About $3.3 million will have to be paid to their victims, Jose “Chinel” Teran and Buster “Yende” Batista Fernandez, who are responsible for what they call ““YouTube’s Biggest Royalty Scam.”
This number is a small fraction of the $23 million that these scammers embezzled from mostly Latino music composers, including… Don Omar, Julio Iglesias, Prince Ruiz, Anuel A.A., Approximately between 2016 and 2021.
Billboard reported that these men founded the company MediaMuv and claimed to own the copyrights to over 50 thousand audio recordings and musical compositions The profits were used to fund lavish lifestyles, including Lamborghini cars, real estate, diamond jewelry and other luxuries, until November 2021. They were charged with 30 counts of wire fraudconspiracy, money laundering and aggravated identity theft.
A source told Billboard that the $3.3 million they will have to pay will be split between the two and they will have to return the money to their victims little by little every month.
“The court ordered Teran and Batista to pay only a small sample of the many songwriters and artists who are owed royalties as a result of the scam,” the aforementioned media reported.
The court document revealed this Bad Bunny was also the victim of a false ownership claim by Teran and Batista, which they made under the company name MediaMuv. The scammers stole $500 from the star and were ordered to return it.
In order to achieve its goal of being recognized by YouTube and collecting royalties through that platform’s content selection system, the fraudulent company partnered with AdRev, which has access to YouTube’s CMS and content selection tools, which helps artists manage… Content. Their digital copyright.
MediaMuv created some fake documents and provided AdRev with these papers to prove ownership of the music it claimed. From there, AdRev not only helped MediaMuv collect those copyrights, but also provided Terana and Batista with direct access to YouTube’s content management system so they could claim the copyright themselves, the portal reported to Spanish newspaper ABC in response to Billboard’s complaint.
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