Transparency concerns surface as filings link multiple entities to Lemelle’s Glendale address

Beverly Hills, 22nd August 2025, ZEX PR WIRE — Dr. Marie Y. Lemelle, 67, a Glendale-based public relations professional and current President of the California Black Chamber of Commerce – Beverly Hills, is under scrutiny after Yelp confirmed the removal of reviews for multiple businesses linked to her, while LinkedIn activity has raised questions about authorship representation.

The Consumer Transparency Network (CTN), a grassroots watchdog initiative, reports that Yelp confirmed in an August 11, 2025 email that reviews were removed for Platinum Star Public Relations, Platinum Star Media Group, Pitbull PR Agency, Inc., and Angel City Salute.

A longtime Yelp contributor with more than 1,000 reviews told CTN that they had been a paying client of Dr. Lemelle’s companies and personally received a message from her disputing their review before it was removed.

In a separate development, a June 27, 2025 LinkedIn post published under the byline “F. Baldiwala” was traced to Dr. Lemelle’s account. The article, Pitbull PR Agency Issues Strong Warning Against Defamation and Weaponized Misinformation, positions Dr. Lemelle as a client of Pitbull PR Agency, though corporate filings list her as the agency’s principal. Experts note that presenting oneself simultaneously as company owner and client may create confusion, particularly for a statewide chamber leader.

Corporate filings reveal that Dr. Lemelle’s entities — Platinum Star Public Relations, Platinum Star Media Group, Pitbull PR Agency, Inc., and Angel City Salute Alliance — are registered in California and Colorado, with multiple filings linked to a single Glendale address, raising transparency concerns.

Why This Matters

• Consumer Access: Removal of online reviews limits publicly available information.

• Platform Integrity: Misrepresentation of authorship and business roles complicates online discourse.

• Public Accountability: Leadership practices influence confidence in organizations representing small and minority-owned businesses.
  

CTN underscores the importance of accessible, verifiable information in evaluating business operations and leadership. Supporting documentation, including Yelp correspondence and corporate filings, is available upon request.

About CTN
The Consumer Transparency Network (CTN) is a grassroots watchdog initiative dedicated to protecting consumer rights, promoting business accountability, and providing independent resources to empower public decision-making.

Contact:
Consumer Transparency Network (CTN Reports)
Email: ctnreports@linuxmail.org

Pepe Dollar is building a layer-2 payment infrastructure to boost the meme economy.

Pepe Dollar has announced the launch of the presale of its official layer-2 token, $PEPD, with the goal to reshape the boundaries of decentralized finance by uniting meme culture with real-world utility. Positioned as a “decentralized antidote to fiat foolishness,” $PEPD is designed to power the Pay-Fi economy, a hybrid model that merges the principles of De-Fi with practical, everyday payments.

With its presale currently live, Pepe Dollar has already attracted significant traction, raising over $1.4 million in its second stage and selling more than 300 million tokens. The presale offers early supporters the chance to secure $PEPD at $0.006495 per token, ahead of its projected launch price of $0.03695.

A Meme with a Mission

Pepe Dollar is more than just a cryptocurrency; it is a cultural statement. Inspired by internet icon Pepe the Frog, $PEPD channels humor, satire, and rebellion into a fully functional decentralized payment system. Its fixed supply of 3.695 billion tokens is a direct parody of the $36.95 trillion U.S. national debt, drawing attention to unsustainable fiat policies while offering a capped, transparent alternative.

Audited and verified by Coinsult, Pepe Dollar has no hidden mint functions, blacklist risks, or excessive sell fees, ensuring transparency and trust for investors and users alike.

Building the Pay-Fi Ecosystem

At the heart of Pepe Dollar is the Pepe Dollar Payment Protocol, a De-Fi layer that introduces fast, borderless, and censorship-resistant payments into real-world commerce. Users will be able to scan QR codes, complete one-click wallet transfers, and even settle invoices or subscriptions in $PEPD.

The ecosystem is designed to include stablecoin micro-payments (such as USPD), making $PEPD a flexible currency for merchants, freelancers, and everyday consumers. Through integrations like “MemePay”, Pepe Dollar aims to become a recognizable checkout option for online stores and in-person retail environments.

Pepedollar.fun: The Meme Minting Platform

Expanding beyond payments, Pepe Dollar is building Pepedollar.fun, a no-code dApp that allows users to mint their own meme coins seamlessly. The platform automates the entire token creation process, from smart contract deployment to liquidity pooling, while ensuring transparency through a bonding curve model.

Unlike other meme-coin platforms, Pepedollar.fun provides developers and communities with on-chain dashboards, wallet transparency, and integrated social tools to encourage sustainable ecosystems. Future upgrades will introduce cross-chain compatibility across EVM-supported chains such as Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, and BNB Chain.

Gaming, Culture, and Community Expansion

To accelerate adoption, Pepe Dollar is embedding itself within mobile gaming and social platforms. The team is developing Telegram-integrated mini-games with play-to-earn mechanics, airdrops, meme contests, and tipping features that use $PEPD. Players can form guilds, earn NFTs tied to in-game achievements, and even vote on upcoming meme characters using token-powered dApps.

This gamified approach not only strengthens the $PEPD community but also acts as a viral engine for broader adoption across both Web2 and Web3 landscapes.

Tokenomics and the Federal Burn

Pepe Dollar is structured to prioritize decentralization, transparency, and long-term sustainability. The allocation of its 3.695 billion tokens includes 45% for presale, 10% for exchange listings, 8% for liquidity on Pepedollar.fun, 5% for staking and gaming rewards, and just 3% for the core team, locked for 365 days to reinforce accountability.

