Cesar Pina, a celebrity house-flipper with close ties to New York City radio host DJ Envy, was arrested Wednesday (Oct. 18) on federal charges that he perpetrated “a multimillion-dollar Ponzi-like investment fraud scheme.”
via: Vibe
DJ Envy will be cooperating with the feds in their ongoing investigation into real estate tycoon Cesar Piña’s alleged Ponzi-like fraud scheme.
On Tuesday (Oct. 24), Law & Crime reporter Meghann Cuniff released a statement from DJ Envy’s attorney Massimo D’Angelo, who told Cuniff that his client will be working with authorities in an attempt to clear his name.
“Obviously, Envy is going to be assisting and cooperating fully,” Massimo D’Angelo is quoted telling Meghann Cuniff. “He paid out substantial sums similar to some of the other investors who thought they were getting money back.”
I just got off the phone with DJ Envy's lawyer, Massimo D'Angelo, who says Envy is one of Cesar Pina's Ponzi scheme victims.
"Obviously, Envy is going to be assisting and cooperating fully" to get not only his money back, but money back for the other victims.
— Meghann Cuniff (@meghanncuniff) October 24, 2023
The Breakfast Club cohost has been alleged to have profited from, or participated in Piña’s scam, which is accused of misappropriating millions of dollars from over 20 investors. Last week, it was reported that the feds had raided the iHeartRadio offices where The Breakfast Club is broadcast out of and taken electronic equipment as part of the investigation.
However, those reports were later debunked by both D’Angelo and the authorities, the latter of which did note that they visited the iHeartRadio offices to inform Envy of Piña’s arrest. According to the attorney, Envy is not a criminal, but yet another victim of the fraud scheme masterminded by Pina. He says that his client invested $500,000 with Piña, but has never seen a return on the money.
Earlier this month, the Queens, N.Y., native addressed the controversy looming around his name and business dealings during a The Breakfast Club broadcast, denying any wrongdoing and proclaiming his innocence.
“Listen, so Ceasar and myself did seminars,” Envy said, referencing the series of educational events he and Piña had conducted in New Jersey and other areas in recent years. “Now the reason 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 in generational wealth.”
He said that while he empathizes with victims of the fraud, even those who suspect his involvement or were led to Piña through his promotion, that he also lost a substantial sum of money invested with Piña himself. “I do understand how people feel if they gave him money because I gave him a lot of money,” Envy added.
The DJ continued, insisting that he saw no profit from his investment from Piña and that he’d never defraud anyone out of their hard-earned money. “I didn’t see a dollar of return. For anyone to say that I was involved, that’s totally not true,” he said.
“I would never, I been on radio for close to 30 years, and never in my 30 years time did I do nothing but try to uplift people in different ways with a business mind. I would never take a dollar from somebody.”
While DJ Envy has been named as a defendant in lawsuits against Piña and his wife, the 46-year-old has yet to be charged with any crime in connection to the investigation. Piña was arrested on Friday (Oct. 20) and charged with wire fraud, but has since been released on a $1 million bond and subjected to electronic monitoring.
Piña just spoke out claiming that DJ Envy is innocent in the matter.
