Already charged with fraud, Bergen County real estate influencer faces new lawsuit

A Bergen real estate influencer accused of fraud and charged in a Ponzi scheme is facing another lawsuit.

Cesar Pina, his wife, Jennifer, and their companies, and Raashaun Casey, a popular DJ known as DJ Envy, have been embroiled in about two dozen lawsuits since last spring. They are accused of defrauding people out of possibly millions of dollars. Cesar Pina was arrested in October and charged with running a multimillion-dollar Ponzi-like scheme.

A Realtor, Lester Carcasses, filed a lawsuit against the Pinas, Casey and the Pinas' companies in state Superior Court last week.

Cesar Pina's civil attorney, Steven Griegel, did not respond to a request for comment.

Carcasses said that in November 2022 he reached out to Cesar Pina to request a one-on-one consultation after he attended a Flipping NJ seminar in May 2019 and kept up with Pina and Casey on social media.

According to the suit, Carcasses paid $5,000 for the meeting with Pina and at the meeting was encouraged by him to invest in one of his real estate projects. The suit said Pina sent Carcasses promotional videos and social media posts that "touted his successes as a real estate agent" and featured celebrities and professional athletes to convince him to invest.

In December 2022, Carcasses said, he received a joint venture agreement for 145-147 Manchester Ave. in Paterson and it required him to make a "capital contribution of $100,000 with a guaranteed return of principal and an interest payment of $30,000 within five months."

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The lawsuit said the funds would be used to renovate and remodel the property for resale, and Carcasses wired the $100,000 to Pina. Carcasses said he contacted Pina after five months to see when he would get his payment and that Pina "refused" to make the payment but instead encouraged him to roll over the investment into a second property.

Carcasses agreed to do so in June 2023 and was promised a $180,000 return, the lawsuit said. According to the suit, six months later, the second property hadn't sold, and Carcasses said he realized he had been scammed by the Pinas.

Carcasses said he hasn't received any repayment and learned that the Manchester Avenue property was pledged to "hundreds of other joint venture partners" and that he didn't know the property had commercial mortgages and liens. The property was also misidentified and wasn't owned by the Pinas, who owned a neighboring property, according to the lawsuit.

The suit accuses the defendants of violating the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, committing fraud and negligent misrepresentation, breaching the contract and violating the Civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Casey is accused of conspiracy to commit fraud, breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation and violating the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Already charged with fraud, Bergen County real estate influencer faces new lawsuit