From Fernando Mateo, owner of La Marina:

“The gentlemen who posted these lies goes by the name of Village. He is an African American man who approached us with big promises and asked us for an opportunity to bring in VIP’s if we paid him a commission for monies spent by his people. My partner Alain and I agreed that we should give him an opportunity to make some money.

La Marina employs Black, Hispanic, White, Europeans, you name it we employ them. Not to mention that in all of my business I must employ 100 or more Black and Hispanic men and women. They are all managed by Black men and women that are my closest friends and employees. Most of my promoters in the nightlife business are Black as well.

This man that goes by Village dates a girl by the name of Jada, who worked for La Marina as a bottle waitress. We were unaware of their relationship until we started to get chargebacks from American express to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars. To date the loses keep climbing. I requested a meeting with Village, Jada, and my management team to discuss the matter and to bring the people responsible for the fraud to La Marina for a settlement. I told them that the game was over. Jada came to La Marina with years of experience from many venues around NYC. She knows that you must have a SIGNED credit card slip with proof of ID. Jada did not follow protocol. Most of the chargebacks came from the people Village bought out to La Marina and where his girlfriend Jada served exclusively. I also asked them to repay all commissions and tips the entire bills of the chargebacks or I would go to the authorities and have them explain their participation.

Finally, I told them that I would not allow them to get away with such a crime. I NEVER said any of the things they posted. It was despicable and just for the record, my father was a black man married to a spanish women both from the DR. To use this kind of hate and playing this race card will never work, especially when the ONLY reason was to discredit me and La Marina. I don’t take this lightly and I will make sure the authorities are informed of this.

I hope you can publish our side of this story so that the real truth can be heard. By the way they never bought the people who robbed us, instead they relied on using the influence of social media to assault La Marina and me personally. What a shame.

Thanks for taking the time to read the real story about what happened.

-Fernando Mateo.”