Daddy Yankee Takes His Estranged Wife To Court Over $100 Million

Rapper Daddy Yankee files a lawsuit claiming that his estranged wife took $100 million from his company’s bank account.

The Gasolina rapper, whose real name is Ramon Luis Ayala, just recently announced an impending divorce from his wife of nearly three decades. To add to the complication, the lawsuit claims his wife took a large sum of money from his record label, El Cartel Records, without his authorization.

Daddy Yankee filed two separate court documents in one day claiming his soon-to-be ex-wife, Mireddys Gonzalez, and her sister, Ayeicha Gonzalez Castellano, withdrew $80 million from El Cartel Records and then later took out another $20 million from the Los Cangris music account.

In the filings, Daddy Yankee is requesting that his wife and her sister be immediately removed from their administrative responsibilities. It states their actions, “disregarded formalities and requirements of corporate legislation.”

The statement stated that Gonzalez taking the money was a “desperate attempt” that “went against warnings received and express requests that she put a stop to any management and initiative that would compromise the company’s finance. It now becomes evident why she has wanted to keep him in the dark and deny him information about the withdrawals and cash movements that she and her sister make behind his back.”

El Cartel Records was founded by Daddy Yankee in 1997 as a Puerto Rican record label. Cumulatively, the label has released over a dozen albums by the 47-year-old singer as well as records from hip hop and reggaeton artists like Nicky Jam and Brytiago.

Daddy Yankee grabbed the music lover’s attention with a massive song, Gasolina from his 2004 album Barrio Fino, which sold over 500 thousand copies in the US alone. Prior to that, he began his career in the mid-90s and was a successful artist in Latin America. In 2017, Ayala appeared on and co-wrote the Luis Fonsi song, Despacito which is now credited with bringing Spanish-speaking songs into mainstream popularity, specifically with the remix version featuring pop singer Justin Bieber.

The song spent 16 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. It became YouTube’s first video to reach several milestones, including a build-up over time of 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and eventually 8 billion views, remaining as the second-most watched video on the site. Ayala has been nominated for 5 Grammy Awards and has won 7 Latin Grammys. He and his wife share three adult children.