Welcome to Part 2 of @QueTheCreator’s breakdown of the fraud charges against Apollo Nida, the husband of Real Housewives of Atlanta star Phaedra Parks. As in Part 1, everything about the case below is an allegation. Nida has not been convicted of anything.
What Phaedra said on the reunion
During the Season 4 Real Housewives of Atlanta reunion, host Andy Cohen asked Parks about her husband’s job and whether he was a repo man, as he had been described on the show. Parks said no. She explained that Nida does asset recovery, which she described as helping people find unclaimed money they may not know they are owed, similar to the newspaper ads about unclaimed funds. Kandi Burruss chimed in that plenty of people have uncashed checks or forgotten inheritances sitting somewhere.
What prosecutors allege now
According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, federal prosecutors accuse Nida of using fake companies to get into databases and collect personal information, then using it to open bank accounts in other people’s names and take checks. Those checks reportedly included U.S. Treasury checks and retirement checks for Delta Airlines employees. Reports also say he allegedly set up a fake auto dealership and applied for auto loans with stolen identities.
A woman named Gayla was arrested in September 2013 and is described in reports as his aide in the alleged scheme. She reportedly told investigators that Nida was the one behind it and that she received very little compared to him. Those claims come from reporting on her statements and have not been tested in court.
How the two stories compare
Parks described asset recovery as a way of tracking down money that rightfully belongs to people. Prosecutors describe something very different, and they say it involved stolen identities. Which version holds up is for the court to decide, and Nida is presumed innocent until then.
Where things stand
Nida is out on a $250,000 pretrial bond, and a preliminary hearing is set for February 12 in Atlanta. At the time the reports cited here ran, neither Nida nor Parks had publicly commented on the allegations, and none of the reports we reviewed accuse Parks of wrongdoing.
Reporting referenced: Atlanta Journal Constitution, Atlanta Black Star, and the Bravo reunion special.
