Another piece of the Joe Kent employment puzzle

The media are having a hard time figuring out who Congressional candidate Joe Kent actually works for, and what he is getting paid to do. Kent himself is being pretty cagey about it all, and suspicion is running pretty high.

Part of what the reporters are puzzling over is Kent's W-2 for last year, issued by an outfit called "Advanced Enterprises Solutions LLC." Kent's got the company's tax ID number blacked out, and the reporters are wishing they had it.

Well, fear not, journalists of America, I've got it. You see, down there in box 12a, old Trumpy Joe has a code D amount. That's a contribution to a 401(k) plan. Sponsors of 401(k) plans have to file an annual report with the IRS and the Department of Labor. They're public records: You can search for them here.

Now, there's no filing for "Advanced Enterprises Solutions LLC," but there are three for "Advanced Enterprise Solutions LLC" (with no "s" on the end of "Enterprise"), going back to 2019. And here's the most recent one, filed a little over a month ago: link. (Part of it is shown at the top of this post.)

They say they have 34 participants, of whom 31 were still active at the end of 2021. They say their business code is 541600, which means: "This industry group comprises establishments primarily engaged in providing advice and assistance to businesses and other organizations on management, environmental, scientific, and technical issues."

And there's a telephone number!

The plan administrator is shown as Gail Reed. Kent says the head of the company is a guy named Sean Reed. Maybe Gail's relative?

Anyway, I'll leave it to the pro's to take it from here. You're welcome.

UPDATE: Interestingly, when you Google the phone number, it leads to an outfit caled Torres. More information (which may or may not be reliable) is here. The chief executive is listed as Steve Hartsuff. They have a dormant Twitter account here. There's a Facebook page here. To my naked eye, it's darn spooky.

FURTHER UPDATE: Here's "Torres-Advanced Enterprise Solutions, LLC" losing a government contract bid protest in 2016: link. The contract was with the State Department for "diplomatic security and protective services."

Here they are changing their name to "Continuity Global Solutions" in 2020. Website here. Facebook, anyone?

FURTHER UPDATE: BTW, the firm Ambrose Partners, speaking on behalf of the employer in the news stories, may not be a law firm, as the stories say. Its two partners are law school graduates, but I cannot find them licensed to practice law in D.C., Virginia, or Maryland. They're a political consulting outfit, as far as I can tell.

FINAL UPDATE HERE: Further findings and speculation here.