Representatives of Cannon, DJ Khaled and Swank did not respond to HuffPost’s requests for comment. Aposted to the Isaac & Moore Instagram page in April shows Moore and Master P hugging as the rapper wears one of the brand’s backpacks. In an email to HuffPost, a spokesperson for Master P, whose real name is Percy Miller, said he does not know Moore and that the two have not done business together.
Moore emphasized to HuffPost that he has no affiliation with the celebrities featured on his social media accounts and website, and described the box experiences he gave them as part of his marketing strategy. Yet most people who spoke to HuffPost said Moore had shown them videos of him interacting with celebrities as evidence of how successful his business was as he allegedly sought money from them.
In 2012, he said he began to seriously pursue launching his own brand, adding that he had never seen a Black American dominate in the fashion industry. Jodi Lewis, who says she lost the $20,000 she invested with Moore, has filed a civil lawsuit and organized other alleged victims to seek accountability against the man who they say took their money.Jodi Lewis, who owns her own public relations and marketing company, said that she, like Mitchell, was drawn to Moore because of her desire to support her community.
Frustrated, Lewis had her lawyer, Chelsea Lewis, who is not related, call Moore to convince him to give her money back. According to Jodi Lewis, that’s when she found out Moore wasn’t who she thought he was — and that she wasn’t the first person to accuse him of wrongdoing.In trying to contact Moore, Chelsea Lewis discovered that Moore, whose legal name is spelled Isaca Moore, had two active criminal cases.
Moore was charged with felony theft in connection with Ruffin’s complaint, and the case remains pending. After Lewis found Ruffin’s complaint and got in touch with her in January, Ruffin connected her with six other people who said they’d had similar experiences. Lewis then began to uncover more about Moore’s business dealings and said she made it her personal mission to get everyone’s money back and warn others.
“Unfortunately, what sucks is that we’ve done nothing wrong. We only wanted to do good business and support a fellow Black business owner,” Lewis said. “He showed me all his videos from all the parties and the celebrities. He’s doing this box experience with these celebrities and told me that they were buying his bags,” Beverley said. “They’re selling really fast, and he’s looking for a business partner to help him expand in business.”
Beverley claims he initially wired Moore $12,000 about a week after meeting him. After that, Beverley said Moore asked him to fly from his home in Philadelphia to Texas, where Beverley was added to Moore’s business account to make it easier for him to track his money. Moore expected to make a return on Beverley’s investment within the month of receiving the initial $12,000, according to the promissory note.
About two weeks after the shoot, Beverley traveled again to Houston, where he said Moore showed him a storefront and asked Beverley to invest $1 million. It had been about a month since Beverley initially invested, and he said he was beginning to lose his patience about not getting any receipts for materials purchased or seeing the promised return. He said he asked Moore when he would receive his money, to which the designer offered only excuses and promises of future payment.
After that, Beverley said he went to check in at the bank holding the business account he believed he had shared with Moore. But, he said, the bank told him that only Moore, the primary account holder, could make withdrawals and that Beverley’s name had been removed. Since the civil suit was filed, Chelsea Lewis said Moore has expressed a desire to resolve matters with Beverley and Jodi Lewis. However, the attorney said there has been a lack of communication with Moore’s attorney.
Moore told HuffPost that he successfully fulfilled all parts of their contract, which included showcasing her pizza franchise’s name in advertisements and at the event. Barker claims Moore described Lewis as a “deranged stalker” out to defame him and continued to flaunt his celebrity connections, in person and over the phone, to reassure her as he pushed her to continue to fund the fashion show. She told HuffPost that in one of the meetings with Moore, he brought out his phone to FaceTime hip-hop icon Flavor Flav.