Founding Pretty Ricky member Baby Blue Whoaaa has been sentenced for his involvement in a COVID-19 loan scam.
On Thursday, Dec. 16, the former “Love and Hip Hop: Miami” star, whose real name is Diamond “Baby Blue” Smith, was sentenced to 20 months in prison for one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
The decision comes a little over a year since the South Florida rapper was accused of filing loan applications falsely requesting financial assistance. Under false pretenses, the rapper was given funds allotted explicitly for small businesses as part of America’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) provided through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
The Department of Justice says the rapper and a dozen other co-conspirators — most of them Floridians — fraudulently applied for more than $24 million in PPP loans. The Miami native admitted to using falsified documents and information to obtain a PPP loan of $426,717. He later secured another for $708,065 using the same method. The star claimed the loans were for his companies, Throwbackjersey.com LLC and Blue Star Records LLC.
The “Your Body” rapper must now pay $1,111,345.23 in restitution and $1,134,782 in forfeiture in addition to a $100 assessment fee. The 36-year-old has been ordered to surrender “at the institution designated by the Bureau of Prisons or to…
