Well, this is wild story!
A man who previously posed at a Wu-Tang Clan member so he could stay in luxury hotels has been sentenced to 7 years in prison.
Aaron Barnes-Burpo of Florida admitted to posing as a member of the rap group to defraud hotels for their free services.
“For several weeks, these men defrauded multiple businesses by posing as famous musical artists and their retinue,” the Acting U.S. Attorney Estes explained. “Thanks to an alert hotel clerk, their phony hit parade came to an abrupt halt.”
According to legal court documents, Barnes-Burpo and his co-defendant, Walker Washington, admitted that they “falsely portrayed themselves as affiliated with the Roc Nation production company and the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan as early as September 2019, and used those fictitious representations along with fraudulent and stolen credit cards to rent luxury limousines and defraud hotels, caterers and production studios of thousands of dollars in goods and services in multiple cities, primarily in the Southeast.”
Barnes has also been ordered to pay nearly $300,000 to the 19 hotel businesses he defrauded during the scheme process.
Photo by Steven Ferdman/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival