National Conference of Black Mayors owes a million dollars to T.I.’s Grand Hustle and others

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Court documents illuminate the depths of the fiscal nightmare that Vanessa Williams, the executive director of the NCBM, is embroiled in and how many people she owes money to around the nation. Specifically, Williams and the NCBM are in the hole more than $126,000 in defaulted loans and attorney fees to the label started by the King of the South, according to records obtained by Atlanta’s Fox 5.

In total, the unpaid bills, liens and court judgments against the organization of 580 mayors come to over seven figures to multiple organizations around the country.


Grand Hustle CEO Jason Geter and general manager Hannah Kang provided the loan to Williams, who was a friend at the time, when she approached the pair to close a deficit in the NCBM budget.


Geter and Kang advanced Williams a loan of $90,000, but when Williams failed to reconcile the debt in a timely manner — and in fact wrote two bad checks to Geter and Kang — the Grand Hustle execs took the legal route to recover the money.

Grand Hustle employed private investigators track down Williams and the National Conference of Black Mayors and then hauled Williams in court, winning a judgment of $126,125.50 against Williams and the NCBM.


Craftily, Williams protected her assets by transferring property into the names of her husband and family members.

When Fox 5 finally tracked down Williams and asked tough questions, Williams blamed all of the conference’s problems on “embezzlement” by a former insider.

She claimed she was paying people back and she promised to provide documents to support her claims. But on the day she was scheduled to meet with Russell, she cancelled the meeting without explanation.

“They felt a little bit betrayed by someone who holds them self out to be a pillar of the community,” said Michael Miller, the attorney representing Geter, told Fox 5.

“There has never been any intent to pay my clients back,” said Miller.

The Grand Hustle executives had to crank the legal process again when their previous attorney, Charles Mathis, passed away from a heart attack.

For complete report, click here.
 
 

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