By Ricardo Lezama While DJ Envy, a well-known radio host for Power 105.1 and the Breakfast Club, has staunchly denied any direct dealings with the money involved in Flipping NJ’s operations, a criminal complaint filed by the US Attorney’s office in the state of New Jersey appears to say otherwise.
One can read the complaint below:
In the second page of the document, a reference is made to a ‘business partner, well-known disc jockey and radio personality (“Individual-1″)” who can logically be presumed to be DJ Envy. In that relevant portion, Individual 1 is acknowledged as someone who leveraged their celebrity to promote a real estate enterprises that Pina controlled.
Owned Properties, Pretended To Buy Them
Flipping NJ, the social media handle and alias of Cesar Pina, is also noted in the document as a way for Pina to promote his real estate scam that in this particular case simply involved commingling money from investors with his personal money for personal expenses. Additionally, he would use that same investor money to pay off new, unsuspecting investors and masquerade these as profits.
The real estate scam involved using already purchased properties, or, as in some cases not even bothering to buy them, to then justify requesting investors for money. Victims would hand over their money after a return on their investment would be promised to them. In some cases, a ‘profit’ would be generated with other investor money. That is essentially a wire fraud and Ponzi scheme action. The charge and scam is not particularly sophisticated, but it did involve quite a lot of marketing and gimmickry, which is where DJ Envy’s celebrity and status was leveraged.
IHeartRadio Raided
DJ Envy’s place of work was recently the subject of a search warrant executed by FBI officers. Since DJ Envy was named in this complaint, this would likely be the reason behind the search warrant and also likely to expand the scope and recipient of charges.