Jay-Z Finally Agrees To Testify In SEC Probe

After five months of ignoring the Securities and Exchange Commission’s requests to testify in a federal probe, rapper Jay Z has finally fallen in line.

The rapper, whose birth name is Shawn Carter, agreed on Tuesday to sit down with SEC lawyers on May 15 and answer the agency’s questions about New York licensing firm Iconix Brand Group, which bought Jay Z’s Rocawear company in 2007.

Jay Z has been dodging the SEC’s requests to testify about Iconix since last year — prompting Manhattan federal judge Paul Gardephe to step in and order the hip-hop mogul appear in court and explain himself.

Jay Z did not attend Tuesday’s hearing.

“This has been delayed for five months, and I do not intend to tolerate further delay,” Gardephe said at the hearing. “In sum, there is ample basis for the SEC to investigate the company’s accounting treatment of brand assets, including Rocawear,” the judge said.

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