12/18/24 – 2 of 2: Rhea Bell

Now if you thought I had plenty of incriminating evidence against Mary, buckle your seat belts. However, I can’t just throw it all at you, that’s not my style. Instead we need to move through the information methodically. As is the same with Mary, Rhea first came to my attention when I was going through my 70+ day window of Venmo transactions from late June to late August of 2024. Rhea had less than others on my suspects lists – only 11 during that time period. However, two things stood out to me. The total dollar amount was larger, $27,170.10, worth of interactions with Ryne’s Venmo account, and the notes for each transaction? You guessed it. All of them labeled as “Loan” except one that said “Give to Mariana. Partial. Only reflects part of $1875 of the flights.” See the Venmo snip below.

With that, there was no question in my mind she was involved. This was before I had created the website and anyone had reached out to me. Fast-forward to early December. The site is up, the conspirators are listed and it does not take long for Rhea to reach out to me indicating she is a victim too…

However, strangely, she is the first “victim” that refused to tell me how much Ryne stole from them. I have not had a single other person reach out to me and essentially say Hey, Ryne stole money from me, but I am not telling you how much. With no other context, perhaps this person is just embarrassed and I would believe them. But I don’t believe her here, let me keep breaking it down…

It bothers me here when she says, “I know he is committed to pay all.” I will hit on this in a minute.

Oh Rhea, but you were his assistant.

A victim who took orders, and helped the main scammer move money through cash apps. Totes normal.

I bet you seriously regret this, Rhea. The embarrassment you now have to face is nothing compared to what hundreds of victims are going through because of your direct involvement. Myself included.

Many of you are now going to ask, “Why didn’t you post this conversation earlier?”

You see, this same day I got an email from another victim asking me to remove Rhea’s name from the list. This particular victim was in possession of a very important document sent to Ryne’s first attorney that I have agreed to not discuss. I was hoping in time they would allow me to post it on the site. As such I reluctantly agreed to remove Rhea. While reminding her if the evidence became insurmountable, I would add her once again.

You see, Rhea was handed an opportunity to walk away from my website without me ever saying a word again. Even as the screenshots and evidence continued to compile, I chose to leave her be. Even though the number of direct victims in Vegas grew to 28 people. 28 victims who directly dealt with Rhea through all points of the transaction. That number is still growing everyday, yet I chose to leave her alone.

That was until 12/18/24. When a new victim found my website and reached out to me and Rhea/Ryne simultaneously.

To which Rhea responded…

Realizing she slipped, she backtracked.

When I read this, my blood began to boil. And then it went into full-volcanic rage a short minute later when someone else messaged me and told me that Rhea is a Senior Manager in Accounting. It was at that moment that I knew, without question, that Rhea is 100% involved.

You cannot be the party responsible for tracking inbound sales and distributing refunds, all while being tracked on a spreadsheet without seeing total money in – and total money out. It would be one thing if Rhea worked at an Arby’s as a dishwasher. Perhaps then she could use ignorance as a defense. However, when your career is dedicated to the details, and you are keeping a substantial ledger for the crime syndicate, we are way past a simple victim helping with refunds. There is not a single chance an honest senior manager in accounting would look at the money in versus money out and not have the thought: “This doesn’t add up.“

But don’t take my word for it, (even though I seem to keep getting it right). Take a look at these 11 victim emails just as a sampler.

12/1/24 – Email from victim #1

“Ryne Vitug currently has over $26,000 of my money, which I entrusted to him based on a referral chain that is four times removed from him. Specifically, [redacted] provided me with his information, which she obtained from her friend, who in turn got it from Rhea Bell. At no point was I directly involved with Ryne Vitug beyond being misled into believing he was a legitimate individual with trustworthy intentions.“

12/3/24 – Email from victim #2

“This is [redacted], are you aware of Rhea Bell? She is the one who introduce us to the Ryne and represent herself as an assistant. She lives in Henderson NV. Here is information. Rhea Bell. 702-757-0971. Rhee110169@gmail.com“

12/4/24 – Email from victim #3

“Last I know she is not single and she does not live in Vegas for sure. I believe, a woman named Rhea lives in Vegas. Ryne told me that Rhea is Mary’s friend.”

12/7/24 – Email from victim #4

“About a month ago a random lady emailed my friend asking about our info so ryne can give us a refund but she didn’t know how long it would take. I emailed her just the basics and I emailed her again and she said I need to email him so I was confused. I have emailed him and texted him and called him to no avail. Absolutely ridiculous. We found this website and I can not even believe this. And he’s a lawyer?! “

12/7/24 – Email from victim #5

“That compensation came through his cousin [Rhea].  In fact, I believe she was a part of the scams initially and she mentioned several times in passing that she helped maintain a spreadsheet of who has paid and what they are owed. She’s an accountant. 

