By Nolan Strong
An informant has made a number of startling allegations surrounding organized crime, Hip-Hop and the music business in FBI documents released by Los Angeles Times reporter Chuck Phillips and the Los Angeles Times.
An unnamed informant in prison claims in the documents that a teenager named James Sabatino owned Soundstorm Entertainment, which was allegedly a front for a number of scams.
"The source claims that Soundstorm worked with many famous entertainers such as Biggie, Heavy D., Puff Daddy, The Lords of the Underground, Busta Rhymes and others in the Hip-Hop industry," the FBI document reads. "The talk in the industry was that Sabatino was shaking down many of these entertainers."
According to the Los Angeles Times, Sabatino, who was a teenager when he allegedly helped Jimmy "Henchmen" Rosemond plan an attack on Tupac Shakur at Quad Recording Studios in 1994, is allegedly involved in organized crime.
Rosemond has vehemently denied any involvement in Tupac Shakur's 1994 shooting at the Quad.
Prior to his arrest in London in 1997, Sabatino was allegedly involved in a number of scams and was labeled as a "master scam artist," who reportedly once ripped off Samuel "Tone" Barnes from the Trackmasters for $25,000 dollars, the document reads.
Another scam, which was allegedly more profitable, involved Sony Entertainment.
According to the documents, Sabatino attached Soundstorm’s applications for credit to Sony Entertainment’s Tax I.D. number.
"The source heard that the then President of Sony Entertainment, Tommy Mottola, was aware of what Sabatino was doing, but was told to ‘stay out of it’ by members of organized crime who Mottola was with."
The source claims that this and money earned from other income is how a number of different conferences were funded, including the legendary How Can I Be Down conferences.
The document also makes a bombshell revelation: that Sabatino was connected to Marion "Suge" Knight prior to both slayings through a different organized crime associate.
According to the FBI documents, Sabatino was allegedly scared that either "Haitian" Jack Agnant or Randy "Stretch" Walker, to former associates of Shakur who allegedly helped set him up, would talk to police about the shooting.
"Sabatino seemed concerned that either Agnant or Walker would talk to the police," the source told the FBI. "Shortly after, Walker was shot and killed in Queens, New York. The source heard that [Randy "Stretch"] Walker was killed as a form of respect to Suge Knight. Knight had since took over the career of Shakur and Sabatino had ties to Knight through an organized crime associate in Las Vegas."
Apparently, this is the reason why authorities implicated Sabatino in the death of Christopher "Notorious B.I.G." Wallace in March of 1997, just six months after Shakur was gunned down in Las Vegas in September of 1996.
That information was revealed when Sabatino filed a $19 million dollar lawsuit against Sean "Diddy" Combs in October 2007, reportedly over money owed for footage of Christopher "The Notorious B.I.G." Wallace taken in 1994.
In November of 2007, Sabatino filed a motion to prohibit Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs from allegedly circulating FBI documents that named Sabatino as a suspect in the 1994 shooting of Tupac Shakur.
According to The Associated Press, James Sabatino, who is currently imprisoned in Allenwood, Pennsylvania on fraud charges, claims that Combs was circulating the FBI records ‘as part of smear campaign against him.
To view the document, click here.