Source: Dia Dipasupil / Getty
Power 105.1’s The Breakfast Club usually dissects the drama, but now one of its members is embroiled in their own.
DJ Envy, alongside his business partner Cesar Pina, has endlessly been getting roasted on social media for the latter allegedly being the mastermind behind a real estate fraud empire. Pina reportedly defrauded dozens of victims of the Ponzi scheme.
There were even reports that the FBI raided Envy’s iHeartRadio office and seized laptops and external hard drives concerning the alleged crime. However, according to TMZ, Envy’s lawyer Massimo D’Angelo refutes the visit and confiscation, adding that the story is “continued sensationalization.”
“As alleged in the complaint, Pina exploited celebrity status and social media to develop a devoted following of potential victims. Promising returns that were too good to be true, Pina allegedly defrauded dozens of people of millions of dollars,” U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said in a statement. “Our office is committed to protecting the public from these schemes and prosecuting those who lie to investors for their own personal gain.”
For his alleged role in the multimillion-dollar investment fraud, Pina has since been arrested on one count of wire fraud and faces a bevy of lawsuits. Shortly after being booked, he was released on a $1 million with an ankle monitor to ensure he doesn’t leave the state of New Jersey.
According to prosecutors, in 2017, Pina began taking money from people to buy properties in New Jersey to renovate and resell them. Within five months of people investing their money, Pina promised they’d see 20-45% returns. However, those checks never materialized, and Pina instead used that money to pay off older investors.
According to Vulture, Pina was allegedly seeking investments in properties he didn’t even own, tricked several people into investing in the same property and even tried to pay people off with jewelry and use diamond chains as IOUs.
DJ Envy’s involvement is a bit trickier as he appears to be more of a spokesperson for Pina’s dealings. The two held seminars together to help teach people how to build wealth through homeownership and passive income. However, Envy is named as a co-defendant in at least nine of the 20 lawsuits against Pina.
See below how social media has reacted to the scam and Envy’s involvement.