She’s told me about Ryne and his excessive gambling habits.  How most of his promises of NFL & NHL games were simply the lavish “comps” he receives as a “high roller” that he was then selling for further financial gain.  When I first bought in to the scam, he did not want anything directly connected to him and I was asked to pay Max Mendelson (@Max-Mendelson on Venmo).  I have no idea who this was and felt it was always a bit sketchy from the beginning, but I bought into it.  I bought [redacted] for $[redacted] from Ryne, paid Max and was eventually reimbursed by personal check from [Rhea].

I intend on sending you screenshots of all of my communication with Ryne and Rhea – it shows how Rhea (remember she is an accountant) seems to be complicit in the scam.

You’ll see this with all of my text communication and it wasn’t only coming from him. Many of the offers were coming directly from Rhea.”

12/10/24 – Email from victim #6

“She [Rhea] had told us Ryne was her nephew, when I asked her the other day she said no but in our culture it is common to say aunt and uncle etc if your close friend or family. She called [redacted] and told him of the great deals about an Aulani Package to Hawaii , He bit then started buying more trips. When we started not getting money refunded or trips. I called her and she said it wasn’t a Ponzie scheme but something happened with MGM and they are not refunding people money.”

12/10/24 – Email from victim #7

“[Ryne’s] “lawyer” said not to take legal action, because then he’d go bankrupt and not be able to pay us.

One of Ryne’s assistants, who is related to the person who initially connected us to Ryne, Rhea Bell (phone 702-505-5941), emailed and requested us to stop contacting him and we should contact her about how much we’re owed and the she was helping him put together a refund plan.”

12/14/24 – Email from victim #8

“It seemed scamming and I was concerned however my [redacted] and [redacted] had successful trips so I took the bait everything at first went through Rhea and I venmoed max. We have been communicating with him for months and trying to put pieces together so while sad to find it all out your website made us feel less crazy!

I have included the conversations with Rhea. I never had any communication with max other than him being the person o venmoed. I did request a refund from him at one point and he declined it“

12/18/24 – Email from victim #9

“He [Ryne] is making threats telling me to be careful for circulating lies but I told him that it is public information and he needs to google himself. Perhaps the walls are closing in for his actions and he is feeling pressure. At the end of the day, he needs be accountable.

Rhea Bell vouched for him and is still defending him even now. I know that he also defrauded people in Arizona according to Rhea; I hope you have people from that state.”

12/18/24 – Email from victim #10

“Rhea did take orders for him in October when she was going around asking how much he owed us via email. I did receive a letter from his first lawyer, probably in October as well. The latest correspondence we had was last week and he [Ryne] got angry I am involving her … Rhea is naughty for sure! Please let me know if I can be of more help. Thank you for doing this!”

12/19/24 – Email from victim #11

“Two lawyers have contacted me via email to indicate Ryne was working with them for a partial payment before December 2024, and the rest to be paid in monthly installments. Their blackmail tactics were that if we reported Ryne to the Il Bar or the police, he would not be able to pay us back.

I was presented to Ryne by his friend Rhea Bell.”

The list of victims, emails, stories, texts, etc. seems to never end. Just like Rhea’s involvement in this scheme. To address the point that she was only helping with refunds, I have two questions: 1) Why were you paying people out of your own personal accounts if you were not involved and merely facilitating Ryne’s refunds? (And don’t lie I got the checks from Nevada State Bank – and the address line is not dusty if you catch my drift, Rhea.), and 2) If you were just helping out with refunds, then why have I gotten several messages like this where you are selling services to prospective victims?

It’s because Rhea is involved! And these texts were from way back in 2023!

Why she continues to engage victims is beyond me. Call it fear of being caught or sheer stupidity, I do not care. Unfortunately, Rhea chose to double down on her foolish path. I even warned her. I literally told Rhea: “They will be sending me information proving your involvement further. If I receive it and it is substantial I will add you back and not take it down.”

The evidence continued to pile up, but I withheld from posting to make sure the evidence was conclusive. I finally had a enough information and received the following message that put this over the edge.

It was the 12/18/24 email to another victim when Rhea said: “Ryne is not a fraud either.”

If I were in your shoes, Rhea, I would get my affairs in order today. It’s about to get a whole lot worse for you.

You are literally sitting on a metaphorical mountain of evidence. You are a senior manager in accounting who knows her way around a spreadsheet. You have a victim spreadsheet with purchases that tracks over multiple years. A sheet to track refund requests. Checks from your own bank account to pay some of those victims off. Countless texts and emails to people you know have lost money begging for their money back. You solicited some of those victims yourself. You are aware of Max Mendelson and his role, Mary Foronda and her role, as well as others involved. You have even stated that Ryne has ripped you off personally. You have helped screw family members, neighbors, co-workers, and extend this scheme to multiple states and even countries that tie back to you, and caused untold amounts of embarrassment and heartache.

And still you say Ryne is not a fraud either.

Rhea you have been weighed, you have been measured, and you have been found wanting.

“God bless” from all of us victims back to you.

There is no hiding anymore.