State Champ Radio Lawsuits
Drake is pushing to be dismissed from the sprawling litigation over the 2021 disaster at Travis Scott‘s Astroworld festival, arguing that he had nothing to do with planning the deadly event and can’t be sued for simply showing up for a brief guest appearance.
More than 2,500 people have sued over the 2021 Astroworld event during which a crowd of fans rushed toward the stage during Scott’s Nov. 5 performance, leaving 10 dead and hundreds injured. Though the lawsuits mainly target Scott, Live Nation and other organizers, Drake was also named as a defendant in some cases because he appeared on stage during Scott’s deadly performance.
But in a motion filed Friday (Mar. 8) in Houston court, attorneys for Drake (real name Aubrey Drake Graham) argued that the star should not be involved in the case at all. They said he had no involvement in Astroworld beyond being asked to take the stage — and that festival organizers had “confirmed under oath that Mr. Graham was not involved in any planning.”
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They also say that Drake was unaware of any safety problems before he took the stage. “Mr. Graham did not receive any security briefings, was not informed of any crowd control issues, injuries or deaths in the crowd, or any stop show orders at any time either before or during his 14-minute performance.”
Instead, they say that Drake merely “arrived at the venue at approximately 7:30 PM and remained largely secluded backstage in a trailer until approximately 9:54 PM,” at which time he was “informed to take the stage.” The star then “immediately took the stage as requested, performed for approximately 14 minutes, and then exited the stage at 10:08 PM.”
The lawsuits over Astroworld claim that organizers were legally negligent in how they planned and conducted the event, including by failing to provide adequate security and emergency support. The cases, combined into one single large action in Houston, are seeking billions in potential damages. Much of the last two years has been spent in discovery, as the two sides exchange information and take depositions of key figures.
In Friday’s motion, Drake’s lawyers argued that the discovery process had resulted in “hundreds of hours” of depositions and “hundreds of thousands of pages of documents,” but that none of it had established that Drake could be held liable for negligence.
“Plaintiffs produce no evidence that Mr. Graham actually knew of any risk in the Festival site design and layout, competence or adequacy of Festival staffing and personnel, or emergency procedures such as show stop authority,” his lawyers wrote.
The alleged victims, represented by an array of plaintiffs law firms, will have a chance to respond to Drake’s motion in the weeks ahead.
A Los Angeles judge is pressing pause on a bombshell sexual harassment lawsuit filed against Lizzo by three of her former backup dancers, halting all proceedings while the star appeals a recent ruling that allowed the case to move forward.
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In a decision Thursday, Judge Mark H. Epstein ordered the case “stayed” while Lizzo challenges his January ruling, which largely rejected her efforts to dismiss the lawsuit under California’s anti-SLAPP statute — a special law that makes it easier to quickly end meritless lawsuits that threaten free speech.
It’s unclear how long that process will take, but it will be at least several months before the case resumes.
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Lizzo (real name Melissa Jefferson) was sued in August by dancers Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez, who claim she and her Big Grrrl Big Touring Inc. created a hostile work environment through a wide range of legal wrongdoing, including sexual harassment and religious and racial discrimination.
In one particularly vivid allegation, Lizzo’s accusers claimed she pushed them to attend a live sex show at a venue in Amsterdam’s famed Red Light District called Bananenbar, and then pressured them to engage with the performers, including “eating bananas protruding from the performers’ vaginas.” After Lizzo herself allegedly led a chant “goading” Davis to touch one performer’s breasts, the lawsuit says, Davis eventually did so.
Repped by Hollywood defense attorney Martin D. Singer, Lizzo fired back in October, arguing that Davis, Williams and Rodriguez filed the case seeking “a quick payday with minimal effort.” He said they had “an axe to grind” against the star because they had been reprimanded over “a pattern of gross misconduct and failure to perform their job up to par.”
