DJ Envy visits SiriusXM Studio on April 20, 2022 in New York Metropolis.
Dia Dipasupil/Getty Photographs
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Dia Dipasupil/Getty Photographs
DJ Envy visits SiriusXM Studio on April 20, 2022 in New York Metropolis.
Dia Dipasupil/Getty Photographs
In style radio character DJ Envy of New York-based Energy 105.1 FM has come below fireplace for his connection to accused actual property funding fraudster Cesar Pina.
DJ Envy has not been arrested or charged with any crimes, however he’s being sued by no less than 9 events who mentioned that with out Envy’s vouching, they by no means would have been scammed by Pina.
Victims of the alleged scheme mentioned they had been duped into believing actual property investments by means of Pina had been reliable based mostly on The Breakfast Membership co-host’s endorsement.
DJ Envy, born RaaShaun Casey, had for years partnered with Pina – who goes by Flipping_NJ on social media – to host actual property funding seminars throughout the nation and infrequently promoted Pina as an actual property genius on the syndicated morning radio program.
Earlier this month, the New Jersey District Lawyer’s workplace arrested Pina, accusing him of committing a multi-million greenback actual property funding Ponzi scheme relationship again to 2017.
”The defendant ran a fraudulent scheme”
”Pina exploited movie star standing and social media to develop a faithful following of potential victims,” U.S. Lawyer Philip R. Sellinger mentioned within the grievance.
Pina, the workplace mentioned, would assure lenders large payoffs for his or her investments in buying and transforming initiatives. Then, as soon as he had the cash in hand, he would spend that cash as a substitute on paying off outdated money owed and private expenditures.
”Plain and easy, the defendant ran a fraudulent scheme,” Tammy Tomlins, Particular Agent in Cost of IRS – Legal Investigation Newark Area Workplace, mentioned in a press release. ”They falsely represented the character of their enterprise and lied about potential funding returns to bilk unsuspecting victims out of thousands and thousands.”
Envy was additionally not directly named within the grievance, with the district lawyer’s workplace writing:
”Pina partnered with a star disc jockey and radio character to conduct actual property seminars across the nation. By means of these seminars, self-promotional efforts, and different advertising methods, Pina developed a major social media following.”
Pina is reportedly now out on a $1 million bond and isn’t allowed to go away the state of New Jersey. If convicted of wire fraud, he faces 20 years in jail and a advantageous of $250,000.
”These are working class people. These are usually not rich people,” mentioned Alexander Schachtel, the lawyer representing 9 claimants in opposition to DJ Envy, Pina and others they accuse of being in on the scheme.
”A few of these folks misplaced their life financial savings.”
Schachtel mentioned that by attaching his identify to Pina’s and introducing the accused rip-off artist to The Breakfast Membership’s extensive viewers, Envy has a duty to see the victims recompensed.
”He wants to appreciate that while you maintain your self out and also you inform members of the general public who look as much as you, who take heed to your radio present, who go to seminars that you simply co-host with Cesar Pina, that hear you on social media, on the radio, in individual, describe your self as Cesar’s enterprise companion and tout Cesar Pina’s actual property experience and in any other case endorse and increase and maintain your self out to folks as Cesar’s companion, that you’re attaching your self to Cesar as as a matter of legislation,” he mentioned.
Schachtel famous {that a} disproportionate variety of those that mentioned they had been duped are Black and Latino males – The Breakfast Membership’s core demographic.
Envy tried to distance himself from claims of impropriety
Since Pina’s arrest, Envy has tried to distance himself from any claims of impropriety.
”Cesar – if he took cash, I wasn’t aware about it, nor did I even know,” Envy mentioned on a latest episode of The Breakfast Membership.
Envy mentioned that he was talking in opposition to his lawyer’s recommendation and that the rationale he started internet hosting actual property seminars was to ”uplift [his] neighborhood” and to show others the right way to attain generational wealth.
Envy, in truth, based on his lawyer, fell prey to Pina’s schemes as a lot as anybody.
”DJ Envy is a sufferer himself,” mentioned Envy’s lawyer, Massimo F. D’Angelo.
D’Angelo mentioned that Envy invested $500,000 in a parcel of actual property with Pina, on which he by no means noticed a return.
”In reality, he is a double sufferer,” D’Angelo continued, saying that along with shedding his funding, Envy has been topic to dangerous actors who’re ”simply making an attempt to make a revenue and sensationalize the case by making an attempt to connect his identify to it.”
The assertion that Envy is a sufferer within the scheme – not a perpetrator – is offensive to these suing, mentioned Derik Deangelo.
Claimant asks why DJ Envy did not alert the general public till the feds received concerned
”That is simply the wolf enjoying sufferer,” Deangelo mentioned.
Deangelo is likely one of the 9 claimants the lawyer, Schachtel, is representing within the swimsuit that features Envy.
Deangelo mentioned that final yr he took out a $100,000 mortgage in opposition to his house to take a position with Pina. It was someday this summer time that he realized he had been scammed.
”It is form of taken away my life,” Deangelo mentioned.
With the intention to pay again the mortgage, Deangelo mentioned, he needed to unload the automobiles he had been utilizing to kickstart a small rental enterprise. And if Envy had already confronted shedding cash with Pina, Deangelo wonders why the radio host didn’t alert the general public till the feds received concerned.
”Now you are enjoying sufferer since you see all of the lawsuits flying round. The place was all this info a few years in the past,” Deangelo mentioned.
”Possibly in case you performed sufferer a yr in the past and mentioned, ’Cesar owes me $500,000,’ I might have by no means invested with Cesar.”