The wife of an indicted celebrity house flipper with close ties to a popular radio personality is facing federal charges onaccusations she destroyed incriminating evidence by smashing her cell phone to bits with a hammer as the FBI waited outside her front door to seize it.
Jennifer Iturralde Pina, whose husband, Cesar Humberto “Flipping NJ” Pina is fighting wire fraud charges over what prosecutors described as a years-long Ponzi scheme that bilked dozens of investors out of millions, was hit with one count of destruction of records in a federal investigation, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday and obtained by The Independent.
It says Iturralde, 42, knew the feds were about to search the Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, home she and Pina share, and laid waste to the device moments before agents were able to get to it.
Iturralde’s attorney, Brian Neary, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Cesar Pina reportedly first became interested in real estate in 2005, while serving an 18-month prison sentence for credit card fraud and drug-related crimes. He was promoted heavily by DJ Envy, born RaaShaun Casey, on his Power 105.1 FM morning show, The Breakfast Club, as a real estate wizard.
Envy — who has not been charged with a crime, and was reportedly himself taken for $500,000 — traveled the nation with Pina holding real estate seminars promising returns of up to 45 percent within five months.
“We’re talking about generational wealth,” Envy said in a 2021 video he and Pina posted on Facebook. “When this is all said and done, and I pass away and he passes away, our kids will get that money.”
But the promises of quick riches were bogus, according to the feds, who say Pina, among other things, scammed people into investing in properties he didn’t own, solicited investments from multiple people for the same properties and paid existing investors with money coming in from new ones. In one instance, prosecutors say Pina attempted to pay an investor back in jewelry.
Iturralde, who is also known as “Jenni Tips,” was not charged criminally alongside her husband in the Ponzi case, but is named as a defendant in more than 20 lawsuits over the alleged ruse.
Federal authorities charged Pina in October 2023 over the alleged scheme, after which he was released on bond. Five months later, in February 2024, Iturralde learned that a confidant identified in court papers only as “Witness-1” had provided evidence to investigators, the complaint against her states.
It says Iturralde then used an encrypted messaging app to call a go-between, instructing them to tell Witness-1 that she was upset they were cooperating with the government and to pressure them to stop.
The go-between then went to meet with Witness-1 at their home, grabbing their phone out of their hands and putting it on the hood of their car to make sure the conversation wasn’t being recorded, the complaint goes on. After walking around to the rear of the vehicle, the go-between told Witness-1 that they “should have deleted” the relevant communications on their phone, and “instructed Witness-1 not to talk to the ‘feds,’” according to the complaint.
In early March, federal agents obtained search warrants for her cell phones and tracked the location of Iturralde’s devices, the complaint says. When the feds showed up in the early morning hours of March 5 at the go-between’s home in Wyckoff, New Jersey, another person persent called Iturralde to tell her that agents had just seized the go-between’s phone, according to the complaint.
Almost simultaneously, agents were ringing the doorbell at Iturralde and Pina’s home in Franklin Lakes, where they planned to seize Iturralde’s two phones, the complaint states.
“In the ensuing minutes, law enforcement continued to ring the doorbell and knock on the door,” it says. “After approximately three minutes, at approximately 8:02 AM, Iturralde and Pina opened the door.”
But when agents asked Iturralde for her two phones, she only handed over the second one, according to the complaint. Iturralde said she “broke [the first one] the other day,” that she “smashed it with a hammer,” and did not “know where it went,” the complaint explains.
“Iturralde also showed law enforcement a chip on her countertop where she indicated that she destroyed Phone-1,” it says, adding that agents searched the home from top to bottom but were unable to find the phone in question.
The FBI knew that the phone “was operational and located in the general vicinity of the Franklin Lakes Residence until shortly after approximately 7:59 AM on or about March 5, 2024, which was soon after law enforcement initially approached the door and minutes before Iturralde and Pina opened the door for law enforcement,” according to the complaint. The next day, a new device was registered to the same phone number previously associated with Phone-1, “indicating that Iturralde obtained a new cellular phone,” the complaint states.
If convicted, Iturralde faces up to 20 years in prison.
