G Herbo pleads not guilty to lying in $1.5M ID theft case involving designer puppies and luxury vacations
Chicago rapper G Herbo, who was accused in a case of an alleged identity theft ring involving extravagant travel and designer puppies, pleaded not guilty to the new charges on Tuesday, May 25. The 25-year-old hip-hop artist was all over the news when he was indicted on fraud charges in December 2020. The new charges included lying to federal agents in the same case.
According to Mass Live, Herbo was respectful during a Zoom hearing in US District Court in Springfield. Herbo, whose real name is Herbert Randall Wright III, had dropped a song called ‘Statement’ in December last year where the lyrics included calling federal prosecutors “dumbasses” and thumbing his nose at the charges, as reported by the same website. Herbo had surrendered to the authorities last year but was now released on bail after pleading not guilty to those charges. He was among six people to get indicted in the wire fraud. Herbo, who currently lives in Los Angeles, made it to the Forbes annual “30 Under 30″ list shortly before he was indicted on fraud charges last year.
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What were the new charges against G Herbo?
According to USA Today, the authorities revealed a few weeks ago that Herbo along with other suspects used social media messages, text messages and emails to share account information that was taken from dark websites. They apparently used the information for trips on private jets, exotic car rentals, yacht charters, luxury vacation rentals and even designer puppies.
In November 2018, Herbo had told a federal agent during the investigation that he never worked with Antonio Strong (also known as T-Glo, Tony Glo, Tonio), he neither gave money to Strong nor received any and added that he had no relationship with him, as revealed by the prosecutors. However, in reality they both had worked together since at least 2016. The charge of making false statements carries a sentence of up to five years in prison. Also, rap promoter Strong has been accused of being the ringleader of the $1.5M credit card fraud.
What was the fraud indictment all about?
In December 2020, Herbo along with other members of his music team faced federal fraud charges after they were accused of stealing information to charge over $1M to fund a lavish lifestyle over a four-year period, as reported by the publication Wane.
The indictment was filed in September 2020 in the US District Court of Massachusetts in Springfield. The hip-hop artist along with Strong was listed in the same in addition to members identified as Joseph Williams (aka Joe Rodeo, Rockstar Rodie, Rodie), Steven Hayes Jr, Demario Sorrells (aka Jonte, Johntay) and Terrance Bender (aka Blends, Dopeblends). All of them were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud along with aggravated identity theft and aiding and abetting. Herbo is currently signed to Machine Entertainment Group and has projects such as ‘Welcome to Fazoland’, ‘Pistol P Project’, ‘Ballin Like I'm Kobe’ and ‘Strictly 4 My Fans’ to his credit.