Lizzo’s motion to dismiss the case cited the anti-SLAPP statute, which stands for “strategic lawsuits against public participation.” Her lawyers called the harassment lawsuit “a brazen attempt to silence defendants’ creative voices and weaponize their creative expression against them.”
But in his ruling in January, Judge Epstein ruled that the anti-SLAPP law didn’t quite fit all of the lawsuit’s allegations. He tossed out some claims – including a particularly loaded charge that Lizzo fat-shamed one of her dancers – but ruled that remainder of the case could go forward.
Figuring out the proper balance – between protected speech and illegal discrimination – was “no easy task,” Judge Epstein wrote, but he said he had “tried to thread this needle.”
“It is dangerous for the court to weigh in, ham-fisted, into constitutionally protected activity,” the judge wrote. “But it is equally dangerous to turn a blind eye to allegations of discrimination or other forms of misconduct merely because they take place in a speech-related environment.”
It’s that ruling that Lizzo is now appealing. The coming appellate fight will aim to answer tricky questions about the anti-SLAPP statute – a provision that is often used to fight back against defamation lawsuits, not against discrimination lawsuit filed by former employees against their employer.
In statement Friday, the accusers’ attorney Ron Zambrano said: “This case now hinges on appeals. They’ll file, then we’ll cross-file, so the judge has stayed the case for the time being pending those appeals.” An attorney for Lizzo did not immediately return a request for comment.
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Aaron Hall’s alleged past is catching up with him something awful. The former Guy singer is getting dragged for filth after revelations that he may be a sexual assaulter, as well as his past antics, are getting resurrected and indicted on social media.
A new lawsuit claims that Sean Diddy Combs and Aaron Hall took turns raping a woman. The Daily Beast reports that Diddy was recently hit with a third lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault. In a New York Supreme Court filing, the Jane Doe alleges that Diddy and Hall took turns rapping her 30 years ago.
Reports the Daily Beast:
According to the lawsuit, “Combs and Hall were very flirtatious and handsy with Jane Doe and her friend, offering them drinks throughout the night,” before the foursome retreated to Hall’s apartment, where “Jane Doe was offered more drinks and was coerced into having sex with Combs.”
After the alleged assault, the lawsuit continues, “Jane Doe laid in bed, shocked and traumatized. As she was in the process of getting dressed, Hall barged into the room, pinned her down and forced Jane Doe to have sex with him.” Hall is a member of R&B group Guy, which was credited as pioneering the “new jack swing” sound in the late 1980s and early ’90s.
The Jane Doe also added that few days later Combs allegedly tracked her down and assaulted her, choking her until she passed out. Supposedly, Combs feared the other woman, who also allegedly had sex with Hall and Combs, would reveal what occurred to another woman he was involved with.
This is the third lawsuit Diddy has been hit with that accuses him of sexual assault. The first was by ex-Bad Boy artist Cassie, but it was settled about a day after it was fined. A second is by Joi Dickerson-Neal, who has filed a lawsuit that claims Diddy drugged and raped her in 1991 when she was a college student.
As for Hall, his infamous interview with Vlad TV, where he bragged about getting down in front of Diddy, lyrics that haven’t aged well and his toxic relationship with OG Hip-Hop vixen Gloria Velez (which reportedly started when she as just 16 years old) has led to him catching social media’s wrath, along with Diddy.
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Friendships come and go, but some fallouts particularly hurt, even for strangers on the outside looking in. Case in point, Daryl Hall is suing his long-time musical partner John Oates, and social media is in shambles over it.
Is Hall & Oates, the Philadelphia natives are responsible for some all-time great, Blue-Eyed Soul grooves including “Private Eyes,” “Man Eater” and “I Can’t Go For That.” Their songs have also been sampled extensively by Hip-Hop artists through the decades.
But unfortunately, the duo is clearly no longer on good terms as reportedly Hall is suing Oates for reasons that aren’t particularly clear. Philadelphia Magazine reported on November 20 that Oates sued Hall in Nashville Chancery Court on November 16. However, the details of the lawsuit are under seal.
