Atlanta rapper Cash Out, who was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison, has been ordered by a federal judge to pay $40 million to one of his alleged sex trafficking victims.
A lawsuit was filed by a woman from Indiana in 2022 who said Cash Out, whose real name is John Michael Hakeem Gibson, trafficked her and others for sex between 2013 and 2015.
This week, U.S. District Judge Thomas Thrash ordered Gibson to pay $10 million in compensatory damages and $30 million in punitive damages in a default judgment after Gibson failed to show up to court or have any representation during proceedings.
Gibson had been served while he was held at the Fulton County Jail on charges of sex trafficking and violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act but never filed anything or responded to the lawsuit. He was sentenced to life in prison in July after a Fulton jury found him and other family members guilty of charges related to the sex trafficking enterprise.
The rapper denied his guilt during the sentencing hearing. A Fulton judge described the evidence presented during trial as “demonstrating the very worst of human behavior toward other human beings” and described Gibson’s behavior as “diabolical.”
According to the lawsuit, Gibson approached the woman in 2013 and told her that he could “help her,” which resulted in the rapper taking her to a home on Old Jones Road where he provided food and shelter.
Following that interaction, Gibson told the woman that she owed him money and would have to work as a prostitute to pay him back for the shelter, according to the suit. Gibson is alleged to have been physically and verbally abusive to the woman, including striking her face on multiple occasions.
The lawsuit alleges Gibson took the woman to multiple locations across metro Atlanta from 2013 to 2015 to work as a prostitute, where she was sexually assaulted “hundreds of times.”
According to the lawsuit, Gibson took the money from the sexual acts, withheld food, threatened violence and threatened to find and harm those close to her if she refused to perform those acts. He allegedly used guns and forced the woman to take drugs during the time period.
She was able to “eventually escape” from Cash Out in 2015.
Gibson grew in prominence during the early 2010s, signing with Epic Records under the tutelage of L.A. Reid, thanks to the success of his 2011 debut track, “Cashin’ Out,” which peaked at No. 36 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on Billboard’s Rap Songs chart.
The convictions in the criminal case were a major victory for the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office last year, marking the first jury verdicts in favor of prosecutors on RICO charges since DA Fani Willis took office.
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