In recently released documents provided to AllHipHop.com, Christopher Lorenzo’s attorney, Gerald Shargel, recently wrote to Judge Edward Korman to officially raise objections to prison tapes being used by the federal government in the federal money laundering and racketeering trial of rap label The Inc.
The five-page filing documents Shargel’s requests to suppress conversations between the Gotti brothers (Irv and Chris Lorenzo) and Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff that were recorded by The Federal Bureau of Prisons.
The filing also detailed the financial hardships of The Inc. (formerly Murder Inc.), an alleged plot to kill Irv Gotti, and the status of Queens, New York drug baron Lorenzo “Fat Cat” Nichols.
Ethan Brown, a journalist for Rolling Stone, New York Magazine, Wired, the Village Voice, Radar, Vibe, and others, recently penned “Queens Reigns Supreme: Fat Cat, 50 Cent and the Rise of the Hip-Hop Hustler.”
Slated for a November 22 release, the book is a detailed look into the origins of Queens, New York’s most notorious and profitable drug gangs, and their ties to the Hip-Hop music industry.
“These transcripts show that Irv is clearly hurting financially because of the years’ long investigation into The Inc.,” Brown told AllHipHop.com. “The expiration of The Inc.’s contract with Def Jam earlier this year has only worsened the situation.”
Shargel’s motion seeks to have phone conversations ruled inadmissible because he believes that they’re “plainly irrelevant” and “hearsay.”
The motion further states that his client’s right to due process was violated when the government gained a strategic advantage by gathering evidence against the Lorenzo, by wire-tapping McGriff’s prison phone calls.
“They were successful in separating Irv’s trial from Supreme’s,” Brown noted. “Supreme is charged with various narcotics charges and murder.
Irv is not charged with any of that. He doesn’t have to sit in the courtroom with Supreme, and that is why the lawyers are saying these conversations are irrelevant.”
Some of the characters that are resurfacing have been mentioned in songs by Nas, 50 Cent, Ja Rule and others. Fans can reference Nas’ “Memory Lane (Sitting in the Park)” or 50 Cent’s “Ghetto Quran” for more details.
Coincidentally, 50 Cent’s upcoming movie “Get Rich or Die Tryin’ features a character named “Majestic,” said to be loosely based on Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff.
A review of transcripts documents reveals:
A conversation recorded on March 4, 2005, in which Chris Lorenzo was “expressing worry about his brother’s safety and the risk of harm posed by a ‘crazy fan’ of 50 Cent.”
According to the phone records, Chris was so worried about Irv’s safety that ‘he consulted his music attorney and others to stop 50 Cent’s ‘incendiary s**t.’
A conversation recorded on March 29, 2005, between Irv Gotti and Supreme in which the two discuss the financial hardships of The Inc. label for the first time. Wire-tap records disclose Irv explaining to McGriff that he was paying for everybody’s lawyer and that he was “F*cked up right now.”
Irv goes on to state, “Remember the sh*t with me though Preme, I’m paying everyone’s lawyer, Cynthia, Gutta, everybody. It’s all on my back so I gotta get the f*cking sh*t because (the lawyers) talking about bailing and that I got to get that money.”
An April 29, 2005 conversation where Supreme asks an associate of Irv Gotti’s about ‘Fat Boy,’ which authorities suspect is code for “Fat Cat,” or Lorenzo ‘Fat Cat” Nichols.
In February of 1988, Nichols was sentenced to a 25-to-life state narcotics and weapons violations. He was then hit with federal charges in August of 1988 on federal narcotics charges. He was slated to be released in 2026 for previous federal drug charges.
Incarcerated since 1985, authorities accused Nichols of running “The Nichols Organization” from behind bars from 1985-1988, when the organization was dismantled by federal agents.
Police suspect the Nichols organization provided drugs to the Supreme Team in their heyday when the drug gang controlled the Baisley Park Houses in Queens, New York.
“An army of federal agents stormed this territory in Southeast Queens and shut down the organization,” Brown told AllHipHop.com. “This was spurned by the murder of NYPD rookie cop, Edward Byrne, who were murdered by members of the Bebo’s, a gang run by Howard “Pappy” Mason.”
Mason is serving a life sentence and was convicted of being Nichol’s lieutenant in the Nichols Organization. Brown compared Mason to Fat Cat in terms of his status in the organization.
“He had a crew of kids with dreadlocks, and they killed a white cop, who was in uniform and in a marked car,” Brown said. “He was guarding the home of a witness. 50 talks about it in his book [“From Pieces to Weight”] as a pivotal moment in his neighborhood because all of the drug organizations were targeted from that point.”
Nichols was indicted earlier this year for allegedly running an auto theft ring from prison with notorious Detroit, Michigan coke kingpin Richard “White Boy Rick” Wershe.
Prison recordings also show that Irv and Supreme were allegedly surprised by how big their case had become.
Irv told McGriff their case was “So high-profile, like, it’s not even believable.”
“Being friends with Supreme isn’t a crime,” Brown stated. “The feds are alleging that money is being laundered through these companies, but no one knows what evidence there is.”
The federal money laundering and racketeering trial money for the Lorenzo’s is set to begin on Oct. 24.
