Rapper NBA YoungBoy and a number of other of his associates orchestrated a “massive scale prescription fraud ring” to illegally acquire pharmaceuticals from a number of Utah-area pharmacies, police allege.
An affidavit filed Thursday by an officer for the Cache County Sheriff’s Workplace named the rapper (born Kentrell DeSean Gaulden) as a main suspect in a months-long scheme that concerned posing as a physician to fill prescriptions for promethazine with codeine — a managed substance — in pharmacies in cities together with Hyrum, Logan and Smithfield. The affidavit was filed two days after Gaulden, 24, was arrested Tuesday night on 63 prices together with counts for id fraud, forgery and “procuring or trying to acquire” pharmaceuticals, court docket paperwork reviewed by The Occasions mentioned.
A authorized consultant for Gaulden, also referred to as YoungBoy By no means Broke Once more, didn’t remark to The Occasions on Friday.
Filed by Cache County officer Tyson Nielsen, the affidavit outlines a number of cases courting from September 2023 to February 2024 of alleged id fraud and makes an attempt to acquire promethazine with codeine — a key ingredient used to make a cough syrup-laced drink generally often called “lean,” “purple drank” and “sizzurp.”
On Sept. 19, 2023, two pharmacies within the Cache County space acquired a prescription order from an individual claiming to be a doctor in Provo. The particular person allegedly posing because the doctor offered legitimate figuring out info and requested to fill a prescription for 2 sufferers of their 70s, “Bethel White” and “Gwendlyn Cox.” In each cases, the actual doctor (who was not recognized) advised the pharmacies that he didn’t have sufferers with these names and mentioned his “title and credentials are getting used fraudulently.”
A 3rd fraudulent prescription for a similar drug was allegedly known as right into a Smithfield pharmacy on Jan. 17, 2024, once more by “the suspect figuring out because the doctor.” The prescription was for a affected person named “Gwendolyn Cox” — not “Gwendlyn” — with a unique birthday. Pharmacists have been suspicious in regards to the request and tried to succeed in the doctor however the name was disconnected, the affidavit says. The actual doctor later confirmed to the Smithfield pharmacy that he didn’t place the order and did not have a affected person named “Gwendolyn Cox.”
Rapper NBA YoungBoy, also referred to as YoungBoy By no means Broke Once more, on stage on the Lil’ WeezyAna Fest at Champions Sq. in New Orleans in 2017.
(Amy Harris / Invision / Related Press)
Based on paperwork, Nielsen started investigating the alleged fraud scheme amid the January incident. Two girls allegedly arrived in a white Chevy Tahoe, registered in Gaulden‘s title, to choose up the prescription for a “good friend” from the Smithfield pharmacy. Cache County police detained the unidentified girls (“Associates 1 and a couple of”). They have been later arrested for his or her alleged involvement within the “prescription fraud ring.”
Nielsen mentioned that amid his investigation, “Gwendolyn Cox” requested to get in contact. Nevertheless, throughout the dialog, the caller allegedly provided “White” as a final title as an alternative of “Cox,” and didn’t present a full date of beginning or a house handle. “In the course of the dialog with ‘Gwendolyn’ it was very clear {that a} pretend voice was getting used,” Nielsen wrote within the affidavit, earlier than citing the caller’s pronunciation of “ask” as “axe,” which he mentioned is “constant “with a southern dialect” in a number of states together with Gaulden’s native Louisiana.
Court docket paperwork element an alleged dialog between Nielsen, Gaulden and the rapper’s brother (“Affiliate 3”), which included inquiries in regards to the prescription medication for “Gwendolyn Cox.” The affidavit additionally lists a handful of “fraudulent exercise” below the Provo doctor’s title; all of them have been prescription requests for promethizane with codeine for sufferers of their late 60s and 70s throughout Utah pharmacies.
“A number of of the names are repeats together with mixtures of first and final names with completely different birthdays,” Nielsen mentioned.
The affidavit continued: “By analysis of the fraud incidents it’s clear that there are quite a few people concerned to additional the fraud scheme, recognized as an enterprise. The continued fraud and suspected drug distribution occurring between Kentrell Gaulden and his associates additional substantiates the Sample of Illegal Exercise as they’ve engaged in at the least three episodes of illegal exercise which are all related in goal, outcomes, members, victims and strategies of fee.”
Gaulden was arrested on Tuesday when Cache County officers executed a search warrant on his Utah mansion. Company at Gaulden’s house have been additionally detained.
Within the house search, police discovered a gun the rapper claimed belonged to his spouse, two bottles of the antibiotic doxycycline (one prescribed to Gaulden, one other to a affected person named “Caroline White”) and a number of other bottles of promethazine with codeine, the affidavit says. Officers additionally seized all digital units within the house, for which Gaulden allegedly didn’t present passwords.
Nielsen alleged that the Grammy-nominated “Want It” rapper denied “information of any illegally possessed prescription” and fraud schemes.
Based on the affidavit, Gaulden’s earlier run-ins with the regulation date to 2018 when he was arrested for alleged aggravated assault and kidnapping. He was arrested once more in 2019 and 2020. In March 2021, a federal grand jury indicted Gaulden, accusing the musician of possessing an unregistered firearm and of “possession of firearms by a convicted felon” in connection to his 2020 case. Since October 2021, he has been below home arrest in his house in Weber County.
The affidavit concludes by alleging that Gaulden “has participated in an ongoing felony enterprise that has been concerned within the fee of a number of felonies,” regardless of his home arrest.
“Based on the FBI, Kentrell is the recognized chief of a violent gang from the Louisiana space,” the affidavit continues. “Primarily based on Kentrell’s historical past, it’s obvious that he’s liable to violence.”
Gaulden, who was born in Baton Rouge, started rapping as a teen posting his music to YouTube. After signing to the music label By no means Broke Once more, Gaulden launched his first album “Earlier than I Go” in 2016, which paved the way in which for extra releases and collaborations with rappers 21 Savage, Boosie Badazz, Yo Gotti, Younger Thug and Future. The rapper’s ascent was mottled with authorized hassle, together with an arrest for his alleged connection in a 2016 taking pictures. Regardless of this, his music profession endured.
In 2022, Gaulden first entered the Grammys dialog: He earned a melodic rap efficiency nomination for his work in Tyler, the Creator’s track “Wusyaname.”
Chatting with Billboard whereas below home arrest in February 2023, Gaulden mentioned he seems to be ahead to “change” upon launch.
“I’m very curious of the one that I shall turn into,” he mentioned.
Occasions researcher Scott Wilson contributed to this report.
