Allegations of fraud: Bushido rails against Abou-Chaker in the trial

Rapper Bushido testified before the regional court in Frankfurt (Oder) as a witness against his ex-manager Arafat Abou-Chaker and substantiated the fraud allegations against him. Abou-Chaker and his brother “looted” the joint account of a real estate company and took 180,000 euros without asking, Bushido told the presiding judge. He didn’t know what the money was used for.

Abou-Chaker comes as the accused, Bushido as a witness

Abou-Chaker and a co-defendant are accused of fraud as part of a legal dispute with Bushido. In a previous civil case, Abou-Chaker and Bushido argued over the division of a joint real estate business in Brandenburg. According to the public prosecutor’s office, in this process the ex-manager is said to have presented fake receipts from a construction contractor in order to prove alleged payments and to shape the process in his favor. At the start of the trial last week, Abou-Chaker did not want to comment in court. The presumption of innocence applies until the proceedings are legally concluded.

The court showed some of the invoices that are supposed to support the construction of a new pool. He doesn’t know this company, said Bushido, whose real name is Anis Mohamed Ferchichi. He also doesn’t know whether this company ever existed. In his eyes, these invoices are bogus invoices.

Bushido is talkative and jokes

According to the senior public prosecutor, Abou-Chaker had withdrawn 180,000 euros from the joint company without having any reason for doing so. The 48-year-old said at the time that he had used the money to pay bills from a construction company and was thus acting in Bushido’s spirit.

When answering the judge’s questions, some of which shed light on the beginnings of the relationship between the rapper and his ex-manager, Bushido was talkative. He answered well-versed and precisely, joked in a few places and occasionally took small swipes at his ex-manager. Abou-Chaker looked around the courtroom in disbelief during the statements, shook his head and tried to talk to his defense lawyers.

Judge on Bushido: No insults in the courtroom

The presiding judge gave the rapper a surprising amount of time and opportunity to comment in detail about the break with Abou-Chaker. It was about disputes about income in the music business, about conflicts about the shared property in Kleinmachnow and the difficulties of resolving the close ties. “We were so interconnected and intertwined,” Bushido explained. When he insulted Abou-Chaker, the judge interrupted the rapper and admonished him.

The relationship between the two was not just about business. Abou-Chaker was best man at Bushido’s wedding. They bought a property together near Berlin so that they could move in with their families. The two men celebrated their friendship publicly, were photographed on red carpets and appeared together in Berlin’s nightlife.

Then came the public break. “We have had nothing to do with each other since 2018,” Bushido told the judge. The two have been involved in the judiciary ever since. Bushido also receives personal protection in Germany. After a criminal trial in Berlin, in which Abou-Chaker was acquitted of allegations of violence against Bushido, a civil trial finally followed regarding the joint real estate company in Rüdersdorf, Brandenburg.