Adding further duress to fans of the duo that has eight platinum albums under their belt is the news that Hall has filed, and been granted, a restraining order against Oates which is scheduled to begin on November 30.
While Hall & Oates have toured and performed together for years—and have broken up and reunited before—the litigation has social media declaring this is end times. Sure it’s hyperbole, but this is Hall & Oates we’re talking about here.
See some of the more dramatic reactions in the gallery.
6. Kurt knows.
Hall & Oates are locked in a mysterious lawsuit against each other, with Daryl Hall already winning a restraining order against musical partner John Oates.
The case, filed by Hall on Nov. 16 in Nashville court, concerns either a “contract” or “debt,” but little else is known about the case because it was filed under seal — a maneuver used when court documents contain sensitive information.
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The day after Hall headed to court, the judge overseeing the case issued a temporary restraining order against Oates, but there are no details about what the injunction bans the singer from doing. The lawsuit also names Oates’ wife, Aimee, in her role as a trustee of her husband’s investment trust.
The case was first reported Monday (Nov. 20) by Philadelphia magazine. Billboard confirmed its existence by reviewing court records in the Davidson County Chancery Court. An attorney for Hall, and reps for both singers, did not return requests for comment on Wednesday.
Since teaming up as a pair of Philadelphia singers in 1972, Hall & Oates have hit the top of the Billboard Hot 100 a whopping six times, first with “Rich Girl” in 1977 and then with “Kiss On My List,” “Private Eyes,” “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)” “Maneater” and “Out of Touch.” The pair have 10 more top 10 hits on the chart, as well as four albums that reached the top 10 on the Billboard 200.
As explained by Philadelphia, the duo have already broken up and reunited several times, sometimes going years without playing together. But they recently founded the HoagieNation Festival in Philadelphia and headlined the event in 2017, 2018 and 2021.
With details of the recent lawsuit under seal, speculation about the dispute swirled on Wednesday. TMZ pointed to a quote from Hall on Bill Maher’s “Club Random” podcast last year in which he said: “You think John Oates is my partner? … He’s my business partner. He’s not my creative partner.” Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Inquirer noted that the pair had “played only a handful of dates in 2022” and none in 2023.
Last year, Hall told the Los Angeles Times that it can be “very annoying” to operate as a musical duo. “Everything you do is juxtaposed against another person. Try doing that sometime. I don’t want to use the word ‘emasculating,’ because that’s male, but it takes away your individuality.”
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Former Bay Boy Records President Harve Pierre is being sued by a former assistant for sexual assault, amongst other allegations.
Rolling Stone reports that Pierre, a longtime member of Diddy’s inner circle of Bad Boy executives, is being accused of grooming and sexually assaulting the victim, who is unnamed. The Jane Doe plaintiff filed her lawsuit in the New York County Supreme Court.
“Pierre used his position of authority as plaintiff’s boss to groom, exploit, and sexually assault her,” says the filing, per Rolling Stone. “Pierre engaged in a year-long pattern of grooming plaintiff, leading to sexual harassment of plaintiff, and sexual assault.”
The lawsuit also names Bad Boy Entertainment, Bad Boy Records, and Combs Enterprises as co-defendants, The Jane Doe assistant alleges that Pierre assaulted her multiple times between 2016 and 2017. She is seeking unspecified damages that will reportedly “fully and fairly compensate” her for her pain and suffering.
Recently, Diddy was sued by former Bad Boy artist and ex-girl girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura for allegations that included rape and sex trafficking. However, the case was settled out of court about a day after she filed the lawsuit.
It is Pierre, who met Diddy while they both attended Howard University, who is initially heard on the late Craig Mack’s “Flava In Ya Ear,” one of Bad Boy’s earliest hit records.
This story is developing.
