Music

Rapper says he was arrested for taking out $200,000 of his own money

by Richard Howard

Memphis rapper Blac Youngsta blew up on social media last Friday after posting the following picture of himself being cuffed by police outside of a bank in Atlanta.

While this in itself would barely be a blip on the media radar, the story quickly picked up steam due to the rapper’s claim that he was detained as a result of withdrawing $200,000 of his own money.

Here’s the story according to Youngsta (real name Sam Benson): He visited the Wells Fargo bank on Peachtree Road and withdrew the princely sum. Afterwards, as he was walking to his car, he was approached by the police who put him on the ground and detained him (for “[getting] too much money out”). The ever humble rapper says that in reply to a suggestion that he shouldn’t have that much cash on him, he replied: “I’m a millionaire. Like, how can I not have $200,000 on me?”

He then went on to mention: “They said something about a bogus check, and they thought I did the bogus check too, but I’m legit.” He said the money was withdrawn to purchase a Maybach luxury sedan, but that he had changed his mind and would be purchasing a Ferrari. After a few posts on social media showing off the giant stacks of cash, he signed off with a succinct “Fuck Wells Fargo.”

In reply, the police released a statement explaining that a caller from the bank summoned the police when an individual attempted to cash a fraudulent $24,000 check. Due to the suspect description, Benson was detained but quickly eliminated as a suspect and released. Another man was later arrested and charged with forgery. OK, cool – just a misunderstanding, right? Well, according to Wells Fargo, no. According to them, Blac Youngsta is straight up full of shit. Peep this terse statement released by Wells Fargo:

That’s right – they’re saying not only was Blac Youngsta not singled out for withdrawing a large sum of money, there was no way he could have withdrawn it from their bank in the first place.

The vice president making the statement confirmed that the rapper was not a party to the fraudulent incident, but would not divulge whether any members of his entourage had accounts with the bank or made withdrawals that day. When the police were questioned about the discrepancy, Atlanta police spokesman Sgt. Warren Pickard simply replied, “They gave him a microphone and he did what he did.”

Considering Blac Youngsta’s thousands of new social media followers, it looks like if he did spice up the truth, it was a pretty good career move.