Businesses accuse Denver influencer of taking money, not posting [Video]

The man behind the social media profiles said he became overwhelmed over the past year and some deals “fell through the cracks.”

DENVER — An online firestorm of allegations surrounds a social media influencer who is accused of taking hundreds of dollars from small businesses but failing to profile their shops on his social media pages.

9NEWS Investigates reviewed Venmo transactions and direct messages between several small businesses and Jonathan Davis, who runs The Denver Foodie pages on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.

Within the 24 hours before this story was published, The Denver Foodie changed its name to WhatsUpDenver303 on one of its social media accounts.

Allegations against the popular influencer, who has more than 500,000 followers across his accounts, began last week on TikTok and Reddit.

“We paid him and he never showed up,” Helen Chu, owner of Mr. Tang, a Korean restaurant in Aurora, told 9NEWS Investigates.

Chu …