Fat Joe has accused his accountant of misappropriating funds under his and his wife’s names, and using the accounts of several MLB players to cover their tracks.
After Joe’s long time CPA, Andre N. Chammas, fired his assistant Vanessa Rodriguez, the rapper claims to have noticed several irregularities in the way Chammas’ firm, BDO, was handling his business accounts.
According to TMZ, he first noticed that several AMEX accounts had been opened under his wife Lorena Cartagena’s name, without the couple’s knowledge.
The credit cards were used to make multiple large purchases, including tuition payments for Rodriguez’ daughter and $40,000 in combined Uber and Uber Eats charges. Upon further investigation, Joe claims to have noticed several of his business entities were missing large deposits.
One of his companies, Sneaker Addict Touring, was shorted out of more than $300,000. He further claims the company attempted to cover its mismanagement of funds by running a Ponzi scheme, involving players from the Colorado Rockies, Houston Astros and Chicago White Sox.
The lawsuit alleges that AMEX accounts were also opened in the names of MLB players Jose Iglesias, Luis Garcia and Dayan Viciedo. These accounts were then used to essentially transfer funds from one BDO client’s account to the other, thus allowing the accounting firm to operate without actually using cash.
