Baby Blue from Pretty Ricky was sentenced on Dec. 16 to 20 months in prison for conspiring to commit wire fraud and fraudulently obtaining loans from the Paycheck Protection Program, according to court documents, XXL reports.
The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan was initiated to provide financial assistance to businesses to maintain the employment of their workers and to keep them solvent during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to U.S Small Business Administration. However, some people took advantage of the program, and the Justice Department has been attempting to retrieve funds that were fraudulently acquired, The Washington Post reports.
The "Grind With Me" artist confessed to procuring a PPP loan of $426,717 for his business, Throwbackjersey.com LLC, by forging documents and providing fallacious information. The singer also applied for another PPP loan for his second company, Blue Star Records LLC, receiving an additional $708,065.
Baby Blue, whose real name is Diamond Blue Smith, admitted to misappropriating PPP loans to finance his opulent lifestyle. He used the funds at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in South Florida and also to purchase a Ferrari, which was confiscated along with other luxury items when he was arrested, Baller Alert reports.
He's accused of drafting accomplices James R. Stote and Phillip J. Augustin and paying both men more than $250,000 to assist him in producing and submitting the falsifyied loan applications.
The illegal wire fraud enterprise generated at least 90 fraudulent applications, and most were submitted to the government. Smith was instructed to pay $1,111,345.23 in damages and $1,134,782 in forfeiture, as well as to serve his prison term, according to Baller Alert.
The convicted crooner issued a statement on his Instagram page.
"I can’t go back and change the beginning but I can start where I am and change the ending. There are things in life we don’t want to happen but have to accept; Lessons in life we don’t want to know but have to learn. We have to remember that life’s greatest lessons are usually learned at the worst times and from the worst mistakes. Sometimes the bad things that happens to us end up putting us on the path to the best things that will ever happen to us," the caption reads.
