TMZ reported over the weekend that Fat Joe is suing his longtime accountant Andre N. Chammas and Chammas’ firm BDO for alleged misappropriation of funds. Oh and he claims that BDO is running some kind of Ponzi scheme.
According TMZ’s review of the legal documents, Fat Joe noticed “some accounting regularities” after Chammas’ assistant Vanessa Rodriguez was fired in July. “[H]e says things really didn’t add up when he started taking a closer look,” said TMZ in their usual nonsensical bold text.
For starters, Joe says his wife Lorena’s name was used to open AMEX accounts and make huge unauthorized purchases, including $40K in charges for Uber rides and UberEats deliveries, as well as tuition payments for Rodriguez’s daughter.
Joe also claims he discovered one of his entities, Sneaker Addict Touring, was missing large deposits — to the tune of more than $300K. He says there were similar irregularities with other entities.
As for the Ponzi part of the alleged scheme — Joe claims the firm also defrauded Jose Iglesias of Colorado Rockies, Luis Garcia of the Houston Astros and former Chicago White Sox player Dayan Viciedo.
In the suit, he says AMEX accounts were opened under their names as well, and the money flowed between all of their accounts to keep the Ponzi going. The players are not plaintiffs in the suit, and Joe makes it clear he feels they were victims … just like himself.
Here he is talking about it on The Breakfast Club from Power 105.1 FM yesterday:
Per LinkedIn, Chammas joined BDO last year when the firm he’d worked for since 2008 (MBAF) merged in. Audit Analytics says MBAF [was] one of the largest Hispanic-owned businesses in South Florida, and is recognized as a regional leader in philanthropy, ranking 9th in South Florida Business Journal’s 2020 annual Corporate Giving/Corporate Foundation list of companies with the highest levels of cash contributions to South Florida charities. Firm M&A enthusiast Allan Koltin called the BDO/MBAF merger the BIGGEST DEAL OF THE CENTURY and yes he used that many caps.
As for what’s happening at BDO, we have been in touch with someone previously connected to the firm who told us BDO is “a seriously flawed company” and who said they have some more details on nefarious dealings at the firm related to Fat Joe’s claims. We’ll have more on that soon.
Dying with the last line… “Firm M&A enthusiast”. I hope he changes his title on LinkedIn to that!!!