State Champ Radio DEL Records
Trending on Billboard
Music executive Ángel Del Villar will remain a free man while he appeals his convictions for doing business with Mexican drug cartels, a federal judge said.
Del Villar was scheduled to report to prison on Dec. 1 to begin serving his four-year prison sentence on the cartel-ties convictions, but Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong granted his request to stay out on bond during the appellate process. Such appeals can take a year or more to resolve.
Related
Siding with arguments last month by Del Villar’s attorneys, the judge said the convicted executive had cleared the low bar for remaining free: that his appeal raised sufficiently arguable points about her jury instructions that an appellate court might be persuaded.
“Del Villar need only show that his appeal raises a fairly debatable question,” Judge Frimpong wrote. “The Court finds that—although the Court does not see any error in its trial rulings or in its jury instructions—that at least the question of the deliberate ignorance instruction is a ‘fairly debatable’ one.”
Del Villar, who founded his Del Records in 2008, built the label into a powerhouse for regional Mexican music, home to supergroup Eslabon Armado, Lenin Ramirez and other chart-topping artists.
But in June 2022, federal prosecutors unveiled charges against Del Villar, 41, CFO Luca Scalisi, 56, and Del Records under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act – a statute that allows the U.S. to impose targeted sanctions on foreign individuals involved in the illegal drug trade and ban U.S. residents from doing business with them.
The feds claimed that Del Villar had repeatedly arranged concerts with Jesus Pérez Alvear, a Guadalajara-based promoter with cartel ties. And at a March trial, superstar Gerardo Ortiz took the stand to testify against Del Villar, saying he had seen Pérez Alvear at the Del Records offices and had himself performed at one of the promoter’s concerts.
Related
Del Villar’s defense attorneys argued back that he had been “manipulated” into working with Pérez Alvear by a “trusted” former employee. But the jury didn’t buy it, finding him guilty on 10 counts of violating the Kingpin law, as well as one conspiracy charge. In August, Judge Frimpong sentenced him to 48 months in prison on those convictions.
With that sentence looming and his appeal still in the earliest stages, Del Villar’s attorneys urged the judge to postpone his December prison report date. In the process, they also previewed how they will likely challenge the verdict on appeal.
They say they have a particularly strong argument on how the judge instructed jurors that they could convict Del Villar by finding that he willfully blinded himself to Pérez’s shady connections. They say prosecutors couldn’t prove he took concrete actions to avoid such knowledge, but that Judge Frimpong gave the jurors that option anyway.
“The government pointed to no evidence — and the record contains none — from which a jury could conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Del Villar took ‘deliberate actions’ or made ‘active efforts,’ his lawyers wrote, later adding that the judge’s instruction “went to the heart and most hotly contested aspect of the case.”
Trending on Billboard
Andrew Del Villar is set to take over as the new CEO of regional Mexican music powerhouse Del Records. The transition that he and his dad, Ángel Del Villar, have been “planning for years” will take effect Thursday, Nov. 6.
The 26-year-old will step in amid his dad’s legal battles as he faces a prison sentence that will begin on Dec. 1. Over the summer, Ángel was sentenced to four years in prison following his conviction on felony charges of doing business with a concert promoter linked to Mexican drug cartels. Now, the California-based indie record label — founded by Ángel in 2008 and previously home to música mexicana giants like Eslabon Armado, Ariel Camacho and Gerardo Ortiz — is looking to enter a new era with a new leader in tow.
“While we never talked about when this transition would actually happen, I’m excited because my dad and I had been planning this for years, it’s been a while and it’s finally happening,” Andrew tells Billboard over Zoom, just days before stepping into his new role.
Related
Previously Del Records’ COO, Andrew began working for his dad’s company as a teenager and mainly worked behind the scenes, booking theater or arena shows for the label’s roster and flagging artists on social media that he thought his dad should sign, including sierreño acts Eslabon Armado and T3R Elemento.
“I started getting involved like 7 or 8 years ago and started from the bottom; collecting tickets, charging when we were doing the nightclubs, and booking U.S. shows in theaters and arenas,” Andrew says. “Then, I kinda of became A&R, sending my dad artists I was finding on social media. I would say, ‘Hey, what do you think about them?’ Just like my dad, I have a good ear and can identify who has potential.”
While Andrew is open to branching out to different genres, for now, Del Records will continue to focus on signing música mexicana acts. “[Regional Mexican] has been our bread and butter,” he adds. “DEL has done a lot over the years, and I want to keep that legacy alive, and keep signing artists and build them from the ground up,” he explains. “But this new era will differentiate from my dad’s run because I will launch new marketing and promotion strategies, leaning heavily on social media. That’s the biggest marketing you can invest in. There’s more to just posting on social media, you need a team dedicated to taking that post to the next level.”
