Microsoft Engineer Registers Private 'DOGE' Business, Raising Massive Conflict of Interest Red Flags
As Musk's DOGE bulldozes through federal agencies demanding sensitive data access, a Microsoft engineer working on federal contracts registered a private company using DOGE's name.
What if a private citizen opened a business called the “Federal Bureau of Investigations, Inc.”? What if someone launched a company called “Department of Homeland Security Ltd”? You would immediately assume that organization is affiliated with the government.
Further, what sorts of conflicts of interest would there be if the head of the federal department ordered the creation of the impostor company? Wouldn’t it be ironic if the government body dedicated to uncovering fraud was, in fact, engaging in serious fraud?
This exact scenario seems to be unfolding before our eyes in a stunning display of conflict of interest and potential violation of federal law.
Last month, a Microsoft engineer named Trevor Nestor registered a business called “DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY, LOCAL OPERATIONS NETWORK LLC”
Source: OpenCorporates.com1
Two Disturbing Possibilities
In the world of federal contracts, compliance is king. There are several laws and regulations that prohibit false representation, self-dealing, and even the appearance of conflicts of interest.
Creating a private business that shares the name of a government department—in this case, DOGE—raises significant legal and ethical questions, particularly if there are plans to pursue federal contracts.
So, was this LLC bearing DOGE’s name established with the consent of DOGE?
Or is Nestor impersonating a federal entity in violation of, well, a bunch of laws?
The situation presents two troubling possibilities. Both demand immediate investigation:
Possibility 1: Unauthorized Use of a Government Department Name
Nestor may have registered a private business bearing DOGE's name without proper authorization, potentially running afoul of:
18 U.S. Code § 709 – False Representation of Government Agencies
Prohibits unauthorized use of federal agency names.
31 U.S.C. § 3729 (False Claims Act - FCA)
Even if no contract is awarded, misrepresenting a business as a government entity could be considered an attempt to defraud the government.
https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-1994-title31-section3729&num=0&edition=1994 3
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Act (Deceptive Trade Practices Clause)
Prohibits misleading business practices and unfair methods of competition
Further, Nestor would be in violation of internal Microsoft policies that bar employees from outside business activities that would conflict with Microsoft’s work. If Microsoft fails to disclose the legal risks associated with their employee’s business activity, they could face penalties.
Scenario 2: DOGE Authorized the Formation of This Business, Possibly to Secure Federal Contracts
The second scenario is even more concerning. If DOGE’s leadership directed the creation of this LLC with the intent to procure future federal contracts, the private DOGE LLC would have an unmistakable advantage over competitors
The implied government endorsement would create an uneven playing field
Access to non-public information about government needs and requirements would give unfair advantage
The potential to influence contract specifications to match DOGE LLC's capabilities
would all create a chilling effect on the federal contract market–something that antitrust laws are specifically designed to prevent.
I think we can all appreciate how ironic it would be if the very department created to eliminate government fraud was actually gearing up to engage in fraud and corruption to an astounding degree.
Relevant laws and regulations include
Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 3.601 – Conflicts of Interest
The government must avoid even the appearance of favoritism.
18 U.S. Code § 208 – Acts Affecting a Personal Financial Interest
18 U.S. Code § 201 - Bribery of public officials and witnesses
Antitrust laws
Is this an attempt to lead the charge in blurring the lines between government and private entities?
Is DOGE setting up a private arm to start competing for federal contracts?
Or is this a case of a rogue Microsoft employee who decided to impersonate DOGE without approval?
Microsoft Security Implications
Trevor Nestor is a software engineer at Microsoft, with previous contracting experience at Veterans Affairs in 2021. He previously held a Top Secret with Secure Compartmentalized Information clearance, one of the highest.
An old, now-deleted LinkedIn profile says he worked at Boeing in 2018.
I would link to his LinkedIn profile, but sometime between viewing it on March 1 and writing this on March 3, he deleted his profile. On March 3, he deleted the second LinkedIn.
So why am I especially concerned that there may be a Microsoft employee working with DOGE behind the scenes?
Microsoft provides cloud services to the federal government through Azure Government and requires detailed background investigations8 for Microsoft personnel with access to noncritical-sensitive information and above.
When a Microsoft employee—particularly one with access to sensitive systems as a federal contractor—engages in unauthorized collaboration with government officials outside their official duties, it creates a dangerous nexus of compliance and security vulnerabilities.
