Troy Stratos, a FAKE movie producer (how the HELL wouldn’t she know this, her hubby is a HUGE star..well we’ll tell you later why she was NOT thinking right – ok I digressed) who left a trail of debt in Europe and North America, was arrested in Los Angeles for scamming Eddie Murphy’s ex-wife out of at least $7 million dollars.
Stratos, 45, was charged with mail fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice in a federal indictment unsealed yesterday in Sacramento, California. He’s accused of persuading Nichole Murphy, 43, to turn over more than $8 million of a divorce settlement, saying he would invest it in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates where he said he had connections and she could earn more interest.
Instead, he transferred the money into personal accounts, according to the indictment. Stratos leased a Rolls Royce and moved the staff of his movie production company into Murphy’s mansion in Granite Bay, California, near Sacramento, prosecutors said.
After taking the divorce money, Stratos persuaded Murphy to refinance houses owned by her and her mother and to take money out to pay for expenses while her nest egg was invested abroad, according to the indictment.
Stratos also allegedly told Murphy that members of Middle Eastern royal families were interested in buying her house and that she should lease luxury cars to have on the property to make it more enticing. The buyers would take the cars as part of the package, according to the charges. But that was BULL! The fool, Stratos lived in the house and drove the cars, and there was never any deal arranged, prosecutors said.
So WHY did Nicole trust him soooo much you say? Hell I buried the lead, he was her FIRST LOVE! Stratos and Nicole Murphy met in Sacramento when they were teens.
Stratos and Murphy hooked up soon after she was divorced from Eddie Murphy in August 2005. He became her financial adviser after living for a year in Vancouver, Canada, where he ran a company called Next Level Media. Later, he went to Europe, and to Egypt, where he planned to make a trilogy of films about the pharaohs.
via BlackMediaScoop
