A defamation lawsuit Setbacks, and dreams still alive
YouTube and other online media platforms have also been used against Epega, particularly by social media personalities looking to capitalize on a defamation lawsuit that Epega filed last year against a woman with whom he had “a short-term consensual sexual relationship.” According to the complaint, Silver Spring resident Nadia Omar continued to contact Epega after he reconciled with his partner, with whom he has two young children. Omar then demanded $300,000 and said she “would get an abortion” once paid, the lawsuit states.
Epega’s attorneys also accused Omar of “attacking him through his Million Marathon Clubhouse show” and posting “false and malicious” messages about being pregnant with his baby.
Available analytics “show the immediate negative impact defendant’s post had on The Million Marathon on Clubhouse,” the lawsuit said, noting the fund’s account had 49,700 followers in April 2022, but the number of new followers had dropped steeply when Omar allegedly began making accusations about Epega in March. “Plaintiff and his associated businesses have suffered irreversible reputational harm as a result of defendant’s statements,” the lawsuit states.
Epega claims to have more than 2 million listeners on Clubhouse, and while it’s unclear how influential he is on the platform, the complaint against Omar attracted attention from Wack 100, a Los Angeles rap promoter and manager who has more than 430,000 followers on Instagram. The YouTube channel GoldGate House responded to Wack 100’s posts by airing three interviews with a woman who claimed to be Epega’s ex-girlfriend.
On Oct. 2, 2022, Epega’s lawyers moved to have the suit voluntarily dismissed after Omar failed to submit responses in court.
While Epega’s lawyers were attempting to gain responses from Omar, he made two major real estate purchases, in Annapolis and Bowie, both brokered by Michael Sponseller on behalf of the Hogan Companies, a limited liability corporation founded by Maryland’s former governor, Larry Hogan. Bando purchased the Annapolis property for $4 million, and began construction using permits issued to previous developers. Some of the permits for the project, then called Rocky Gorge, date back 15 years.
Twice last year, in July and in October, Annapolis City Council members nearly issued a stop-work order against Bando, arguing that a 2021 tornado and changes to state and local forest conservation, wastewater and traffic management laws gave the city a right to reevaluate the permits. But Epega threatened to sue, and council members tabled the resolution.
Mayor Gavin Buckley brokered a meeting between council members and Epega, who he described as a young, Black developer open to working with the city.
From that sit-down meeting, Buckley emerged with a commitment from Epega to make several changes, including asking the State Highway Administration for a traffic light entrance to the Athens, offering the community access via Aris T. Allen instead of only from Yawl Road, a narrow roadway lined with parked cars from Oxford Landing, a neighboring town home community.
But Bando never applied for the Aris T. Allen entrance, a spokesperson for the State Highway Administration said this week. In fact, the company has not sought to renew its temporary gravel access road on Route 665. The entrance is scheduled to be revoked Sept. 13.
Even if the entrance is closed and construction put on hold, Annapolis inspectors must visit the property once a week to check for sediment run-off and other possible violations. City code also requires additional inspections after significant rainstorms, Ward 7 Alderman Rob Savidge said.
According to the city’s permitting database, the site has been inspected more than 90 times since June 15, 2022, usually passing.
The city cannot charge developers for individual inspections. Burr Vogel, the city’s acting director of public works, said in a statement that “the costs of inspections are built into the process as part of our permit fees.”
As a municipality, Annapolis has been “put in a sticky situation,” Jablon said, one that could result in the city filing a lawsuit of its own if the city can prove run-off from the stalled construction site is harming surrounding areas.
Epega, for his part, seems intent on maintaining his online profile as a developer still moving forward.
“Delays fuel my ambition,” he wrote on Twitter Aug. 18. “Setbacks keep my dreams alive.”