If DOGE recruits a Microsoft insider, they could exploit that insider’s knowledge to circumvent security controls, or ask the insider to establish backdoors on Microsoft’s systems to make data exfiltration easier.
For Microsoft, this would represent conflict of interest and violations of the Procurement Integrity Act which prohibits contractors from receiving non-public information about contract opportunities or sharing competitive intelligence. It could also result in a breach of fiduciary duty to shareholders through potentially diverting valuable business opportunities to the employee’s company.
Why am I talking about DOGE like they’re a cyber threat? DOGE's actions closely mirror those of sophisticated state-sponsored cyber threat actors, known as APTs.
Recruiting insiders, establishing persistent access, and exfiltrating sensitive data are hallmarks of advanced persistent threats—except here, the actor would be operating under the banner of government efficiency.
This concern must be viewed in the broader context of DOGE's reported demands for extensive access to sensitive data across numerous federal departments and agencies. When a government entity seeks both widespread data access and potentially cultivates insider connections at major technology providers, multiple legal compliance issues arise for the contractor (Microsoft), the employee (Nestor), and the federal officials involved.
Let’s take a step back and look at a brief timeline of DOGE’s far-reaching demands for access to sensitive federal data
January 27, 2025 - Office of Personnel Management
January 31, 2025 - Treasury Department, Bureau of Fiscal Service
January 31, 2025 Office of Personnel Management
February 1, 2025 - USAID
February 3, 2025 - GSA, Technology Transformation Services
February 4, 2024 - Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
February 5, 2025 - Veterans Affairs
February 6, 2025 - Treasury Department, IRS
February 7, 2025 - Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Who is Trevor Nestor?
This article is like a mullet–business in the front, party at the back. So here’s the fun part.
Normally, I wouldn’t scrutinize someone’s political views they share online. While I might disagree with certain views, I don’t think people should get fired for expressing their own opinions within reason.
But I think when you hold a position with a high level of sensitivity and trust as a federal contractor, and you create a private business bearing DOGE’s name, your social media history warrants a bit more scrutiny.
And finding ideological alignment between Nestor and DOGE bolsters the argument that they may be working together.
In 2018, Nestor was unemployed and possibly homeless (no shame in that) when he paid Jordan Peterson at least $200 to have a conversation that ranged from Nestor’s musings on declines in testosterone and sperm counts, to women secretly longing to be tradwives, to the reason Nestor left UC Berkeley:
“They were teaching in classrooms things like Martin Luther King Jr. would have supported violent rebellion, and marriage is an institution that is designed to control the sexuality of women.”
Here’s a link to Nestor’s conversation with Peterson,18 and here’s an article19 by a psychotherapist on the blurry-at-best ethics of Peterson making upwards of $80,000 per month providing not-therapy sessions to his followers.
Let’s take a look at his Twitter.20
Same profile picture as his LinkedIn, and the cover images in both profiles have the same “Nestor” logo.
In 2022, Nestor became rather obsessed with harassing the University of Colorado Bolder Police Department, apparently because some incident resulted in an exclusion order banning Nestor from campus.
He often replied to tweets relating to domestic violence or victims of assault, turning the conversation back to his own perceived injustices.
He even responded to a post about the Colorado Springs nightclub shooting that claimed 5 lives and injured 25 others, again redirecting the focus to himself.
He also replied to Elon Musk a couple of times.
He also expressed anti-vaccine skepticism21
and suggested22 that a destructive Colorado wildfire was caused by a “directed energy weapon”
We Deserve Answers
The creation of "DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY, LOCAL OPERATIONS NETWORK LLC" by a Microsoft engineer with high-level security clearance experience requires us to demand answers and accountability for how Americans’ cybersecurity and data privacy is being protected.
We need very good answers for why this is happening, for a few reasons.
First, the timing raises legitimate concerns.
As DOGE pursues unprecedented access to sensitive systems across multiple federal agencies—from Treasury payment systems to Medicare's $1.5 trillion operation to Veterans Affairs financial and patient data—we also discover a Microsoft engineer with potential backdoor access to government cloud infrastructure creating a business that bears DOGE's name. This should be investigated further.
Second, possible insider threats at Microsoft—a key government cloud provider—have profound national security implications.
