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Until he meets a federal judge Tuesday, Maryland rapper Chad Arrington looked like a burgeoning artist. He had a giant billboard in Times Square that showed him surrounded by stacks of money, and dozens of other billboards all over Baltimore and Washington, DC, under the name of his alter ego hip-hop, "Chad Focus".
One of Arrington's songs has been viewed more than 4 million times on YouTube and over 180,000 people have followed Instagram posts. He spent more than $ 65,000 on personalized jewelry, including a bear pendant worth over $ 10,000.
Arrington offered to share his secrets with his fans, boasting on one panel: "I'm going to teach you to be rich." However, according to prosecutors, Arrington's method of becoming rich is to commit several federal crimes.
In an unsealed indictment on Tuesday, prosecutors told Arrington he stole $ 4.1 million from his credit card. All the signs of success in the Arrington rap industry – Instagram subscribers, billboards and jewelry – would have been paid for with stolen money.
Now, Arrington is being held in a Baltimore jail, facing charges of identity theft and wire fraud. Arrington, 31, did not respond to requests for comment.
Arrington allegedly bought fake views on YouTube and Spotify coins, and would have spent $ 100,000 on his alter ego with the title "FOCUS". Arrington would even have paid $ 125,000 to get tickets for his own shows to boost his popularity. With the help of four co-conspirators, Arrington would have spent millions of dollars on billboards and other efforts to boost his career.
Arrington's plans were not limited to rap. According to prosecutors, he would have spent thousands of dollars on hoverboards and even spent tens of thousands of dollars to create a motorcycle company.
Arrington's plan was based on false credit card statements sent to his employer, according to the indictment. He would have spent more than $ 1.5 million in corporate funds in companies controlled by two co-conspirators, who then returned the money for him to spend on his musical career. Arrington also allegedly asked two other co-conspirators to change the actual credit card statements to deceive his employer and to counterfeit his supervisor's signature to ensure that the company continues to pay his bills.
Arrington has left numerous files on the fraud scheme, prosecutors say. Arrington titled one of these emails to a co-conspirator "Shit at Classified Labor". In another email, Arrington reportedly urged his partner to falsify a credit card statement.
"Arrington's indictment provides insight into the world of fake statistics on social networks."
"After this clean work, we can go see the emojis and have fun," wrote Arrington, according to the indictment.
Arrington has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time to promote his career, prosecutors said. According to prosecutors, Arrington paid more than $ 300,000 to subcontractors at the Fiverr business site, who promised to promote his music on the charts. Interestingly, Arrington claimed there is less than a week on Instagram that he could make sure that an album reaches the top of the charts with exactly $ 300,000.
"Let's say it works !!!" Arrington would have urged a company that offered him to buy fake Instagram subscribers.
Arrington's indictment provides insight into the world of fake statistics on social networks. Attorneys said at one point that Arrington had spent $ 70,000 with a single company to strengthen his image in the rap industry. According to the indictment, he spent $ 1,119 for 100,000 YouTube videos, $ 1,999 for 250,000 Spotify streams and $ 1,499 for 15,000 Instagram subscribers.
Even before his arrest, Arrington was notorious in the central Atlantic region for its ubiquitous and confusing billboards in bus shelters. In one ad, Arrington was confronted with his alter-ego, "Chad Focus," as if it were two different people. In fact, however, "Focus" was only Arrington himself in sunglasses.
"Who will be the president of 2024?" Asked the billboard, without giving further explanation.
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