A defining feature is the planned “Federal Burn”, in which 29% of the total supply (1.07 billion $PEPD) will be permanently destroyed. This act symbolizes the project’s rejection of unchecked fiat inflation and strengthens scarcity, fairness, and holder confidence.

Roadmap Toward Global Adoption

Pepe Dollar’s development roadmap highlights its ambition to evolve from a meme coin into a decentralized meme financial layer. Early phases include presale stages, influencer collaborations, and the Federal Burn. Future milestones encompass CEX and DEX listings, staking integration, and the launch of Pepedollar.fun for global accessibility.

Long-term plans include Layer-2 scaling for Ethereum, Pepe Dollar NFT collections, and expanded merchant adoption campaigns. Through these initiatives, $PEPD is positioning itself as a meme-first, payment-ready infrastructure with staying power.

To take part in the presale of $PEPD visit https://app.pepedollar.io/

About Pepe Dollar

Pepe Dollar ($PEPD) is a decentralized Ethereum-based token designed as a Layer-2 payment solution for the meme economy. Combining satire, culture, and cutting-edge blockchain infrastructure, $PEPD powers a hybrid Pay-Fi and De-Fi ecosystem, supporting everything from daily transactions to meme-minting and play-to-earn gaming.

Backed by a smart contract audited by Coinsult and reinforced by a capped supply of 3.695 billion tokens, Pepe Dollar champions transparency, decentralization, and cultural relevance in crypto. Its mission is to redefine how value is created, shared, and experienced in the digital age.

For more information and to participate in the presale, visit:

Website: https://pepedollar.io/

Whitepaper:  https://pepedollar.io/pepedollar_whitepaper_v1.pdf

Media Contact

Company Name:  Pepe Dollar

Contact Person:  Peter Paul

Website: https://pepedollar.io/

Email: info@pepedollar.io

• CoinFund-Led Round Accelerates Institutional Adoption of Infrastructure For Datachains

London, UK, Aug 22, 2025, ZEX PR WIRE, Irys, the world’s first programmable datachain, today announced it has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by CoinFund, with participation from Hypersphere, Tykhe Ventures, Varrock Ventures, Breed VC, Echo Group, Amber Group, and WAGMI Ventures. The round brings Irys’s total funding to $20 million since 2024, demonstrating sustained investor confidence in programmable datachain infrastructure.

Irys is addressing a fundamental inefficiency in the global economy: the $3 trillion data market where virtually no one is able to capture value from the data they generate. By combining a high-performance data layer with a native smart contract execution layer, Irys enables data to carry embedded instructions for licensing, monetization, and access control – making it the first blockchain where data actively generates value for those who create it.

“The data economy has a massive infrastructure problem,” said Josh Benaron, CEO and Founder of Irys. “AI companies scrape trillions of dollars worth of content while creators see nothing. Enterprises sit on valuable datasets they can’t monetize. We’re building the infrastructure that finally allows data creators to capture the value they generate, turning data that historically is stored statically, into programmable economic assets.”

The round builds on significant traction with over 80 strategic partners focused on AI use cases, 600 million+ data transactions processed on the network, and 4 million+ active wallets engaging daily on the network. The platform’s infinite data capacity and predictable pricing model – anchored to physical storage costs rather than volatile token markets – has attracted institutional partners, including revenue-generating companies with proven business models. The funding will also accelerate infrastructure expansion, strategic partnerships, team growth, and institutional adoption of datachain technology ahead of Irys’s upcoming mainnet launch.

“Irys represents the infrastructure layer for the AI economy,” said Einar Braathen, Partner at CoinFund. “Where traditional approaches require piecing together multiple solutions, Irys has created unified infrastructure that makes data programmable. This is the AWS moment for onchain data.”

Irys’s approach is already generating significant institutional interest, with partners whose combined businesses represent hundreds of millions in revenue choosing the platform for critical infrastructure needs. This institutional adoption is driven by Irys’s technical advantages: unlike first-generation datachains that only provide static storage, Irys’s programmable data architecture enables smart contracts to read, modify, and act on stored data natively. This breakthrough allows for automated licensing agreements, verifiable AI training processes, and programmable intellectual property rights – capabilities impossible on existing blockchain infrastructure. Furthermore, Irys dramatically simplifies implementation—developers can get started in hours using familiar EVM-compatible tools, directly addressing the pain point found in legacy alternatives where integration can take months.

“This funding validates what our community has recognized: infrastructure that handles real revenue from real companies deserves serious institutional attention,” added Benaron. “We’re not waiting for adoption – we’re capturing it through partnerships that convert every enterprise data problem into permanent network volume that compounds over time.”

With over 500,000 community members across channels in over eight countries and partners that collectively generate hundreds of millions in revenue, choosing the platform for critical infrastructure needs, Irys is positioned to capture significant market share as the AI economy demands more sophisticated data infrastructure.

About Irys

Irys is the world’s first programmable datachain, combining verifiable data with native smart contract execution to create a foundation that’s optimized for storing, discovering, and monetizing data at any scale. With over 80 strategic partners, 600 million+ transactions processed, and 4 million+ daily active wallets, Irys aims to be the infrastructure that will one day contain all of humanity’s most critical information. Learn more at https://irys.xyz

About CoinFund

CoinFund is a blockchain investment firm focused on early-stage projects building foundational infrastructure for the decentralized economy. With a portfolio spanning DeFi, infrastructure, and Web3 applications, CoinFund partners with visionary teams creating the next generation of blockchain technology.