Microsoft's Azure Government platform hosts vast amounts of critical federal data. An employee with divided loyalties—especially one who has held top secret clearance—creates the exact insider threat scenario that cybersecurity experts warn about. The fact that Nestor deleted his LinkedIn profiles shortly after scrutiny began only heightens these concerns.
Third, the ideological alignment between Nestor's documented views and DOGE's leadership cannot be dismissed as coincidental.
Nestor’s digital footprint reveals a pattern of behavior and beliefs that raises serious questions about judgment and suitability for handling sensitive government information. He fits the ideological profile of someone who would align themselves with DOGE.
Whether this could be a case of impersonation of a government entity or an authorized attempt to create a private arm of DOGE for federal contracting, both scenarios represent serious violations of federal law and procurement regulations.
The irony is profound: a department created to eliminate government waste and inefficiency appears to be operating in ways that mirror the tactics of sophisticated threat actors—cultivating insider access, demanding god-level data access, and potentially creating private businesses that blur the lines between government authority and private enterprise.
The American people deserve—and must demand—clear answers about where our sensitive data is going, who has access to it, and why this supposed anti-fraud initiative operates with such disturbing secrecy.
Trevor Nestor. DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY, LOCAL OPERATIONS NETWORK LLC business registration [Internet]. Opencorporates.com. 2025 [cited 2025 Mar 1]. Available from: https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_wa/605743080
18 U.S. Code § 709 - False advertising or misuse of names to indicate Federal agency [Internet]. LII / Legal Information Institute. 2018 [cited 2025 Mar 3]. Available from: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/709
31 USC 3729: False claims [Internet]. House.gov. 2018 [cited 2025 Mar 3]. Available from: https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-1994-title31-section3729&num=0&edition=1994
Subpart 3.6 - Contracts with Government Employees or Organizations Owned or Controlled by Them | Acquisition.GOV [Internet]. Acquisition.gov. ACQ.gov; 2025 [cited 2025 Mar 4]. Available from: https://www.acquisition.gov/far/subpart-3.6
18 U.S. Code § 208 - Acts affecting a personal financial interest [Internet]. LII / Legal Information Institute. 2022 [cited 2025 Mar 4]. Available from: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/208
18 U.S. Code § 201 - Bribery of public officials and witnesses [Internet]. LII / Legal Information Institute. 2023 [cited 2025 Mar 4]. Available from: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/201
The Antitrust Laws [Internet]. Federal Trade Commission. 2013 [cited 2025 Mar 4]. Available from: https://www.ftc.gov/advice-guidance/competition-guidance/guide-antitrust-laws/antitrust-laws
EliotSeattle. Azure Government Security - Azure Government [Internet]. Microsoft.com. 2022 [cited 2025 Mar 4]. Available from: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-government/documentation-government-plan-security#screening
Gill A. A Fork in the Road: Is Federal Employee Privacy Compromised? [Internet]. Muellershewrote.com. The Breakdown; 2025 [cited 2025 Mar 4]. Available from: https://www.muellershewrote.com/p/a-fork-in-the-road-is-federal-employee
Gangitano A. Top Treasury official retires over DOGE request for access to payment systems [Internet]. The Hill. 2025 [cited 2025 Mar 4]. Available from: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5119996-david-lebryk-retirement-treasury-doge-musk/
Reid T. Exclusive: Musk aides lock workers out of OPM computer systems [Internet]. Reuters. 2025 [cited 2025 Mar 4]. Available from: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/musk-aides-lock-government-workers-out-computer-systems-us-agency-sources-say-2025-01-31/
Knickmeyer E. USAID security chiefs put on leave after trying to keep DOGE from classified info [Internet]. AP News. 2025 [cited 2025 Mar 4]. Available from: https://apnews.com/article/doge-musk-trump-classified-information-usaid-security-35101dee28a766e0d9705e0d47958611
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Trevor Nestor. Trevor Nestor tweets “Directed energy weapon” in response to news story about destructive Colorado wildfire [Internet]. Twitter. 2022 [cited 2025 Mar 3]. Available from: https://web.archive.org/web/20220103225946/https://twitter.com/TrevorNestor/status/1478137760515239937
DOGE is already engaging in fraud. Musk has an incredible conflict of interest and us doing all he can to direct contracts to his companies
Well he’s going to get sued right? Maybe that’s the point? Perhaps it’s a very interesting way to prove that DOGE isn’t a government entity and is therefore illegal.