openentrance – What's Really Going OnWhat's Really Going On

Yahoo! News reports the New York businessman known in the hip-hop world as “Jacob the Jeweler” was sentenced Tuesday to 2 1/2 years in federal prison for lying to investigators looking into a multistate drug ring.

Jacob Arabov, 43, pleaded guilty in October to falsifying records and giving false statements as part of a deal with federal prosecutors, who asked U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn to impose a minimum sentence of three years and one mont, but Cohn decided to shave off seven months from that recommendation, citing Arabov’s extensive charity work.

“I feel ashamed that I broke the laws of this country, a country that has been so good for me,” Arabov said. “I will carry this shame for the rest of my life.”

Authorities accused Arabov and others of conspiring to launder drug profits for the “Black Mafia Family,” a ring that operated out of the Detroit area beginning in the early 1990s.

Arabov, also known as the “King of Bling,” became popular among hip-hop and R&B artists in the mid-1990s. He launched a line of religious-themed jewelry with Kanye West, who later named him in songs including “Diamonds From Sierra Leone,” in which he asked, “These ain’t conflict diamonds, is they Jacob? Don’t lie to me man.”

Arabov will report to prison Jan. 15.