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Singer Cassie has accused her ex-boyfriend Sean “Diddy” Combs of rape and abuse, amongst other acts, in a lawsuit. In the suit, Cassie, born Casandra Ventura, alleges that Combs began abusing her shortly after they met when she was just 19 years old, in 2005.The New York Times reports that Ventura filed the lawsuit Thursday (Nov. 16), in Federal District Court in New York City. The suit alleges that in 2018, shortly before their romantic relationship came to an end, Diddy raped her in her home.“After years in silence and darkness,” said Ventura in a statement, “I am finally ready to tell my story, and to speak up on behalf of myself and for the benefit of other women who face violence and abuse in their relationships.”Diddy, via his lawyer, is denying all the allegations.
“Mr. Combs vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations,” said Diddy’s attorney, Ben Brafman, in a statement. “For the past six months, Mr. Combs has been subjected to Ms. Ventura’s persistent demand of $30 million, under the threat of writing a damaging book about their relationship, which was unequivocally rejected as blatant blackmail. Despite withdrawing her initial threat, Ms. Ventura has now resorted to filing a lawsuit riddled with baseless and outrageous lies, aiming to tarnish Mr. Combs’s reputation and seeking a payday.”
According to Ventura’s lawyer, she rejected an “eight-figure” payoff to stop her from filing the lawsuit. Ventura is seeking unspecified damages.
The alleged details in the suit are heinous.
Reports the New York Times:
A few years into Ms. Ventura’s relationship with Mr. Combs, the suit says, he began coercing her “to engage in a fantasy of his called ‘voyeurism,’” in which she was directed to have sex with a succession of male prostitutes, while Mr. Combs watched, masturbated, took pictures and shot video.
According to the suit, Mr. Combs called these encounters “freak offs,” which involved costumes, like masquerade masks and lingerie. They continued for years, taking place at high-end hotels across the United States and in Mr. Combs’ homes. The suit says that he instructed Ms. Ventura to search the websites of escort services to procure male sex workers.
Drugs were supplied at these events, which Ms. Ventura’s suit says she took because they “allowed her to disassociate during these horrific encounters.”
One person supporting Ventura’s claims, in a roundabout way, is Kid Cudi.
Says the Times:
In one incident described in the court papers, Ms. Ventura says that in early 2012, Mr. Combs grew so angry about her dating the rapper Kid Cudi that he said he would blow up the rapper’s car. “Around that time,” the suit says, “Kid Cudi’s car exploded in his driveway.”
Through a spokeswoman, Kid Cudi confirmed Ms. Ventura’s account. “This is all true,” he said.
Many will remember how Cassie left Diddy, and moved on with her life in 2018, having a child with personal trainer Alex Fine in 2019—and soon after they were wedded. If the timing holds, she left Diddy after he allegedly raped her.
The court filing says that in 2018, after Mr. Combs and Ms. Ventura met for dinner, he forced himself into her apartment and raped her while she “repeatedly said ‘no’ and tried to push him away.” After that, the suit says, she left him for good. Ms. Ventura married Alex Fine, a personal trainer, the following year and now has two young children. According to the complaint, her association with Bad Boy ended in 2019.
This is going to get ugly. Social media is already littered with hot takes. We’ve compiled some of the more compelling reactions and conspiracy theories, in the gallery.
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United States Department of Justice has launched an investigation into the possibility that the NBA engaged in an intentional effort to tank the Big3 basketball league founded by none other than West Coast Hip Hip icon Ice Cube.
According to TMZ, the inquiry into allegations that the NBA used its power to curb the growth and progress of the much smaller league was actually launched months ago. Basically, the pro league is accused of pressuring sponsors, investors, TV networks, players and even referees from getting involved with Big3, which is basically David to the NBA’s Goliath and was never very likely to produce even remote competition for the multi-billion dollar basketball league.
From TMZ:
Some current players have expressed a desire to play in Cube’s league in the offseason, but we’re told, as the Big3 sees it, the NBA has prevented guys from doing so, putting arbitrary rules in place to stop players from hooping in Ice’s league.
