Holdin' Down The Culture
Kafani, who became known on a national-scale after being shot while shooting a music video in 2013 which left him paralyzed, was recently arrested in a multi-million dollar fraud ring. Three other suspects have also been apprehended by authorities including Susan Arreola-Martin, Christopher Pool, and Tyrone Jones. They are accused of stealing identities from various victims and using their identities to obtain refinance loans, using the victim’s property as collateral.
The Mercury News reports the group took out a $325,000 loan on one victim. In another instance, they ordered nearly one million in gold bars from Beverly Hills which triggered the FBI. The FBI eventually had $300 in silver bars sent to a location in Vallejo where $24,000 worth of gold was to be delivered. Authorities monitored the location and saw Tyrone Jones retrieve the bars in a vehicle registered to Kafani’s brother.
The FEDS also wiretapped Kafani’s phone and eventually overheard the Oakland rapper talking to another person about getting an elderly person to impersonate a victim to get a loan, stating, “We good, we just need a granny,..” Arreola-Martin, 69, would impersonate the female victim to obtain the loan.
Kafani had his first court appearance this week, and he was released on $250,000 bail. When he was arrested, Kafani was on supervised release after serving a 39-month sentence for a 2015 conviction of conspiring to commit wire fraud.
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Source: www.mercurynews.com
