Music mogul Webster Batista and his business partner Jose Chenel Teran had it all: expensive cars, flashy jewelry, properties in Miami and Arizona, and a media company worth millions of dollars. What they didn’t have was any legal right to the 50,000-plus songs they claimed to own over the past four years, in an alleged scam that cost real artists and content creators more than $20 million. Federal authorities arrested Batista, who also goes by the pseudonyms Eniel Gaetan Hernandez and Yenddi, in the Miami suburb of Doral on November 18 on charges of wire fraud, money laundering, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy. He posted $150,000 in bail plus a $100,000 bond cosigned by his mother and was ordered by a federal judge to remove himself to Phoenix, Arizona, earlier this month, where he awaits trial in January alongside Teran, his alleged co-conspirator. New Times attempted to contact Miami attorney David Garvin, who represented Batista in a related case in Florida’s Southern District Court, but he did not respond to requests for comment via phone or email on Monday. Teran’s attorney, Jason Mark Silver of Scottsdale, Arizona, likewise did not respond to requests for comment. Through their Arizona-based business, MediaMuv, LLC, along with…
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Federal Indictment Alleges “YouTube Thieves” Scammed Music Artists Out of More Than $20 Million
