T.I.P. In Trouble
Scales 925 opened in 2015, closed in 2016 and filed for bankruptcy in May.
Atlanta rapper and actor T.I. is being accused of fraudulently taking the money he owed former employees of his Scales 925 restaurant, the Blast reported Monday.
The Ivan Allen Boulevard establishment opened in 2015, closed in 2016 and filed for bankruptcy in May.
When it opened, AJC food writer Elizabeth Lenhard gave the restaurant zero stars, calling the food “pretty terrible.”
Court documents obtained by the tabloid showed T.I. transferred $40,000 to himself and his business associates.
The new lawsuit from the employees suggests the $40,000 T.I. took should have gone to them as a previous $78,000 settlement hasn’t been paid off yet.
The group of ex-employees, including Avery Lee, Kyle Vargas, Khori Vargas and Shawn Yarborough, previously sued the rapper for “screwing them out of overtime pay” and paying executives “unreasonably” high salaries as the restaurant was losing business, according to the Blast.
In July 2016, lawsuits from employees suggested they never received their final paychecks. Lee, a former bar manager at the joint, sued T.I. in May 2017, claiming he wasn’t paid a $27,486 default judgment he won against a limited liability company in charge of the restaurant’s management, The AJC previously reported.
T.I.’s attorney Albert Chapar Jr. said his client isn’t responsible for the debt as “he was solely an investor and someone whose name was used to promote the restaurant,” not the owner.
WRITTEN BY QUINCY ROGERS
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