Rapper ColdheartedAC charged over an $8.1 million stolen check scheme

ColdheartedAC, the Quartz Hill rapper whose legal name is Ada William Obayuwana, was arrested on Wednesday and charged in a 25-count federal grand jury indictment, according to the US Department of Justice.

The indictment alleges that he and two others illegally possessed more than 50 stolen US Treasury checks and hundreds of other checks belonging to individuals and businesses, together worth more than $8.1 million, then cashed or tried to cash them at lenders across Southern California.

His co-defendants are Albert Tai Vu of Westminster and Cassandra Marie Murrillo of San Diego. The indictment covers April 2022 to December 2023 and says the three obtained checks carrying tax refunds and veterans' and Social Security benefits, forged endorsements or altered names and addresses, and opened bank and credit union accounts across Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties, impersonating the victims with business documents.

The individual figures are large. Prosecutors say Obayuwana tried to cash at least three Treasury refund checks worth $382,109 and succeeded with one, withdrawing $229,109. In December 2023 he is alleged to have had more than 100 stolen or fraudulent checks in his car in Oceanside, worth more than $6.1 million, including 48 Treasury checks worth about $2,555,417, of which he cashed eight for roughly $1.7 million. Vu is accused of cashing two tax refund checks worth $772,159 and using cashier's checks to buy a Range Rover.

Obayuwana faces nine counts of bank fraud, three counts of delivering stolen Treasury checks and one count of aggravated identity theft, and remains in federal custody following a detention hearing on Friday. Vu was arrested on Thursday and Murrillo was expected to surrender.

He is 31, had built an audience of more than 400,000 Instagram followers and visited SiriusXM Studios in New York in 2022. AllHipHop notes that the diamond chains, watches and cars he posted became part of the evidence against him, a pattern hip-hop has seen before in federal cases such as the drug convictions that left Playa Pat facing 20 years to life, and in more routine arrests such as BigXthaPlug's in Texas.