Will the real Kanye West please stand up?
According to TMZ , the "I Love It" rapper's signature was forged on a New York Fashion Week document that cost German fashion designer Philipp Plein nearly $1,000,000. Sources told the gossip site a former associate of Ye's "secretly contacted Philipp Plein," whose NYFW show is Monday, February 11, misrepresenting himself as a formal representative of Kanye's, and began negotiations for the 41-year-old rapper to perform at Philipp's forthcoming show.
Not only did the fashion designer fall for the scam, booking the fake Ye for his fashion show, Philipp paid him a $900,000 advance. If that wasn't bad enough, the alleged forger/ Ye impersonator signed Kanye's name on the performance contract, which released the funds to a wired to an account that was promptly emptied, leaving Philipp high and dry.
As for the guy behind the whole scheme, he's said to be a "former friend" of West's and an associate of G.O.O.D Music.
Neither Kanye or Philipp has released a statement regarding the alleged scam.
Amid reports that Ye was set to perform the Philipp show, the "All Mine" rapper's wife Kim Kardashian tweeted : "He’s not performing at any fashion show this season. Just a rumor."
Photo: Getty Images
UPDATE (2/18/19):
A rep for Philipp Plein issued a statement. "We regret to confirm that Kanye West will not be performing at our fashion show this Monday," it read. "We were beyond excited to work with him but unfortunately an individual pretended to be part of his management team and acted without Kanye’s knowledge, capitalizing on a former friendship with him. Unfortunately we too were affected by this misrepresentation. We have recently been in contact with Kanye’s official team and are releasing this statement in unison to clarify that there has not been any misconduct on any of our parts. We hope to collaborate with Kanye West in the future and we look forward to our 20th Anniversary show this Monday evening."