SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Rapper NBA YoungBoy appeared in a northern Utah courtroom Thursday morning for a bond hearing related to his April arrest in connection to a large-scale prescription drug fraud ring.
The 24-year-old rapper, whose legal name is Kentrell DeSean Gaulden, is facing dozens of charges and accused of running the fraudulent operation out of his multi-million dollar home in Huntsville, Utah.
At the hearing Thursday in Utah’s 1st District Court, Judge Spencer D. Walsh accepted an agreement made between the 24-year-old rapper’s defense and prosecutors. Per the deal, the state agreed to set Gaulden’s bond at $100,000 in exchange for waiving a preliminary hearing.
Gaulden was bound over for trial and his arraignment was set for July 1. Should he post bond, the judge said that he could appear virtually for his arraignment.
Gaulden, who is originally from Louisiana, currently faces 46 changes connected to the alleged prescription drug operation in Cache County. Most of the charges are either for forgery, identity fraud, or unlawful conduct related to pharmacy practices.
According to investigators, Gaulden and several others involved in the fraud ring called in prescriptions for Promethazine with codeine, a commonly abused cough suppressant, at pharmacies throughout Cache County.
When searching Gaulden’s home, investigators said they found several prescription pill bottles, some of which had fraudulent names.
The rapper denied to authorities that he knew anything about fraudulent prescriptions. He allegedly told investigators that a doctor in northern Utah prescribed him Promethazine.
At the time of his arrest, Gaulden was on house arrest in connection to a 2020 case out of his home state of Louisiana where he was arrested on federal gun and drug charges.
The rapper moved to Utah to serve his pretrial federal house arrest in that case as his lawyers argued that living in the Beehive State would keep Gaulden out of trouble.
