Forty-five-year-old real estate investor and online influencer Cesar Humberto Pina, based in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, has been arrested for his involvement in an alleged multimillion-dollar investment fraud scheme.
According to court documents, Pina collaborated with celebrity disc jockey and radio personality DJ Envy of The Breakfast Club to organize real estate seminars across the country. These events, as well as appearances on The Breakfast Club, helped Pina amass a significant social media following.
DJ Envy has professed his innocence and claimed ignorance as far as the criminal activities Pina was allegedly committing. DJ Envy has not been implicated in this case.
“My attorneys don’t want me to speak, but I think there’s things that I need to clear up a little bit,” Envy said on The Breakfast Club recently. “So Cesar and myself did seminars. Now, the reason I did these seminars is because I wanted to uplift my community. I wanted to teach my community about real estate, things that I didn’t know when I was buying my first home.”
He added, “If he took money, I wasn’t privy to it, nor did I even know. But I do understand how people feel if they did give him money because I gave him a lot of money that I didn’t see a dollar of return. But for anybody to say I was involved, that’s totally not true.”
Beginning in 2017, Pina allegedly began accepting investments from victims who believed their funds would be used for purchasing, renovating, and selling specific real estate projects in New Jersey and other states. Pina promised massive returns ranging from 20 to 45 percent within five months to lure these investors. Instead of fulfilling these promises, Pina allegedly operated a Ponzi-like scheme by mingling victim funds, using new investments to repay prior investors, and using victim funds for personal expenses.
U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced the arrest on Oct. 18. Pina, who stands accused of wire fraud, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Edward S. Kiel in Newark federal court and was released on $1 million secured bond with electronic monitoring, according to United States Attorney’s Office District of New Jersey.
The wire fraud charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, or twice the gross amount of any pecuniary gain from the offense, or the pecuniary loss incurred by victims, whichever amount is higher, Complex reported.
The charges against Pina revolve around allegations that he exploited his social media celebrity status to amass a following of potential victims. Pina allegedly defrauded dozens of individuals of millions of dollars, according to Sellinger.
Tammy Tomlins, Special Agent in Charge of IRS – Criminal Investigation Newark Field Office, described Pina’s actions as a “fraudulent scheme” where he misrepresented the nature of his business and misled investors about potential returns.
FBI – Newark Special Agent in Charge James E. Dennehy pointed out the unsustainable nature of Ponzi schemes, stating that Pina falsely promised high returns to investors while using their funds for personal gain.
(Left to Right) DJ Envy, October 18, 2014 in Miami Beach, Florida. (Photo by Marc Serota/Invision for REVOLT/Cesar Piña, photo via Instagram)
