Pretty Ricky’s Baby Blue was released early from Orlando’s Coleman Prison after serving the majority of his sentence for committing wire fraud in a Covid-19 loan scheme. The Miami-based artist, who was released on Tuesday (Feb. 7), announced a name change after he got out of prison. Baby Blue was arrested in the 2020 Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) scam and sentenced to 20 months in prison.
Baby Blue Owes $1M In Restitution
Pretty Ricky’s Baby Blue was released early from Orlando’s Coleman Prison on Tuesday (Feb. 7) and his groupmate Pleasure P went live on Instagram to document the moment as the notorious rapper walked out of the prison. Baby Blue served 12 months in prison instead of the 20 months sentence after being arrested for wire fraud in the Covid-19 scheme scam.
“There he goes!” Pleasure P said repeatedly. “Baby Blue is officially outside!… We all we got! Let’s get the f**k out of here. We ain’t ever coming back to this motherf****r!,” Pleasure P said in his live stream as the Miami-based rapper walked out of the prison with a big smile, holding a bag of his possessions.
Not only this, Blue was spotted reuniting with Spectacular and Pleasure P outside the prison and released a statement, expressing that he’s a changed man due to the experience. “I met a lot of REAL n-ggas in the feds,” he said. “A lot of good street n-ggas doing time in this fucked up system just for hustling and getting money to their families.”
He continued, Anybody out there that got a loved one thend them walls, make sure y’all show love. Y’all all they got and that commissary expensive than a bitch!” “I appreciate all the love and support from my family, friends and fans! The new album dropping soon! Wrote a book too! Might call that bitch ‘How To Hustle’ or ‘Blue Magic.’
He concluded his statement by revealing that he’s officially changed his name to Bigg Money Blue. “Officially changing my name to BIGG MONEY BLUE! Shoutout to my n-ggas at Coleman Prison! I’m bout to get back to the MONEY! LET’S GO!,” the rapper concluded. Baby Blue pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in August 2020 and started serving his sentence in February 2022.
More About Baby Blue’s “PPP Scam”
Baby Blue, who officially changed his name to Big Money Blue after serving the majority of his sentence, was accused in October 2020 of “filing fake loan applications to obtain funds meant for small businesses” as part of the U.S. Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. It came out that he received more than $24 million as a result of the scam.
The rapper confessed to using fraudulent documents and information to obtain the Covid-19 loan for his company, Throwbackjersey.com LLC. Not only this, he used the same tactic to get a separate loan for another company Blue Star Records LLC.
Baby Blue was required to pay $1,111,345.23 in restitution and $1,134,782 in forfeiture. Court documents revealed that he forfeited his 2010 Ferrari 458 Italia last year, but managed to pay only $65K off his tab, and still owes over $1 million as a part of his sentence. But hey, it’s any day better than the life sentence Baby Blue was facing for his crimes.
