3rd Bass rapper-turned-sports memorabilia dealer Pete Nash pleads guilty to tax fraud
BY MICHAEL O'KEEFFE /NY Daily News
From rapper to sports memorabilia dealer to tax cheat: Peter Nash poses for his mug shot.
ALBANY COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY'
From rapper to sports memorabilia dealer to tax cheat: Peter Nash poses for his mug shot.
The taxman finally caught up with Peter Nash, the former hip-hop star turned sports memorabilia dealer.
The 3rd Bass rapper, better known as "Prime Minister Pete Nice," pleaded guilty to misdemeanor tax fraud in Albany County Court on Tuesday and was ordered to pay $13,101 in back taxes, penalties and interest to New York State.
The Albany District Attorney's office says that Nash, who will be on probation for three years, did not pay taxes in 2009, 2010 and 2011. He will be sentenced on Aug. 26.
But Nash - a self-appointed crusader who now runs a web site dedicated to battling fraud in the hobby - probably hasn't put his tax and legal troubles behind him just yet. Nash, who has been engaged in a bitter legal dispute with Robert Edward Auctions, the prominent New Jersey sports memorabilia auction house, admitted in Manhattan Supreme Court in 2012 that he didn't file tax returns from 2005 through 2009, which could prompt an investigation by federal tax collectors as well.
Nash, once known for "Pop Goes the Weasel" and "The Gas Face," became a sports memorabilia dealer after his hip-hop career fizzled in the late 1990s. But he's better known in memorabilia circles for his never-ending series of legal and financial problems.
His troubles began when REA president Rob Lifson claimed Nash had failed to pay back almost $1 million he had borrowed from the company and began preparing to sell memorabilia Nash had put up as collateral for the loan.
Nash sued REA in 2007, claiming Lifson's company could not sell the memorabilia because he did not have 100% ownership in one of the items, the first-pitch ball used to inaugurate the 1912 season at Fenway Park. Nash claimed that he had sold a 1% ownership stake in the ball after he had given it to Lifson and that the sale needed to be halted.
Peter Nash's (r.) biggest claim to fame is co-fronting the rap group 3rd Bass.
DEF JAM VIA YOUTUBE
Peter Nash's (r.) biggest claim to fame is co-fronting the rap group 3rd Bass.
Lifson countersued, and New Jersey Superior Court Judge Yolanda Ciccone ultimately awarded him $760,000 in 2009, plus 10% interest. According to the order signed by Ciccone earlier this week, that debt has been whittled down to about $66,000, primarily because Lifson has received payments from the Boston bar that Nash owns along with several partners.
Lifson, however, has found it difficult to locate Nash's other assets and sources of income, and he has spent more than $261,000 trying to collect his judgment, according to court records. When Lifson and his attorney Barry Kozyra asked a court to order Nash to produce tax records, the aging rapper acknowledged that he had not even filed tax returns for several years. Ciccone ordered Nash to pay $261,000 to Lifson earlier this year to compensate him for legal fees spent hunting Nash's assets.
Another New Jersey judge ordered Nash to pay $442,000 in 2012 to his former friends, Robert Fraser and Lisa Koch-Fraser, who claimed the ex-rapper held up the sale of a 1912 Boston Red Sox trophy by falsely claiming he had a 45% ownership stake in the piece.
As the Daily News first reported in 2010, Nash also dragged his father, former Bishop Ford president and basketball coach Ray Nash, into his legal battles.
Ray Nash, used more than $50,000 in school development funds to stop a bank from foreclosing on the former rap star's Cooperstown home. School officials discovered the money was missing during an audit, and Peter Nash had to borrow money from a New Jersey collector so his father could pay back Bishop Ford. The incident was later investigated by former Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes' office. Hynes declined to file charges, saying Ray Nash had not demonstrated "criminal intent" when he took the now-defunct Catholic high school's money.
Nash gave the collector, Al Angelo, several pieces of memorabilia as collateral for that loan. When Lifson found out about the loan, he cried foul, saying that memorabilia should have been given to him to help pay off Nash's judgment. Bishop Ford officials agreed to pay $53,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by REA that claimed the Brooklyn school interfered with its attempts to collect the judgment from Nash.
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3rd Bass rapper-turned-sports memorabilia dealer Pete Nash pleads guilty to tax fraud
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