FYI, the NBA and Big3 seasons do not overlap.
Of course, it’s a regular occurrence for NBA players, including some of the biggest stars in the world like LeBron James, to hoop in non-NBA games after the season ends … such as L.A.’s famed Drew League.
Big3 officials, according to sources familiar with the investigation, believe they’ve been unfairly targeted by the NBA.
We’ve also been told NBA owners have been discouraged from investing in the Big3 while simultaneously owning a franchise.
Referees haven’t been immune, either, according to a source … who says they’ve been told they cannot officiate for the Big3, despite some working for other organizations outside of the NBA.
Again, if these allegations are true, it’s a lot of effort to go through for an established league that generates billions in revenue and already has other, much smaller leagues to “compete” with that it hasn’t been accused of trying to kill. Still, sources told TMZ that Cube and his BIG3 co-founder, Jeff Kwatinetz, met with DOJ attorneys earlier this year, and that those lawyers have reached out to NBA officials as part of the investigation, which indicates that the inquiry is being taken pretty seriously.
In response to the allegations, NBA spokesman Mike Bass told TMZ that the “claims are not true,” and that the NBA has actually “been supportive of the Big3 since its inception, but we declined to invest.” Cube appeared to dispute that part on X Tuesday saying, “BIG3 never asked the NBA to invest, we just want them to stop pressuring individuals and corporations not to invest in the BIG3.”
Mobb Deep is facing a lawsuit over a recent collaboration with streetwear brand Supreme. Filed by a New York City hardcore punk band Sick of It All, the suit claims that Mobb Deep members Havoc and the late Prodigy stole their dragon-shaped logo.
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In a lawsuit filed Friday, the band accused both Supreme and Mobb Deep of infringing its trademarks with a line of T-shirts launched this summer. The case claims that Mobb Deep’s emblem, featured on the shirts, is “virtually identical” to a logo that Sick of It All has used since 1987.
“This case arises out of defendants’ improper and illegal use of a nearly identical logo mark to plaintiff’s inherently distinctive, incontestable, and famous logo,” wrote lawyers for Bush Baby Zamagate Inc., the company that owns Sick of It All’s intellectual property. “Defendants’ adoption and use of their knockoff logo … is not just reckless and inexplicable — it is willful infringement and unfair competition.”
As defendants, the lawsuit named Chapter 4 Corp., the owner of Supreme; Kejuan Muchita Inc., a corporate entity owned by Havoc; and the estate of Prodigy (Albert Jackson Johnson), who died in 2017.
Back in June, when Supreme launched the Mobb Deep shirts, the website Hypebeast tried to explain the origins of the duo’s logo. The “tribal tattoo-style dragon,” the site claimed, had been “borrowed” from Sick of It All — “who, like Mobb Deep, is from Queens, New York.”
Turns out, Sick of It All doesn’t see the story quite the same way.
In Friday’s lawsuit, their lawyers say that, over the course of three decades, they have repeatedly demanded that Mobb Deep stop using the dragon design, first in 1997 and again in 2003. The new complaint included a copy of a cease-and-desist that the band sent in 2003, after a version of the dragon logo was used in an insert included in Mobb Deep’s Free Agents: The Murda Mixtape.
“This is not the first time that plaintiff has objected to Mobb Deep’s use of a logo substantially identical to plaintiff’s mark,” the new complaint reads. “Immediately prior to the institution of this lawsuit, plaintiff demanded that defendants cease use of their infringing logo and provide an accounting to plaintiff of sales of the infringing goods. Defendants refused to comply with those demands.”
In 2011, Mobb Deep spoke about the logo in an interview with clothing brand Mishka NYC. In it, Prodigy explained he basically picked the image off of a tattoo parlor wall when he was a teenager and got it inked to his hand.
