Swizz Beatz Associates in Hot Water With the Feds

Hip-Hop Wired is reporting that Swizz Beatz might be keeping some bad company when it comes to business. Police are currently targeting three of Swizzy's associates -- Katie Marie Peters, Nazreth Derboghossian and Mario de la Fuente. The three associates are owners of a successful series of nightclubs and car dealerships in Arizona. The charges? Well, it looks like your felony grab bag mixture of federal drug charges, laundering money from Mexico and a pinch of bank scamming for good measure.

Swizz is the godfather of Derboghossian's son. The supposed ringleader of this situation, Derboghossian currently faces a daunting series of 102 felony counts that include conspiracy, fraudulent schemes, assisting in a crime syndicate and theft by extortion. Additionally, Peters faces 21 counts include conspiracy, money laundering, forgery and fraud. Fuente is their lawyer and he faces 13 counts himself. Dang.

And how did the police get on their trail? Apparently, someone convicted of trafficking drugs was listed in an ownership position at one of the group's establishments. The brass followed the paper and got enough to accuse the trio of funneling millions of dollars from Mexico and potentially conning somewhere around $750,000 in loans for Exotic Auto Sales and Leasing and Scottsdale Lotus, their car companies.