Apollo Nida, husband to Real Housewives of Atlanta star Phaedra Parks, has officially plead guilty today to federal fraud charges. Sentencing is set to take place in July. Apollo faces up to 30 years in prison.
Apollo is accused of opening a fake debt collection agency to gain access to databases full of individual’s personal information. He then would steal their ID and find unclaimed funds, refunds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, stolen U.S. treasury checks and refunds from fraudulent U.S. income tax returns. Or “Asset Recovery” as Phaedra would describe it.
Apollo and his accomplice would open UPS mailboxes and bank checking accounts using the fake identities they obtained, deposit the checks, then pocket the money. Later, he created fake auto dealerships and then get auto loans for make believe cars.
In court Apollo apologized for his actions and gave his reasoning for doing what he did. “I take full responsibility for what I did. It was a dumb situation I put myself in,” he said. As for as his reasoning, he says he did it to “sustain a lifestyle” and essentially keep up with Phaedra who was making significantly more than him after signing on for RHOA.
Apollo says Phaedra was making far more money than him and he felt pressure to keep up. He said that she signed a $600,000 contract, but didn’t mention how long the contract was for. Without easy legitimate ways to make quick money, he opted for this illegal scheme instead. But he claimed to her he was running a legitimate debt recovery firm and kept her firmly in the dark.
Seeing as this is not Apollo’s first run in with the law, I can foresee him spending a LONG time behind bars. Serious shame. Unfortunately, I can see Kenya having A LOT to say about this now.I wonder what this means for Phaedra’s role on RHOA.
