Drug kingpin says he worked with Kanye, partied with Diddy and used Baltimore attorney's help to hide fortune

When Richard Byrd wasn’t directing a cross-country marijuana distribution operation, he says he was partying with some of the biggest names in sports and hip hop.

Byrd testified in court that his nightclub concerts and branded events were headlined or attended by celebrities such as Chris Brown, Drake, Kevin Durant, Jamie Foxx, LeBron James, Jeezy, Nelly, Shaquille O’Neal, 2Chainz, and Dwayne Wade. Byrd testified that for years, he owned rights to hold events with rapper and mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, holding “more than 500″ such events with the artist.

For a time, he said he also worked with Kanye West.

“Once he became a megastar, he [West] became very difficult to work with,” Byrd, 48, testified Friday in U.S. District Court.

Byrd is the key witness in the trial of attorney Kenneth Ravenell, who is charged with aiding Byrd’s marijuana trafficking operation. Federal prosecutors say that Ravenell was intricately involved in Byrd’s criminal organization and laundering money, but the defense spent cross-examination trying to build up Byrd’s legitimate business efforts.

Millions of dollars flowed through his company, Loc Marketing. But Byrd maintained that despite its success, the company was a front for the drug operation, and that Ravenell was part of the braintrust that worked to avoid detection and keep the money coming in.

Attorneys for Ravenell also sought to paint Byrd as a liar capable of just about anything. At one point, defense attorney Peter White asked Byrd whether he ever discussed killing his own brother, after suspecting he might have been cooperating with law enforcement.

Byrd first said he did not recall such a conversation but was shown a law enforcement memo showing such a discussion when he was interviewed by agents from the DEA and IRS. Byrd said the idea had been brought up, but he vetoed it. Byrd said he had forgotten.

“When you’re part of a company dealing with so many things, that’s just another day,” Byrd said.

“Potentially killing your own brother is just another day at the office for you?” White asked.

“When you’re in the streets, that’s just another day,” Byrd said.

They also showed Byrd a letter he wrote to Ravenell in 2015, in which he lamented that Ravenell, at that point under investigation after his law office was raided, could no longer represent him. He praised Ravenell, saying he had never done anything wrong and was of the utmost integrity.

Though the letter was addressed to Ravenell, he referred to Ravenell by his last name - “First of all, Ravenell did nothing illegal,” he wrote in one passage. Byrd said he did so because he expected the government to intercept the message, not because he actually believed Ravenell to be unaffiliated with his crimes.

While trying to build up Byrd’s business bona fides, the defense also sought to undermine his claim to being an investor in a major local project.

On Thursday, prosecutors played a recording of Byrd meeting with Ravenell’s former lawyer, Joshua Treem, and a private investigator, Sean Gordon, who are charged with obstruction of justice along with Ravenell. In the tape, Byrd repeatedly demands to be able to recoup money on an investment in the MGM National Harbor casino, which he said Ravenell helped facilitate through lead investors William H. “Billy” Murphy Jr. and Hassan Murphy, who were Ravenell’s law partner at the time.

Defense attorneys have said the investment is a lie, and on Friday displayed a list of investors in the casino. It includes the Murphys; Daniel Halpern, an Atlanta-based restauranteur; DC lawyer Sandy Roberts; Exelon CEO Calvin Butler; Kevin Maurice Johnson, the CEO of a development company; former Maryland Democratic party chair Michael Cryor; attorney Kenneth Frank and public affairs executive Damian O’Doherty, among others.

But not Byrd, or the powerful people — a real estate mogul and an Atlanta-based nightclub entrepreneur —who he said he made his investment through.

“Do you have anything to back up what you told this jury under oath?” White said.

“No, I don’t have it,” said Byrd.

But he maintained investors didn’t want any documentation, because of Byrd’s criminal troubles.

Byrd testified that Ravenell kept a board displaying the players in the marijuana conspiracy, and that when Ravenell dispatched attorneys or investigators to pressure witnesses, they referred to it as “taking someone off the board.” White noted no such board was ever recovered, and Byrd offered that rather than a board it was typically jotted down on a pad of paper.

And Byrd had previously testified that he paid Ravenell $2 million cash for his assistance, and that Byrd had made millions more. But asked who made the most money from the drug operation, he said Ravenell and another convicted member. That drew a laugh from White.

This story will be updated.