Florida rapper Diamond “Baby Blue” Smith has been sentenced over a year after being arrested in a COVID-19 loan scheme.
According to court documents, the 37-year-old Pretty Ricky member will go to prison for 20 months after pleading guilty on Aug. 4 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. In October 2020 he was apprehended for filing fraudulent loan applications in order to receive funds from the Paycheck Protection Program. Baby Blue was involved in a scam that received $24 million from the COVID relief program.
For one of his companies, Throwbackjersey.com LLC, Blue received a loan of $426,717, and his other company, Blue Star Records LLC, got $708,065. He later admitted to falsifying documents and information and using the money at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, and to purchase luxury items including a Ferrari. The car was seized by authorities when the rapper was arrested.
In addition to prison time, he’s been ordered to pay $1,111,345 in restitution and $1,134,782 in forfeiture.
