The label that launched Puerto Rican recording artist Bad Bunny into stardom was founded by an investor who held a high position in the regime of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez.
Rafael Ricardo Jimenez Dan founded Rimas Entertainment in Puerto Rico and was the company’s sole owner until 2018. Before that, Jimenez was a top dog in the regime of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez and ran a passport program that brought terrorists and criminals into the country, a Daily Wire review found.
Bad Bunny, whose legal name is Benito Ocasio, faced backlash over his anti-ICE stance after he was announced as the Halftime Show performer at Super Bowl LX in February. Ocasio said during a recent interview that he doesn’t perform in the United States over concerns that his fans could be targeted by immigration authorities.
“There was the issue of — like, f***ing ICE could be outside. And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about,” the three-time Grammy Award winner said.
Bad Bunny even drew criticism from President Donald Trump.
“I never heard of him. I don’t know who he is, I don’t know why they’re doing it, it’s crazy, and then they blame it on some promoter that they hired to pick up entertainment, I think it’s absolutely ridiculous,” Trump told Newsmax host Greg Kelly in a recent interview.
While leading Rimas, Jimenez approved artist signings and was part of the decision-making to bring Bad Bunny on board, according to Billboard.
Jimenez told Music Business Worldwide in August that he met Bad Bunny “probably in 2016” and recalled seeing “that spark in Benito.”
“I met Benito while we were in Puerto Rico. I was very private and reserved, but Puerto Rico is 100 by 35 miles — it’s a small island,” Jimenez recalled.
“During several occasions, I was alongside [Bad Bunny] at music events, Billboard conferences, even helping him with personal things,” he said.
Jimenez was copied on an April 11, 2016, email regarding the “360 deal and songwriter agreement” with Bad Bunny sent by Rimas attorney Jessie Abad.
John Parra/WireImage via Getty Images
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Jimenez served as an army captain in Venezuela and ended his military career in 1999, when Chavez seized power, according to Billboard. He joined the Chavez regime in 2002 to help modernize and digitize Venezuela’s government operations, including its law enforcement.
In March 2006, Jimenez was appointed as the Vice Minister of Legal Security in Venezuela’s Interior Ministry, according to Billboard. Months later, he was assigned a director role of Mission Identity, a controversial program Chavez officials allegedly used to bring Cuban agents to Venezuela with false identities, along with suspected Islamist terrorists, Colombian guerrillas, and drug traffickers.
Jimenez’s lawyer told Billboard that his client had “no knowledge” of the scheme. Jimenez also denied ever “personally” working with Mission Identity and that he had “no decision-making authority” in his position.
“For about one year from 2006 to 2007, I served as Vice Minister of Legal Certainty in my country, Venezuela,” Jimenez told Music Business Worldwide.
But he grew “very frustrated” and resigned, he said.
“I became very frustrated. I realized [the system] was impossible to change from within, and I resigned from my position. I was never in an administrative or economic position handling money. I was in institutional management on the technical side of government,” Jimenez said.
Jimenez said he had “no regrets” and worked to “improve access to justice and transparency — the same things we’re fighting for now in music — and strengthen the rule of law.”
He started at least a dozen companies in Venezuela and the Caribbean between 2005 and 2013, according to Billboard. He was also the CEO of a cardboard and paper packaging firm that was nationalized by Chavez.
He used the profits from a Miami restaurant and a food import company to fund Rimas and his life in the United States, his lawyer told Billboard.
Jimenez recently attempted to downplay his ties to the Chavez regime.
“I am not and never have been a political actor. I’m not a member of any political party in Venezuela — not left, not right. I never had any involvement in the coup d’état with Chávez,” he told Music Business Worldwide.
Jimenez made Noah Assad, Bad Bunny’s longtime manager, a 40% owner in the label in 2018, according to Billboard.
In 2023, he sold his 60% stake in Rimas’s label and talent management firm, he told Music Business Worldwide.
He still owns 60% of the independent copyright management firm Rimas Publishing, which touts Bad Bunny on its roster of talent.