Akon’s former business partner, music executive Devyne Stephens is accusing the rapper-turned-investor of attempting to run a Ponzi scheme through his proposed “Akon city” idea in Senegal. Stephens, who launched a lawsuit against Akon in 2021 for $4 million, is asking a judge to freeze Akon’s New York assets, alleging that without the pause, he’ll have trouble collecting his money from the singer.
According to the legal documents obtained by Page Six, Stephens’ attorney Jeffrey Movit points to the investigative conclusion of retired federal Special Agent Scot Thomasson who researched Akon’s $6 billion plans to turn a Senegal village into city that operates off of his own cryptocurrency “Akoin.”
Thomasson claimed in his affidavit that Akon City and Akoin exhibited “many of the trademark characteristics (known as ‘red flags’) of fraudulent business ventures such as Ponzi schemes and pyramid schemes.” Movit is claiming that Akon’s city and cryptocurrency plans “are broken promises.”
“Akon has provided almost no transparency about who is investing in Akon City or how it will be purportedly built. Therefore, Akon City is likely a scam,” Movit writes in the filing to a Manhattan judge. The filing also points out the lack of evidence proving that a cryptocurrency could be successful at the level which he plans, but it’s being offered to people through raffles and tickets “which are characteristic of a multi-level marketing scheme,” the filing asserts.
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