DJ Envy’s Business Associate Cesar Pina Arrested By Feds In NJ Real Estate Scheme

Federal agents in New Jersey arrested the longtime business partner of popular radio host DJ Envy in connection to an alleged fraudulent real estate venture.

The arrest came a week after the News 4 I-Team reported investors claim they had been swindled out of millions of dollars.

Cesar Pina, often promoted on Envy’s syndicated iHeartRadio show “The Breakfast Club,” was arrested Wednesday on wire fraud. The federal complaint against Pina, 45, claims the man engaged in a Ponzi-like scheme to defraud dozens of victims.

Envy, whose real name is Rashaun Casey, was not charged. But many of the alleged victims say they were influenced by his celebrity.

Federal prosecutors said Pina amassed a “significant” social media following through his partnership with Envy to attract his investors. Envy and Pina frequently teamed up for seminars to pitch opportunities to flip properties, often in distressed areas of New Jersey.

“As alleged in the complaint, Pina exploited celebrity status and social media to develop a devoted following of potential victims. Promising returns that were too good to be true, Pina allegedly defrauded dozens of people of millions of dollars,” U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said in a press release on Wednesday.

Investors have said Pina promised he would rehab and flip a property, with a return of 30% of the profits within months. Dozens of his alleged victims have now filed lawsuits saying they never got their money back. In a number of cases, Pina is accused of getting multiple unwitting investors to buy into one property that generated him a profit of several millions dollars.

Pina pleaded not guilty to the fraud charge, and was released on a $1 million bond and electronic monitoring. He is not allowed to leave the state.

DJ Envy did not comment Wednesday, but last week responded to reporting on the alleged scheme:

“Now the reasons why I did this 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 first buying my first home. I wanted to teach our community about investing and in generational wealth.”

A source familiar with the investigation said the iHeartRadio offices were visited by federal officials who removed electronic equipment as part of the ongoing investigation.