Ángel del Villar & Andrew del Villar
Patty Othon
Andrew is revamping his dad’s “Canta Con Del” initiative that launched 10 years ago, inviting local California acts to sing at the family’s restaurant for a shot at getting signed by the label. Andrew will relaunch that initiative but open it to artists from all over the world who can submit their songs/performances on social media. “There’s talent everywhere and we want people to be heard and get an opportunity,” he says.
Over the years, Andrew gained confidence to make decisions, encouraged by his dad to find his voice. “He would tell me, ‘Hey, mijo, whatever you want to say, whatever you want to do, let’s roll with it.’ He’s given me that confidence to speak up.”
Related
Andrew further adds, “My dad has always been my role model, everything that has been thrown at him is a lot, we’ve had these talks for years and he’s always been positive about everything. He’s told me to never let things get to me because in our genre, and the industry in general, people don’t wish you well. But never let the negativity get to you.”
Del Records’ roster today includes Lenin Ramírez, Yahir Saldívar, Sucesión M and Panchito Arredondo, plus newly added acts Marco Granillo, Andi Luan and Cobian Montana.
A Latin music executive accused of doing business with a concert promoter linked to Mexican drug cartels is now asking a federal judge to dismiss the charges, arguing that the indictment is unfairly vague and the sign of an eventual “sucker punch” by prosecutors.
Angel Del Villar, the CEO of Los Angeles-based Del Records, was charged in 2022 with violating a federal law that bars U.S. residents from doing business with known drug traffickers. Prosecutors say he repeatedly arranged concerts with a Guadalajara-based promoter who has ties to Mexican cartels.
But in a motion filed Thursday, Del Villar’s attorneys say the indictment failed to clearly state what aspects of that federal law he allegedly violated, leaving him unable to properly prepare a defense.
Trending on Billboard
“The purpose of an indictment is to protect individuals from government ambush,” writes Del Villar’s attorney. “A person whose liberty is at stake is entitled to know with certainty what offenses they are alleged to have committed [and] against what theories they must be prepared to contend.”
“The indictment here thwarts those goals,” Del Villar’s lawyers say. “Neither Del Villar nor his codefendants, upon reading it, can be sure from which direction the government’s attack will come — a sure setup for a sucker punch.”
Del Villar is represented by Drew Findling, a well-known criminal defense attorney for music industry figures. The Atlanta lawyer with has previously represented Gucci Mane, YFN Lucci and members of Migos in criminal cases; last year, he successfully defended Cardi B over a microphone-throwing incident in Las Vegas.
Founded by Del Villar in 2008, Del Records has grown into a top record company for Regional Mexican music. The label is home to música mexicana supergroup Eslabon Armado, whose global hit, “Ella Baila Sola” with Peso Pluma, became one of the biggest songs of 2023, as well as Lenin Ramirez and other chart-topping artists.
But in June 2022, Del Villar, 41, and chief financial officer Luca Scalisi, 56, and Del Records itself were all charged with conspiring to violate the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. Passed in 1999, the law allows the U.S. to impose targeted sanctions on foreign individuals involved in the illegal drug trade and ban U.S. residents from doing business with them.
In Del Villar’s case, prosecutors claim that he repeatedly worked with Jesus Perez Alvear, a Mexican concert promoter who runs a company called Gallistica Diamente (Ticket Premier). The U.S. Treasury Department added Perez to the sanctions list in 2018, claiming he and Gallistica had helped cartels “exploit the Mexican music industry to launder drug proceeds and glorify their criminal activities.”
Prosecutors claim Del Villar and Scalisi used Perez to arrange four Mexican concerts for an undisclosed Del Records artist, then accepted nearly $200,000 in payments from him, all while clearly aware that Perez had been sanctioned. Charging documents cite a never-sent Del Records press release acknowledging that status, as well as private messages in which Scalisi noted that Perez was “under homeland security watch” and Del Villar was directly told that Perez was “a sanctioned US person.”
Two and a half years later – after the case was pushed back numerous times – both Del Villar and Scalisi are now pushing to dismiss the charges.
In his filing on Thursday, Del Villar’s attorneys argue that the indictment is not clear about which aspect of the Kingpin Act he was accused of violating. Is it a provision banning transactions related to a significant drug trafficker, or another one prohibiting transactions that seek to evade the law itself? Findling says prosecutors “do not specify.”
“It would be one thing had the indictment plainly set out the precise elements of [those separate provisions],” Del Villar’s attorney writes. “It would even be acceptable had the indictment set out facts that would make clear which provision was at issue. But it does neither.”
A response from prosecutors is due next month. If the case is not dismissed, a trial is tentatively scheduled for October.
Music executives Ángel del Villar and Javier “El Tamarindo” González have joined forces to launch a new distribution company, DSTRO7. Del Villar’s indie label, DEL Records, will be exclusively distributed by DSTRO7, as will González’s Tamarindo Rekordsz, which he founded in 2012. According to a press release, the company will focus on music streaming, monetization, […]
-
Pages
