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Murder Inc. in Hot Water
According to the feds, Murder Inc.'s hard-core image as "the most dangerous record company" is not merely gangsta posturing, and a new civil suit has been filed against the label to prove it.
Prosecutors in New York say drug money was shuffled through the multimillion-dollar label, headed by the high-profile hip-hop guru Irv Gotti, to help fund a recent straight-to-video flick.
Feds raided Murder Inc.'s offices in January on suspicion of an illicit partnership between childhood pals Gotti and convicted druglord Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff, who were working together on Crime Partners, a movie starring Snoop Dog, Ice-T and Murder Inc. artist Ja Rule.
According to a Los Angeles Times report, McGriff was an executive producer on the film, and Murder Inc. signed on to market the movie and bankroll the soundtrack. But the latter has yet to be released, in spite of the $500,000 cash advance paid to McGriff from Murder Inc.'s parent company Island Def Jam.
A civil complaint filed Monday in a Brooklyn federal court alleges that "McGriff's drug cash was delivered to various video shoots for the Crime Partners movie...to pay for various movie expenses." Feds also claim that throughout filming, McGriff cashed Murder Inc. checks to his production company with drug money. Apparently, a tape of behind-the-scenes Crime Partner footage also shows McGriff "stuffing what appears to be large amounts of cash down his pants."
All of these factors reek of illegality to prosecutors, and they are currently seeking a court order for the forfeiture of frozen funds and all proceeds from Crime Partners. The magnitude of this sum is questionable, considering the fact that the movie went straight to DVD release in March rather than hitting cinemas and the aforementioned soundtrack has yet to materialize, but the claim did not specify how much money was at stake.
So far, neither McGriff nor Gotti has been officially charged, though both have repeatedly denied any illicit activity involved in the creation of Crime Partners.
The complaint is part of an ongoing effort aimed at proving the ghetto-fabulous don and the druglord have continually moved ill-gotten cash through the ranks of the Murder Inc. label, which includes such chart-topping artists as Ashanti in its ranks. It has even been suggested by rap insiders that the label actually received funding from McGriff's drug money to get its start, according to details in the court documents.
Money laundering aside, Gotti, 31, has been a bit of a hip-hop Cinderella, career-wise. He joined Def Jam's artist and repertoire (A&R) division in 1995 and brought the likes of DMX and Jay-Z to the label.
Murder Inc. was founded by Gotti in 1999 after he scored $3 million in seed money from Def Jam. The label has remained profitable, thanks to the careers of Ja Rule and Ashanti and Gotti's acclaimed production work for Jennifer Lopez, Mariah Carey and Fat Joe.
McGriff, 42 is currently behind bars in Baltimore awaiting sentences on gun-possession charges. He ran a lucrative and deadly crack-peddling empire in the 1980s and served time for his involvement.
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