John Mayer has been dragged into a lawsuit regarding a $100 million Ponzi scheme. The suit claims that the singer may be in possession of hundreds of thousands of dollars in dirty money.
TMZ reported that trustees attempting to track down and recover the money lost in a fraud perpetrated by Seattle businessman Darren Berg have named Mayer, among others, in the suit. According to legal documents obtained by TMZ, Mayer allegedly received dirty money from booking agency Grabow & Associates, which the suit alleges may have as much as $465,000, although the connection between the agency and Berg is not clear.
Mayer's lawyer told TMZ: "John Mayer performed at a corporate event in 2008 and was paid for his services. The opportunity was brought to John through his talent agency, CAA."
Mayer's publicist did not return HuffPost's request for comment.
Berg was sentenced to 18 years in prison in February for defrauding hundreds of investors out of more than $100 million via his company, Meridian Mortgage investment funds, which he ran for nearly a decade, the Seattle Times previously reported.
Berg's company was established to purchase seller-financed real estate contracts, according to The Seattle Times. It shifted to a Ponzi scheme that paid old investors with new investors' money. However, Berg insisted that he at one time ran an honest business. "Did I run a 10-year Ponzi scheme and defraud you for 10 years, or did I run a legitimate business and then defraud you?" he asked during court proceedings, claiming it was the latter.
Berg raised over $360 million from more than 1,000 investors, Reuters reported in December, making his one of the largest Ponzi schemes in history.
Other celebrities have found themselves on the other side of Ponzi schemes.
Bernie Madoff was charged in a 20-year, worldwide Ponzi scheme that was the largest fraud in Wall Street history, according to The New York Times. He defrauded investors out of $17.3 billion. Among his more famous victims were actor Kevin Bacon and his wife, Kyra Sedgwick.
Manhattan investment adviser Kenneth I. Starr, dubbed the "Madoff for celebrities," scammed the likes of Uma Thurman, Al Pacino, director Martin Scorsese, Diane Sawyer, Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, photographer Annie Leibovitz, heiress Rachel "Bunny" Mellon and jeweler Jacob Arabov, the Guardian reported.