“Basically, when I was 14 or 15, there was this tattoo parlor in Elmart off Hemstead turnpike and I had walked in there to get my first tattoo,” he said. “There was this dragon on the wall and I didn’t know what it was, I just thought it looked ill, I was mad young and I had always wanted something on my hand. I prolly seen it on some of those L.A. gang movies like Colors. I thought’d be cool, it’d look like some tough shit. So I told the dude put that on my hand. When me and Hav started Mobb Deep, we turned it into the lil clique thing.”
Prodigy went on to say, “We wanted to turn it into the logo for Mobb Deep, but, then we got a cease and desist letter in the mail…. That was just some random sh–! We didn’t even know, we was just young kids.”
Representatives for Supreme and Mobb Deep did not immediately return requests for comment.
Read the entire complaint here:
Five months after an Instagram account first accused New York City radio host DJ Envy of being complicit in a multi-million dollar real estate investment scam in New Jersey, the situation has turned into a sprawling web of lawsuits, countersuits, bankruptcies and media coverage.
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In at least 20 civil cases filed in recent months, dozens of investors claim that Cesar Pina and wife Jennifer Pina, New Jersey developers with famous friends, ripped them off — either through failed house flipping, a stalled apartment development project, or a startup they said would empower small investments in real estate.
Many of those lawsuits, including one filed by music industry veteran Anthony Martini, name DJ Envy (RaaShaun Casey) as a co-defendant, citing close ties to Pina. They claim Envy helped to promote the alleged schemers, including through appearances on The Breakfast Club, his nationally-syndicated hip hop radio show. One case says Envy “aided and abetted” the fraudsters by “using his public likeness as a well-known radio disc jockey to promote their real estate scheme.”
Firing back, Envy says those kinds of allegations are not only false — he says he himself is also a victim of Pina’s alleged scheme — but also defamatory. He’s suing the social media influencer who first publicized the allegations, claiming he “spewed” lies to promote his own real estate business, and he’s demanding to be dismissed from the investor lawsuits.
“They’re sensationalizing this situation,” said Envy’s lawyer, Massimo F. D’Angelo of the law firm Blank Rome, in a phone interview with Billboard. “Envy had no involvement whatsoever. The only reason he’s being dragged into this is because he’s a public figure.”
How did we get here? What exactly are the accusations? And what comes next? Here’s everything you need to know about the growing scandal.
Who is Cesar Pina?
Pina has long pitched himself a real estate guru, frequently posting about his work to a star-studded Instagram page featuring shots of Pina with Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, Post Malone and Meek Mill. On his website, he says he’s been rehabbing and flipping homes in the Garden State for over a decade; he claims to own 1,100 rental properties in Paterson, N.J., alone.
One of the celebs frequently pictured with Pina was DJ Envy, who for more than a decade has co-hosted The Breakfast Club, a popular hip hop-focused radio talk show on New York’s Power 105.1. And the two had a close public relationship beyond social media: Over the years, Pina has repeatedly appeared on the show as a guest, and he and Envy co-hosted a series of seminars on real estate investing from 2018 onward.
As recently as June 2022, Pina made an appearance on The Breakfast Club to plug an investment platform he was launching called Flip 2 Dao, which would allow users to make small, fractional investments in real estate projects. Throughout the interview, Envy repeatedly touted his relationship with the developer and the value of the new investment tool.
“People always ask, how can I invest with you guys? And we never take anybody’s money,” Envy told listeners. “Now there will be a way where people can actually invest to be a part owner on some of the projects that we actually buy.”
What are the accusations?
Back in May, an Instagram account called TonyTheCloser (real name Tony Robinson) began making serious allegations of wrongdoing against Pina. In a series of videos and live streams, Robinson claimed that Pina had used his celebrity status to defraud numerous people, taking their money to invest in flipping properties with the promise of big profits, but ultimately returning little or nothing.
