Wells Fargo says rapper Blac Youngsta never withdrew $200,000 from bank

Rapper Blac Youngsta’s profiling claim against Wells Fargo and Atlanta police is in dispute.

Last week, the Memphis rapper took to his social media accounts to relay what he says was a case of racial profiling by Atlanta police.

Officers were summoned after a man only identified as “a black male”, according to police, tried passing a forged check for $24,000 at the Buckhead branch of Wells Fargo bank at 3235 Peachtree Road NE on Friday afternoon.

The person who called police also gave a description of the man’s vehicle. Police arrived, pulled Benson from a car, put him on the curb, brought out handcuffs and questioned him.

Blac Youngsta, Facebook

After detaining Benson and his friends they found he was the wrong guy. He and his friends were later allowed to go on their way, said Sgt. Warren Pickard, Atlanta police spokesman.

Blac Youngsta immediately went to his social media accounts to talk about the incident saying “look how they treat a young rich [slur].”

He also gave interviews to WXIA-TV, telling the station, “I come out the bank, I see the police, I’m walking to my car, I see one of them point to my bag like ‘him.’ They come bumrushing me at the car, put me on the ground.”

He said he went to the Wells Fargo bank to withdraw the $200,000 to buy a luxury car. He also accused the police of taking some of his cash and later giving it back. Pickard said police didn’t take any of his money.

This is where the story gets interesting.

Benson doesn’t have an account with Wells Fargo, wasn’t even in the bank and didn’t make a withdrawal, said Crystal I. Drake, a vice president and spokeswoman for Wells Fargo.

“Mr. Benson was not a party to the fraudulent incident,” Drake said in a statement. Drake would not say, however, if any members of Benson’s group had accounts with the bank or had made withdrawals, saying she could not discuss customer transactions.

AJC reports:

It appears that during the investigation, while Benson was detained, at least one witness inside the bank gave multiple descriptions of the man trying to pass the forged check. There were also varying descriptions of the man’s clothing and of a vehicle possibly associated with him.

In the end, the man who police say actually tried to pass the check was Darnell Edwards Charles. When questioned, Charles refused to answer officers’ questions, according to the police report. Charles, 39, was arrested and charged with first-degree forgery. He was not part of Benson’s entourage.

So why did Blac Youngsta give his account to the TV station? According to Pickard, “They gave him a microphone and he did what he did.”