Utah Court Sets NBA Youngboy’s Bail at $100,000 in Drug Fraud Case!
SALT LAKE CITY – Rapper NBA YoungBoy appeared in a northern Utah courthouse Thursday morning for a bond hearing stemming from his April arrest in connection with a large-scale prescription drug fraud operation.
The 24-year-old rapper, whose legal name is Kentrell DeSean Gaulden, is facing hundreds of counts and accused of running the bogus organization from his multimillion-dollar Huntsville, Utah, mansion. Judge Spencer D. Walsh accepted an arrangement reached by the 24-year-old rapper’s defense and prosecutors during a hearing Thursday in Utah’s 1st District Court. According to the agreement, the state agreed to set Gaulden’s bond at $100,000 in exchange for waiving the preliminary hearing.
Gaulden was bound over for trial, and his arraignment was scheduled for July 1. If he posts bond, the court says he can appear remotely for his arraignment.
Gaulden, who is originally from Louisiana, is currently facing 46 charges related to the alleged prescription drug enterprise in Cache County. The majority of the allegations involve forgery, identity fraud, or illegal pharmacy operations.
According to detectives, Gaulden and many other members of the fraud network called in prescriptions for Promethazine with codeine, a commonly abused cough suppressant, at pharmacies across Cache County. When investigators searched Gaulden’s residence, they discovered multiple prescription pill bottles, some of which bore bogus identities.
Authorities questioned the rapper, who denied knowing anything about counterfeit prescriptions. He allegedly told investigators that a doctor in northern Utah had prescribed him Promethazine.
Gaulden was under house arrest at the time of his arrest in connection with a 2020 case in his home state of Louisiana, where he had been detained on federal gun and narcotics charges.
The rapper relocated to Utah to serve his pretrial federal house imprisonment in that case, with his lawyers claiming that staying in the Beehive State would keep Gaulden out of trouble.