He also claimed that Envy had played a key role in the fraud by promoting Pina to his listeners. At various times, Robinson called the radio host a “thief,” “criminal,” and “scammer,” claiming he had “stolen millions” from investors and aided a “Ponzi scheme” — an infamous form of fraud in which the perpetrator creates the façade of a real business by paying earlier victims with funds from later victims.
Those social media allegations quickly turned into a wave of civil lawsuits filed in New Jersey state courts.
In a May complaint, a company called Amy Flips claimed it had provided Pena with $500,000 to invest in properties and lost all but $30,000. A month later, attorneys for a New York man named Trevor Roman alleged he was owed $280,000 by Pina and his companies, saying their client was “one of many who fell prey to these fraudulent and deceptive tactics.” In July, a New Jersey man named Paul Peralta claimed that he had given Pina $600,000 in four payments as part of a “Ponzi scheme and investment scam” — and he specifically claimed the scheme had been promoted by “a radio show called The Breakfast Club.”
Martini, the music executive, also filed his case in July. Joined by another spurned investor named Anthony Barone, their lawyers claimed they had lost $1.5 million after Pina duped them into investing in a massive, 50-unit apartment project in Paterson that was never completed, as well as another $300,000 that they invested in the Flip 2 Dao platform.
But they also went a step further, naming DJ Envy as an actual defendant in the lawsuit. They claimed the DJ had not only plugged Pina on the air, but that he had personally attended a pitch meeting with Barone, and that he had joined Pina in leading a guided tour for big-wig investors around his New Jersey properties. Martini and Barone’s lawyers also specifically cited Pina’s June 2022 appearance on The Breakfast Club, in which he plugged Flip 2 Dao.
“But for Casey’s role in lending legitimacy to the real estate investments and portraying himself as a partner to the Pinas, plaintiffs would not have invested their money,” wrote Sean Mack, an attorney at the law firm Pashman Stein Walder Hayden and lead counsel for Martini and Barone.
All told, Pina is currently facing 20 lawsuits, almost half of which have been filed just since the beginning of August; Envy is named as a defendant in nine of those cases. It’s unclear exactly how much money Pina is alleged to owe his investors, but in an August filing, Martini’s lawyers claimed that more than 30 victims had come forward seeking over $40 million.
Pina’s lawyer, Steven Griegel of the firm Roselli Griegel Lozier & Lazzaro, did not return a request for comment from Billboard. But in at least one case against his client, he has argued that Pina’s investor did get their initial investment back — and that by demanding the huge profits they say they were promised, they are actually the ones violating New Jersey law.
“The plaintiff in this case is boldly seeking the court’s assistance to recover [triple] damages and attorneys’ fees for loansharking, even after it has been paid amounts in excess of New Jersey’s criminal usurious laws,” Griegel wrote in one case. “Obviously, the court should not be a part of validating this.”
Despite TonyTheCloser’s claims, there have been no allegations of criminal wrongdoing against either Pina or Envy.
What has DJ Envy said?
Since immediately after the allegations first cropped up in May, DJ Envy has denied that he did anything wrong, including during an interview with TonyTheCloser on an Instagram livestream. He says that he was not directly involved with any of Pina’s deals mentioned in the lawsuits, that he never solicited money from anyone during their seminars, and that he was not aware of any fraudulent activity.
But that hasn’t quieted the growing scandal. On Tuesday, New York’s local NBC affiliate ran an investigative piece under the headline “Real estate rip-off? Radio DJ promoted alleged NJ scheme leaving investors out of millions.” The story included interviews with numerous alleged victims, including a couple who say they invested with Pina “after seeing him on social media with DJ Envy.”
“He’s advertising this all over radio and television, so I thought this was legit,” the victim said in the NBC report. “We invested $200,000 and it looks like we won’t ever get it back.”
On Wednesday, Envy directly addressed the allegations on The Breakfast Club: “Cesar, if he took money, I wasn’t privy to it, nor did I even know. But I do understand how people feel if they did give him money, because I gave him a lot of money [and] I didn’t see a dollar of return. But for anybody to say that I was involved, that’s totally not true.”
