Offset has responded to the default judgment granted against him in a case where a rental company claims that he lost or stole a $950K Bentley.
In his legal documents, the rapper is seeking to absolve himself of responsibility claiming that it was the mother of one of his children who rented the Bentley Bentayga. His lawsuit addresses the claim by Platinum Transportation Group, which he calls “misleading.”
The judgment for the case was handed down this year with a Los Angeles judge awarding Platinum Transportation Group $950,027 in a default judgment after Offset failed to appear in the case.
Offset says he was never served in the case. In a sworn statement, the rapper says he is not the one who signed the rental agreement. He has never possessed the vehicle in question, and neither did he drive it, but rather that it was leased by one of the mothers of his children.
Offset further claims that the lawsuit was misdirected as Platinum Transportation knew the person who leased the Bentley is Oriel Williams, Rolling Stone reported. However, he does admit that he was the one who agreed to cover the rental cost.
However, the Migos rapper says at some point in 2020 that he was told the car went missing from a parking lot outside of a gated community, and he immediately reported to the company that it was missing.
“I was told by a PML representative that PML would report the car stolen to the authorities. I did not steal the car, and I reported the car missing to PML as soon as I was advised by Williams that the car could not be located. In or about July 2020, I was informed by PML that the car was reported stolen to the Los Angeles Police Department and that they were investigating the theft of the car,” Offset says.
As to how he became involved, he says the company may have used his information and credit card.
“I was never in possession of the car, and — to my knowledge — was not listed as an ‘additional driver’ on the rental agreement. I had rented cars from PML in the past, however, and they had both my Georgia driver’s license and credit card on file,” he added.
Offset added that his insurance company had advised him that he did not sign any rental agreement in relation to the stolen car.
“Not hearing otherwise from PML or the Los Angeles Police Department in 2020 or thereafter, I assumed that the Bentley — which was very unique and which I believed was protected with OnStar or some other electronic detection device — had either been recovered or that any loss had been covered by PML’s insurance,” he said.
The rapper claims further that the care is worth $177,521 and that Platinum received its inflated default judgement because it had misled the court.
The rapper says he was not properly served with court documents as the company sent the documents to an address rented by his father and that the summons and complaint were never brought to his attention.
Additionally, he said he became aware of the lawsuit in March 2022 after his wife Cardi B’s entertainment law firm found it in the Los Angeles County Superior Court system.
He added that the attorneys for Platinum further misled the court when they failed to point out that Offset, whose name is Kiari Cephus, not the name in which the rental agreement was signed, and that he is not listed as an authorized driver on the rental contract.”
Platinum has not responded to Offset’s filing as yet, and the matter is set for a hearing in May.
