A former collaborator of Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, who was involved in a strange partnership between the singer and the Trump White House has cut a deal with federal prosecutors that will keep the Grammy-winning artist off the witness stand.
Arjun Dhillon, who worked with Ye on a variety of business ventures several years ago, was charged in 2019 with using the singer’s name in an attempt to swindle a quarter of a million dollars from a rich philanthropist running an online charity campaign, according to court records.
The alleged fraud stemmed from a project Ye initiated with an unidentified senior White House adviser to form a “design studio pilot program” aimed at “innovating America’s workforce,” court records filed this week show.
The Chicago Tribune first reported last month that Ye, who was identified in the indictment only as “Musician A,” was among the witnesses Dhillon’s attorneys were attempting to subpoena to testify at trial.
The April 4 trial was abruptly postponed, however, as both sides worked toward a potential deal. This week, Dhillon formally entered into what is known as a deferred prosecution agreement, meaning the U.S. attorney’s office will drop the case against him in six months if he stays out of trouble.
As part of the deal, Dhillon agreed to not to contact Ye in any way or hold himself out to represent the singer or any of his businesses.
Under the arrangement, Dhillon also admitted to certain conduct that formed the basis of the indictment.
Dhillon admitted in the agreement that in February 2019, Ye referred him to a senior White House adviser, who engaged him in “substantive discussions about innovating America’s workforce through a design studio pilot program.”
That July, Dhillon convinced a Florida-based philanthropist who was running a crowdsourcing charity campaign to wire $250,000 to a bank account purportedly affiliated with one of Ye’s companies, but that was actually controlled by Dhillon.
The victim was identified in the charges only as Victim A, but sources have told the Tribune he is Bill Pulte, grandson of the late founder of Detroit home-building giant PulteGroup who has found social media stardom by giving away money to charity and documenting it all through Twitter.
Dhillon told Pulte that Ye was willing to lend money and star power to the victim’s cause in exchange for financial support of Ye’s design studio project, the indictment stated.
Dhillon admitted in the agreement that he falsely told the victim that Ye had authorized him to “tweet” about the singer’s support for his philanthropic campaign. Instead, when Ye’s lawyers saw the tweet, they ordered the victim to cease and desist and he took down the message.
Ultimately, Pulte was able to alert his own bank to the potential fraud and stop the funds from being disbursed to Dhillon, according to court records.
Dhillon’s attorney had no comment Tuesday.
At the time of the alleged fraud, Ye’s affinity for Donald Trump had been well documented. In October 2018, four months before putting Dhillon in touch with the White House, Ye had held court in the Oval Office, following a lunch meeting with the president, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, and Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown.
Wearing a red MAGA cap, Ye delivered a rambling, 10-minute monologue to reporters where he claimed to be in the 98th percentile on his IQ test, said he’s not bipolar but suffers from sleep deprivation, and pushed U.S. automakers to design the “fliest most amazing cars.”
“I tell you what, that was pretty impressive,” Trump said after Ye finished. “That was quite something.”
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