In legal filings, Envy’s lawyers have made similar arguments. They say the DJ was also “lured” to invest $500,000 in separate project, meaning he “may be a victim of the Pina’s alleged fraudulent conduct” just like the plaintiffs. And they say that he was not involved in any Pina’s deals with spurned investors, nor made any direct “representations” to anyone regarding those transactions.
“Plaintiffs’ real targets are clearly the Pinas given Mr. Casey’s lack of involvement,” wrote D’Angelo, in a filing on Friday aimed at getting Envy dismissed from Martini’s case. “In an attempt to sensationalize this case, however, plaintiffs included Mr. Casey … as a defendant in this case. Plaintiffs’ conduct is wrongful and has caused, and continues to cause, significant damage to Mr. Casey’s reputation and businesses.”
But what about the fact that Envy repeatedly made public appearances with Pina and invited him onto The Breakfast Club? That’s been a common refrain from victims and other critics, who say the DJ used his sizable public platform to lend legitimacy to a scammer.
Legally speaking, Envy’s lawyers say that behavior simply does not rise to the level of active endorsement or direct involvement that would put their client on the hook for Pina’s alleged scheme. They say the DJ and his show were “used” by Pina, just like other media outlets and celebrities.
“Plaintiffs cannot plausibly or convincingly allege that Mr. Casey’s radio and social media interviews were the sole and principle reason for their investments, rather than the specific misrepresentations made by the Pinas directly to the plaintiffs,” D’Angelo wrote in that same court filing. “Mr. Casey has interviewed thousands of guests on The Breakfast Club, including celebrities and entrepreneurs, who have discussed various topics including their life experiences and businesses.”
DJ Envy has also quietly moved from defense to offense. In a federal lawsuit filed in August, he sued TonyTheCloser for defamation, interference with his business, and invasion of privacy. He claims that Robinson’s allegations against him are false — and that they’re part of money-making scheme to drive attention toward his own real estate business.
“Defendant, knowingly and intentionally, spewed false slanderous and defamatory misinformation about the plaintiff, which has, and continues to severely damage plaintiff,” wrote D’Angelo, who is also repping Envy in that case. “Defendant engaged in this wrongful conduct for the purposes of increasing traffic on his social media sites for his own personal gain in the form of paid advertisements.”
Robinson did not return a request for comment on the allegations.
What comes next?
Two of Pina’s companies, Whairhouse Real Estate Investments LLC and Taylor Court Apartments LLC (the company that administered the 50-unit apartment project in Paterson), have filed for federal bankruptcy since start of August. His wife Jennifer, who is named in many of the civil lawsuits, has repeatedly attempted to file for personal bankruptcy, but has been rejected for procedural defects. Pina himself does not yet appear to have sought bankruptcy protection.
Fearing that they’ll never have a chance to recover their money, some of Pina’s aggrieved investors have already jumped into those bankruptcy cases, demanding that the court appoint a trustee — an independent attorney chosen by the U.S. Department of Justice to oversee the case and make sure that any remaining money is fairly allocated to creditors. And those arguments worked: Last week, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Rosemary Gambardella ruled in both bankruptcy cases that a Chapter 11 trustee was needed to sort out the messy web of alleged debts and wrongdoing.
That ruling came after attorneys for Pina’s creditors argued that a single combined bankruptcy case, administered by one trustee, would be better than dozens of separate lawsuits at “unraveling of this wide-ranging fraud and the marshalling of assets to satisfy the scores of victims.”
“This will soon become the proverbial race to the courthouse to seize whatever assets remain of the Pinas and their entities,” wrote attorney Mack, the lawyer who represents Barone and Martini in their case against Pina and Envy. “A trustee is needed in this case, and in the cases of the related debtor parties, to organize and efficiently marshal and distribute the remaining assets to the Pinas’ many victims.”
