• View Comments
• Share with Shortlink:

Jurors in Brooklyn

have acquitted The Inc.’s Irving and Christopher Lorenzo of all counts of

federal money laundering.

After two days of deliberation

that cast the brothers’ fate in doubt, jurors sided with the defense and

acquitted the Lorenzo’s on all charges of money laundering.

The acquittal of the Lorenzo’s

ends a two year investigation that climaxed with the 2003 raid of The Inc.’s

825 8th Avenue offices in New York.

The government claimed the

Lorenzo’s were laundering drug proceeds for convicted drug dealer, Kenneth

“Supreme” McGriff.

Assistant U.S. Attorney’s

Sean Haran and Carolyn Pokorny claimed the brothers wrote numerous checks to

McGriff, including two totaling $65,000 to McGriff’s company Picture Perfect

Films, which was producing the movie “Crime Partners.”

McGriff owned picture perfect

with Jon Ragin, who served as a government witness against The Lorenzo’s.

Ragin confirmed the governments explosive claims that Ja Rule’s bodyguard,

Robert “Sun” Lyons, shot 50 Cent in May 2000 and sought to have

the information included in the Lorenzo’s trial.

Ragin, like Donnell Nichols

and Phillip Banks, claimed to have seen or delivered bags of McGriff’s

drug cash to The Inc.’s offices.

Additionally, the government

analyzed hundreds of text messages the brothers sent to McGriff, hoping to establish

a connection to the brothers and McGriff’s illicit drug trade.

Attorneys Gerald Shargel

and Gerald Lefcourt defended the brothers, claiming both were compulsive gamblers,

who would bet hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time. – resulting

in tens of thousands of dollars floating around The Inc.’s offices.

The defense said the brothers

backed McGriff’s Picture Perfect Films legitimately and had not committed

a crime in doing business with McGriff.

McGriff is facing the death

penalty in a March 2006 racketeering and murder trial. In addition to drug and

gun charges, McGriff is accused of two drug-related homicides in Baltimore,

Maryland and the revenge slaying of rapper Eric "E Money Bags" Smith.

Shargel and Lefcourt also claimed

that Darryl "Hommo" Baum shot 50 Cent in May of 2000 and pointed to

50′s lyrics, as well as investigative work contained in the new book, "Queens

Reigns Supreme: Fat Cat, 50 Cent, and the Rise of the Hip Hop Hustler,"

by journalist Ethan Brown.

The brothers’ trial attracted

a who’s who in the hip-hop community, including Jay-Z, Ja Rule, Ashanti,

Fat Joe, Russell Simmons, Lyor Cohen, Damon Dash, Minister Benjamin Chavis (Hip-Hop

Summit Action Network) and others.

“This is

a great victory for the entire culture of hip-hop,” Chavis told AllHipHop.com

of the verdict. “Hip-Hop profiling in the case of Irv and Chris Gotti

exposes why the government should not attempt to censors or harass poets, lyricists

and music producers. Irv and Chris Gotti will emerge from this episode even

stronger. Hip-hop summit action network salutes them on their victory.