In the last hours it was known that Anuel and other artists in the music industry were robbed of a multi-million dollar figure. The specialized magazine ‘Billboard’ was the one who realized the situation and alerted the singers.
Although the event occurred at the end of November 2021, it is just coming to light.
The victims suffered a little-known digital theft. A shell media company claimed to own the copyrights of more than 50 people.
With false documentation they would have deceived YouTube to seize the income of these artists. The scam was discovered after a flaw in the criminals’ strategy.
US tax authorities were alerted after they changed their lifestyle. The thieves bought Lamborghini sports cars and changed their social status in a matter of months.
After an investigation by the Treasury, they discovered that they had been diverting money from royalties that belonged to international-class Latin singers for years. Detectives contacted ‘Billboard’ and they, in turn, spoke with those affected.
Anuel’s team has declared that they had not realized the robbery. The singer hadn’t been collecting YouTube rights from him for years without anyone noticing.
How did they do it?
Two men, residents of Phoenix, would be behind the multi-million dollar scam. Both have been captured and one of them has already been found guilty.
Among the crimes of which they were accused are aggravated identity theft, money laundering, conspiracy, electronic fraud, among others. In total there are 30 charges they face.
José ‘Chenel’ Medina Terán and Webster ‘Yenddi’ Batista Fernández allegedly created a media front company called MediaMuv to cheat royalty owners.
With false documents they would have convinced AdRev, which allows access to the video platform. This is how they would have claimed the money from the reproductions and interactions of the clips of Julio Iglesias, Daddy Yankee, Anuel, Prince Royce, among others.
“According to authorities, Terán and Batista had been running what is now one of the largest, if not the largest, music royalty scams known on YouTube in history,” explained ‘Billboard’.