(AllHipHop News) The eighth day of testimony continued today (May 29) in the federal cocaine distribution trial of James “Jimmy Henchman” Rosemond.
Today, a former Czar Entertainment employee named Tony Martin took the stand to testify for prosecutors.
Tony Martin, who folded his hands to pray during testimony, claimed that Rosemond admitted to various illegal activities during his association with Czar Entertainment.
According to Martin’s testimony, he was sucked into the drug ring, without knowing what was actually inside of the music cases, which contained kilograms of cocaine, in addition to millions in drug money.
“Truthfully, since I didn’t have access to the cases or the keys, I thought nothing would ever happened to me,” Tony Martin told the jurors. “I didn’t think I would be prosecuted.”
Martin claimed that after years of shipping or picking up cases, it wasn’t until August 2010, that he finally saw what was being shipped.
He recounted an alleged meeting at an apartment Rosemond owned in Harlem, where he saw the mogul stuffing large amounts of cash into a backpack.
“There was a bunch of money out. He kept putting money in backpacks. He asked me to take it to the London hotel. I kept my cool and said, ‘Damn, this is a lot of money.’ He told me to drop it off to Khalil [Abdullah], so I did.”
Today, the government focused on Rosemond’s business relationships with the Reverend Al Sharpton, Queen Latifah, Shakim Compere, and Mike Tyson.
Tony Martin testified that Jimmy Rosemond became close with Rev. Al Sharpton shortly after a 2007 incident in which an associate of 50 Cent and Tony Yayo struck Rosemond’s son.
The incident occurred at the height of Game and Rosemond’s feud with 50 Cent and G-Unit.
“His son was harmed, so Jimmy was a space in his life where he didn’t want to get in trouble. So he took the political route to protect his son,” Tony Martin said.
According to Martin, Rosemond was an executive producer on an unreleased show for Rev. Sharpton that would have featured the political commentator/activist as a judge on his own TV show.
Rosemond allegedly paid for a number of Rev. Sharpton’s expenses, including plane fare, hotel bills and other costs associated with producing the show, which was never released.
Rosemond also invested money into two Fatburgers with Queen Latifah in 2007, the movie “The Cookout 2” and attempted to resolve a civil lawsuit between Mike Tyson and Don King, who Martin said only dealt in cash.
Tony Martin claimed that Rosemond, who allegedly invested hundreds-of-thousands into the projects, lost money on the deals, although he made his $250,000 investment back on “The Cook Out 2,” when it was licensed to BET for $1 million dollars.
Like the other witnesses the prosecution has produced, on cross-examination, Tony Martin admitted to meeting with prosecutors at least 11 times, in preparation for testimony.
Rosemond’s attorney, Gerald Shargel, raised a number of questions about Martin’s credibility, in addition to his motives for testifying against Rosemond.
Despite presenting himself as an innocent, unknowing participant, Martin is facing 20 years in prison for his role in drug distribution operation.
He has also signed a cooperation agreement as well, which could help him get a drastically reduced sentence.
But Shargel noted that Tony Martin was not a credible witness.
Shargel revealed that Tony Martin lied to prosecutors after he signed his Proffer Agreement and gave information to the government.
Gerald Shargel noted that Martin actually lied to a judge while he was under oath and embellished his educational credentials.
Tony Martin also admitted to never seeing any of Czar Entertainment’s books, to speak credibly about the business’ profits or losses.
Despite being caught in a lie under oath as recent as last Thursday, Martin, who managed Game, Trillville, and Mario Winans for Czar Entertainment, still has his agreement in place.