All of Your Burning Questions About Tyga’s Legal Drama — Answered
King Gold Chains — better known as Tyga, one half of the most PDA-happy couple in Hollywood — appeared in court on Tuesday as part of his lawsuit with famed jeweler Jason of Beverly Hills, who alleges that the rapper owes him over $280,000.
And, naturally, with major news comes some very important questions. Questions like: Is this connected to his other legal dramas? What did Tyga do? And how does this all affect girlfriend Kylie Jenner?
Allow us to break it down for you:
1. WAIT, WHAT’S THE CASE, AGAIN?
After Tyga settled his $480,000 lawsuit against his former landlord, Gholamreza Rezai, jeweler Jason Arasheben hired Rezai’s team of lawyers in order to file his own suit against the rapper to collect the money that he claims Tyga has owed him since 2012. According to Arasheben, Tyga agreed to drop $28,275 for the jeweler’s diamond pantheon watch in August 2012, and then borrowed and never returned a $63,000 diamond Cuban link chain in December of the same year.
The jeweler first filed suit in 2013, in an attempt to collect $185,306.50 in costs and late fees; in January 2014, a judge entered a default judgement against Tyga and ordered him to pay $208,334.47. Despite the fact that Tyga’s rep told TMZ at the time that the whole thing was “all a misunderstanding,” Tyga still hasn’t paid the judgment, which has resulted in the current suit, which claims that Tyga owes in excess of $280,000 in damages, interest and attorney fees.
2. WHY WAS HE IN COURT ON TUESDAY?
On Tuesday, Tyga was in Santa Monica, California, to participate in a debtor’s examination as part of the case, in order to determine what Tyga’s assets are and where the money he hasn’t been paying has gone. “We will ask him questions related to his finances, such as to his source of income to support his lifestyle as well as to pay for the extravagant gifts he buys [Kylie] Jenner. He will have to answer under oath and so will Ms. Jenner,” Danny Abir of Abir, Cohen, Treyzon and Salo told PEOPLE in early October.
“Our client, Jason of Beverly Hills, has a judgment against [Tyga]. Until he pays off this judgment, unless he has other means of paying off this obligation and does, his sources of income used to buy these extravagant gifts or to support such a lifestyle should be used to satisfy his obligation. That potentially includes the gifts themselves,” Abir explained.
3. AND WHY WOULD KYLIE HAVE TO TESTIFY?
Though she hasn’t been questioned under oath yet, another of Arasheben’s lawyers, Boris Treyzon of Abir, Cohen, Treyzon and Salo, told PEOPLE that Jenner is considered “a third party witness as she is in receipt of items that used to belong to Tyga.”(Tyga has famously given his girlfriend a $320,000 Ferrari for her 18th birthday, a $189,000 Maybach for her 19th birthday and, recently, a giant diamond promise ring, amongst other lavish gifts.)
However, “There may not be a need to speak to Kylie depending on the answers we receive from Tyga, but we have not asked those questions yet,” explained Abir.
4. WHAT HAPPENED DURING TYGA’S EXAMINATION?
Though he participated in part of the debtor’s examination, the questioning was cut short due to illness. “[Tyga] wasn’t well enough to proceed about two hours into the examination,” Abir told PEOPLE. “Considering there are a number of documents we had asked for him to produce that he had not brought with him and the fact that we still have a lot more questions to ask, we have agreed for him to return with the documents on Nov. 1 for the remainder of the examination.”
Despite his illness, Arasheben’s lawyers were satisfied with Tyga’s cooperation with the whole process. “He answered questions to the best of his ability – there were some things he couldn’t remember, but we did not feel he was being evasive. After a couple of hours, he felt unwell,” Treyzon told PEOPLE after the hearing.
5. WHAT ARE THE NEXT STEPS?
Right now, Tyga is due to finish the remainder of the examination on Nov. 1, while Jenner has not yet been summoned for questioning. However, it’s possible that Tyga and Arasheben will reach a settlement before then, in which case Tyga will have to pay off the judgment that is against him. If a settlement isn’t reached before then, and Tyga misses his court date, a judge will issue an arrest warrant, although Abir noted that neither he nor Jenner “are in danger of arrest if they continue to cooperate.”
6. IS THIS THE FIRST TIME THAT KYLIE HAS GOTTEN INVOLVED IN TYGA’S LEGAL ISSUES?
Yes, however, she was tangentially involved in another recent lawsuit with former landlord Gholamreza Rezai. In that case, Tyga was on Jenner’s 19th birthday vacation to Turks and Caicos when he paid up the money he owed as part of that settlement — although, not until after an arrest warrant had been issued.
7. WAIT, THEY ISSUED AN ARREST WARRANT? WHAT HAPPENED IN THAT INSTANCE?
Rezai filed suit against Tyga in 2015, claiming that the rapper owed him over $480,000. According to legal documents obtained by PEOPLE, Rezai agreed to rent Tyga a property in Malibu for $16,000 a month in 2012. Three months after moving in, Tyga stopped paying rent and Rezai tried to have him evicted. Rezai also claimed that Tyga had inflicted major damages to the property, including tearing off the automatic gate opener and damaging bathroom tiles.
After Tyga bought Jenner a brand new Mercedes Maybach for her 19th birthday, Rezai became upset and argued that the money spent on the car should have gone toward the $480,285 that Tyga still owed in damages. The rapper was scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 9, but instead, he jetted off to Turks and Caicos with Jenner for her birthday celebrations, and as a result, a judge issued a warrant for his arrest.
8. AND HOW DID HE CLEAR EVERYTHING UP?
On Aug. 11, while Tyga was in Turks and Caico, his lawyers reached a settlement with his former landlord, and he paid up the money that he was owed. “There has been a settlement reached to the mutual satisfaction of the parties, the terms of which are confidential,” Abir, who then represented Rezai, told PEOPLE at the time. After the settlement was reached, the warrant was rescinded, and Tyga was free to enjoy the rest of his tropical vacation.
9. SO HE DIDN’T THINK IT WAS A BIG DEAL TO GO ON VACATION INSTEAD OF GOING TO COURT?
According to a source close to Tyga, the rapper knew that things were being worked out before he left for Jenner’s trip. “Kylie and Kendall aren’t too concerned about it, and neither is Tyga,” the source told PEOPLE exclusively in August. “If he thought it was a big issue, he wouldn’t have gone on the trip. He knew about it.”
10. AND KYLIE WASN’T BOTHERED AT ALL?
“Tyga’s legal issues didn’t cause drama on their vacation,” a source told PEOPLE exclusively about their August trip. “It’s been settled now, and they basically knew things would be fine going in.” And apparently, despite his legal woes, the couple were in good spirits as they frolicked on the beach. “Tyga and Kylie had a ton of fun together on vacation and didn’t have any issues with their relationship,” said the source.
11. IS KYLIE GOING TO STAND BY HER MAN DURING THIS BATTLE?
You can count on it — and if her previous actions are any indication, she won’t be quiet about it either. In May, after rumors started swirling that Tyga owed her $2 million, she quickly took to Twitter to shut that down, once and for all. “Lies lies lies,” Jenner responded to a tweet from a Twitter user who wrote, “Just read on @balleralert that @Tyga finessed @kyliejenner out of 2 Mill.”