A New Jersey associate of radio host DJ Envy charged with running a multimillion-dollar real-estate Ponzi scheme is suing an influencer who has been posting about the alleged scam online.
Cesar Pina, 45, was hit last month with one count of wire fraud for allegedly swindling dozens of clients out of millions under the guise of joining his lucrative property portfolio. DJ Envy, co-host of the popular radio show The Breakfast Club, has not been charged, but as reported by The Daily Beast, he has been named in lawsuits from people who invested with Pina and say they were recruited through real-estate seminars he co-hosted and promoted. He denies any knowledge of Pina’s alleged misdeeds.
Pina, an ex-convict who has 307,000 followers on his “Flipping NJ” Instagram account, has also denied any wrongdoing and is out on a $1 million bond. In a $10 million lawsuit filed on Monday in New Jersey Superior Court, Pina and his wife allege that they are victims—of a defamation campaign kick-started by former NFL player-turned-influencer Anthony “Tony the Closer” Robinson.
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Robinson, who signed with the Seattle Seahawks for a year in 2007, called the suit a “PR stunt.”
“He is trolling his victims with this lawsuit. It’s a slap in the face to the people who really need their money back,” Robinson told The Daily Beast on Tuesday. “The reality is, since May of this year, I have been covering this thing. I have literally spoken with the victims and they have provided me documentation. Nothing I have said is false. I can back it up.”
(Pina’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
The lawsuit alleges that for months, Robinson has been posting various allegations against Pina and DJ Envy on his Twitter and Instagram, where he collectively has about 396,000 followers. Robinson, who also works in real estate, has posted about the alleged scam, his conversations with victims, and updates on the pending lawsuits against Pina, DJ Envy, and others. (In an August defamation lawsuit filed by DJ Envy against Robinson, the radio host also denies the allegations and alleges that he is the victim of an online smear campaign.)
“Husband and wife power couple scams over 80 million and count[ing]! Lives ruined all over while they block and avoid investors,” Robinson wrote in an Oct. 9 Instagram post alongside a photo of the Pinas, according to the suit.
The lawsuit states that days later, Robinson wrote in another post that Pina owed $900,000 “to a man who passed away, When the family went to claim his money, what y’all think Cesar said.” The lawsuit claims that the post improperly depicted Pina “as a cold-hearted individual who steals money from his investors.”
“It is clear that [Robinson] will continue to make knowingly false, malicious, and defamatory statements about [the Pinas] across his social media channels, because those statements generate publicity, increase his social media following, and further his financial interests by allowing him to increase engagement with new customers and make money selling real estate “courses” to new viewers,” the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit also alleges that Pina has received death threats and suffered decreased business. In May, a request for a $500,000 business loan was rejected, and a month later, a refinancing request was refused because “the lenders saw Tony the Closer’s social media posts,” the suit claims. Six of Pina’s sales were also canceled in July because of the posts, the lawsuit alleges.
“Pina’s TV Show with A&E has been placed on hold, endorsement deals alone are an estimated 500k,” the lawsuit states. “Hubzu, the second biggest auction house in the US, canceled their partnership with Plaintiff Mr. Pina and DJ Envy, estimated income 1 million dollars.”
The lawsuit does not mention Pina’s ongoing federal criminal case. New Jersey prosecutors allege that in 2017, Pina “partnered with a celebrity disc jockey and radio personality to conduct real estate seminars around the country.” These seminars, as well as DJ Envy’s celebrity endorsement, jumpstarted Pina’s social media following.
Prosecutors allege that Pina promised clients a 20 to 45 percent return within five months and then “engaged in a Ponzi-like scheme wherein he commingled victim investors’ money and used victim investors' investments to pay off prior investors and cover personal expenditures.”
After Pina’s October arrest, DJ Envy discussed their relationship on The Breakfast Club. He explained that he wanted their seminars to “uplift my community” and said he was not privy to any information about Pina’s alleged misdeeds. Pina also denied the allegations against him on an Oct. 24 Instagram Live, in which he said DJ Envy was never “in the room” during deals. “They call me Cesar Madoff—it’s crazy,” he said.
For Robinson, the notion that Pina has filed a lawsuit against him is maddening—and said he plans to countersue.
“This was calculated,” he said. “They are trying to drain my pockets by making me go to court instead of paying their victims.”
