaurants and construction businesses including Berlin Café, Dos Amigos Frisco, German All Construction, Noahlena, and Foxtron to obtain multiple loans.  It goes on to say he used his personal and business bank accounts to receive, deposit, and transfer the funds.  It also accuses Veton of submitting materially false loan applications, lying about his qualifications, and intended use of the loan funds.  It also accuses him of helping his family members and business associates in submitting false loan applications.

The indictment states that on April 28, 2020, he received his first PPP draw of $82,500 and on the same day he transferred $82,400 to his personal account.  He then took out a cash withdrawal of $55,800, made approximately $15,000 in car payments, and transferred $9300 overseas. 

The business closed at the end of 2020 and then he submitted a second withdrawal PPP application on Berlin Café.  The indictment states on Feb 5, 2021, he received a SECOND draw PPP loan for $283,600 for Berlin Café, LLC which he claimed on the application would be used to retain workers, rent, utilities, etc., but the problem is Berlin Café had already permanently closed.  The same day he transferred the entire sum to his personal bank account.  We could go on and on but you get the drift the dirtbag was a fraud.

So how much did Veton Krasniqi defraud the US Government and taxpayers?  Buckle your seat belt, because he obtained over $2.25 million in funds earmarked for emergency pandemic relief that real businesses in our community could have used.   Let me summarize, he could not pay his school district taxes which hurts our kids, and he defrauded taxpayers (you and me), but he had money to donate $5000 to Angela Pelham and $10,000 to John Keating. As of today, neither of them has returned the money or offered to return the money.  

This is not the first time John Keating has taken money from questionable donors.  In October 2018, Keating took $5000 from Phillip Michael Carter who was convicted of bilking the elderly out 17.5 million dollars.  It was not till March of 2019 when Keating and Cheney were confronted by the DMN asking if they would return the thousands, they received from a criminal that they both said they would be returning the money.

Why does this continue to happen, better yet how does this continue to happen to our council members?  Cheney, Pelham, and Keating are all recipients of dirty funds.  It is funny I saw an ad the other day on social media, and it was Pelham’s video where she says over and over “YOU KNOW ME” – yeah, we do!  Then Keating boasts on his website Promises Made, Promises Kept which should read Promises Made, Promises Broken.

John Keating and Angelia Pelham, will you return the money to the federal government and taxpayers or return the money and give it to the school district towards his tax debt?  Let’s see if they do the right thing!