NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 15: Cesar Pina and Jenni Tips attend Bravocon After Hours at Brooklyn Chop House on October 15, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Johnny Nunez/WireImage)
DJ Envy is being name-dropped amid the arrest of his longtime friend and business partner, Cesar Pina. The reason seems to be that Pina’s arrest is for wire fraud in connection to a real estate scam that Envy previously backed.
Several reports, including NBC New York’s, state that Envy has promoted Cesar’s real estate venture on his radio show “The Breakfast Club.” According to the outlet, federal agents arrested Cesar Pina on Wednesday (Oct. 18).
Officials have not charged DJ Envy in the alleged “Ponzi-like scheme.” However, U.S. Attorney Phillip R. Sellinger named Cesar’s partnership with Envy, birth name Rashaun Casey, as a source of Pina’s popularity.
“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,” Sellinger said.
Court docs state Pina has been running the scheme since 2017, scamming millions from “dozens of investors.” Cesar has pleaded not guilty to one count of wire fraud. News12 Jersey reports that the maximum sentence for wire fraud is 20 years behind bars.
Amid reports of an investigation into Cesar Pina, DJ Envy addressed their ties during a “Breakfast Club” episode last week. He denied being involved in the millions-worth scheme.
“Now the reasons why I did [these] seminars is because I wanted to uplift my community. I wanted to teach my community about real estate, things that I didn’t know when I was first buying my first home. I wanted to teach our community about investing and in generational wealth,” Envy said.
He added, “If [Cesar] 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 that I didn’t see a dollar of returned.”
Billboard also previously reported that Cesar Pina is named in “at least 20 civil cases filed in recent months.”
After music manager Anthony Martini named DJ Envy as a co-defendant in a lawsuit against Pina, DJ Envy fired back via his lawyer, Massimo F. D’Angelo. Envy filed for a dismissal in August, requesting removal from the suit.
“They’re sensationalizing this situation,” the lawyer reportedly told Billboard in a phone interview. “Envy had no involvement whatsoever. The only reason he’s being dragged into this is because he’s a public figure,” Attorney D’Angelo told Billboard last week.
NBC New York and Daily Mail reports that federal agents recently raided iHeartRadio offices and confiscated electronic devices as part of their investigation.
Daily Mail also reports that police released Pina on a $1 million secured bond and electronic monitoring. When this report was shared, DJ Envy had not addressed the arrest.
