Swizz Beatz has been hit with a $42 million (£32 million) lawsuit accusing him of reselling high-end cars he had previously leased.
According to the New York Daily News, Brooklyn company Metro-Gem Leasing & Funding Corp. filed a civil racketeering lawsuit in Brooklyn Federal Court on Wednesday (21Sep16).
The legal papers allege that after the record producer, real name Kasseem Dean, leased 11 cars for himself and wife Alicia Keys through his production company, he then “conspired” with auto dealer Macky Dancy to sell a Ferrari F-12 car to a third party after its lease went into default.
Metro-Gem’s lawyer Paul Solda also claims that four other car leases went into default.
Dean, 38, is more accustomed to being in the headlines due to his wife these days. After Keys caused a stir by continuing with her no make-up pledge by going fresh-faced to the MTV Video Music Awards last month (Aug16), Dean took to his Instagram page to post a video defending his wife’s actions.
“Y’all gotta think about that. This is deep,” he said in the footage. “Somebody’s sitting at home mad, because somebody didn’t wear make-up on their face… not your face, but they didn’t put make-up on their face, because they just didn’t feel like wearing make-up.
“But you’re mad because that person didn’t put makeup to please you? What s**t is this? Because you can do whatever you want to do. Think about it… this is deep.”
After the VMAs, Keys also took to her social media to defend her stance. Alongside another snap of herself make-up free and glowing, the 35-year-old wrote: “Y’all, me choosing to be makeup free doesn’t mean I’m anti-makeup. Do you!”
Keys and Dean tied the knot in 2010 and are parents to sons Egypt, five, and Genesis, who turns two in December (16).