Judge Orders Ryan Leslie to Pay Up!

Ryan Leslie's day at court yesterday is now the front page of today's (November 29) New York Post. A Manhattan federal court has ordered the songwriter/producer to fork up a whopping $1 million to auto-repair shop owner Armin Augstein for recovering Leslie’s stolen laptop back in 2010.

Initially offering a $20,000 reward to whoever found the missing laptop and external hard drive, the singer and occasional rapper then bumped it up to a $1 million a month later (November 2010). However, after Augstein reportedly found the MacBook, Leslie, according to his defense lawyer Bill DeStefano, found Augstein’s account to recovering the missing goods “fishy.” He also mentioned that the music files when retrieved were damaged leading the beatsmith to believe that the auto-repair shop owner may have been involved in the theft.

Albeit, per today’s NY Post—who referenced Leslie as being a “Rap weasel,” the judge ruled in Augstein’s favor, leaving him  “very happy” he stated following the verdict. “I'm very happy... that the American judicial system, which is so totally different from ours, functioned so well with a jury that are not professionals and are laymen," he said in German.

Ryan, who may be considering an appeal, tweeted this earlier today, "Don't believe everything you read in the f*ckin news." Even though it's very entertaining! [sic],” a reference to his verse on "5 Minute Freshen Up,” a track off his recent rap album Les Is More.