Clients of Self-Described Crisis Manager for Celebs Allege Thousands in Loss – NBC4 Washington

A former crisis manager for disgraced musician R Kelly has been accused by several people, who tell News4’s I-Team their real – and really expensive – troubles started after they asked him for help.

In interviews with the I-Team, multiple people in DC and across the country accused Darrell Johnson of cheating them out of tens of thousands of dollars in deals gone awry. Some said they hired him to help manage their personal crises, while others said they invested with him in real estate deals that either never materialized or quickly went bust.

DC restaurateur Markell Johnson said he lost more than $55,000 after hiring Darrell Johnson to help him win back money from another bad deal.

He said he first met Johnson when they both lived in the same apartment building in Navy Yard, where Johnson was known for his flashy designer clothes and boasted a Rolodex of A-list clients.

“He said, ‘You know, I’m a guy who works behind the scenes. I may be able to help you. I have opportunities, you know, and connections that you could benefit from,'” Markell said.

He said he reached out to Johnson for recommendations or advice on how to recoup the $21,000 he lost investing in another man’s pizza franchise.

“He’s like, ‘We can get that back. I’m very sure I can do that for you. I can help… but we should meet up,” Markell recalled. “And that’s the part where it starts to get faster.”

Johnson’s help didn’t come cheap, Markell said, and he was told to pay in cash.

Markell said he initially expected to pay Johnson $15,000 and told the I-Team that Johnson convinced him he could recover even more interest and damages.

But according to Markell, Johnson then told him he had to pay for additional “services,” which quickly added up.

We had plans that we worked hard for, put so much effort into and squandered.

Markell Johnson, restaurateur

Although Markell signed a contract for “crisis management services” and agreed to pay Johnson $19,800, Markell ended up saying he paid nearly $70,000 — including $40,000.

Markell said that when he asked for those trust funds to be returned, Johnson did not deliver.

“We had plans that we worked hard for, put so much effort into and squandered,” he said.

Markell isn’t the only one to tell the I-Team that he lost money to Johnson, who turned down multiple interview requests.

The I-Team interviewed nearly a dozen other people who say they or their clients lost tens of thousands of dollars on deals with Johnson that went nowhere.

“It’s about taking as much money as possible and as quickly as possible,” Houston resident Otis Lanier told the I-Team.

Lanier said he met Johnson in a chance meeting in 2011, and Johnson soon convinced him to invest $30,000 in a restaurant with him. Lanier’s friend also invested $30,000 in the company, he said.

Though the restaurant eventually opened, Lanier said things quickly went downhill, with customers even warning Lanier not to do business with Johnson.

“In short, I found out he took the money and spent it for his personal use, and he blocked me on the books,” Lanier told the I-Team. “He didn’t want me to have access.”

Lanier said he and his friend soon found they weren’t the only ones investing in the restaurant.

The I-Team found civil files filed by another man against Johnson in connection with the New Orleans Famous Chicken and Waffles Restaurant. In the 2011 filing, the man said that after investing $5,000, Johnson mistakenly used his credit card to charge more than $20,000 and was unable to repay it.

Lanier told the I-Team he didn’t sue Johnson because his attorney told him that even if he won, he probably wouldn’t cash in.

Michael Harris of Philadelphia said he met Johnson on a flight from Atlanta to Houston in 2019.

“It was a friendly conversation,” Harris recalled. “He started telling me about his work and all the people he represented. I don’t know if any of that was true.”

When Harris mentioned his interest in real estate investing, Johnson said he’d often worked with younger people “and gotten them into some really big deals.”

Before long, he said, Johnson convinced him to invest around $22,000 in real estate transactions that he later realized didn’t exist.

“He said several times, ‘I have your money; I’ll pay you,'” Harris said. “He never did.”

Phyllis “Cola” Lewis said she still grieved when – after a chance meeting – she hired Johnson after her mother died of an alleged medical error in Texas in 2019.

Johnson, she said, assured her he could come to terms with the hospital.

“’I can help you get media attention; I can help you understand your story and the injustice of how your mother was treated,” Johnson told her.

Official court records show that Lewis paid Johnson at least $16,000 before she realized she was being scammed, but Lewis said the filing did not include a record of any additional payments she made to Johnson. She said she lost more than $28,000.

Now she’s behind a social media campaign sharing stories of others who say they too have lost thousands in deals gone awry.

“I want him exposed,” Lewis said, adding, “I want him jailed.”

That could be happening now in Texas, where Harris County Assistant District Attorney Sheila Hansel is prosecuting Johnson for theft and credit card fraud in cases involving Harris, Lewis and another person.

“If you are lied to and give someone your money because they lied to you and you relied on that lie when you gave them the money, that’s theft by deception and a crime,” Hansel said.

The I-Team determined that Johnson has multiple prior civil lawsuits and judgments against him in Harris County. Hansel said it was the years-long pattern of bad deals that prompted her to pursue a criminal case.

“I can’t always stop scammers, but every once in a while I can stop them,” she said.

Though Johnson declined to share his side of the story, citing his ongoing legal troubles in Texas, he told the I-Team in a text, “I am innocent and I will have my day in court.”

The I-Team has also reached out to several attorneys listed as representing Johnson in his ongoing trial. Nobody has answered yet.

Markell said Johnson paid him back nearly $14,000 of that $40,000 escrow bond — a few hundred dollars at a time — but he’s not confident he’ll see the rest. Johnson also failed to fulfill Markell’s original request to help him recover the $21,000 he originally lost.

Meanwhile, Markell plans to open a second restaurant in DC and said he learned from that costly experience.

“We’re going to get through this,” Markell told the I-Team. “Eventually he will have to be held accountable and hopefully this brings a hard lesson to a conclusion.”

Markell has filed a complaint with the Metropolitan Police Department, which told the I-Team it was still investigating.

Reported by Susan Hogan, produced by Katie Leslie and directed by Steven Jones, Carlos Olazgasti and Jeff Piper.