Atlanta rapper Ca$h Out, born John-Michael Hakeem Gibson, has been ordered to pay $40 million in damages to a sex trafficking victim while he serves a life-plus-70-year prison sentence for running a trafficking ring in Georgia. According to a federal court ruling issued in January 2026, U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Thrash entered a default civil judgment in favor of a woman identified as J.M., who says Gibson trafficked and abused her between 2013 and 2015 at his home in the Atlanta area.[1] The award stems from the same conduct that led to his 2025 conviction under Georgia’s RICO statute for operating a criminal enterprise built on sex trafficking.[1][2]
According to AllHipHop’s review of court documents, Judge Thrash awarded $10 million in compensatory damages and $30 million in punitive damages, after Gibson reportedly failed to respond to the civil lawsuit filed in 2022, triggering an automatic default judgment.[1] J.M. alleged that Ca$h Out invited her to stay at his Hapeville, Georgia residence and then forced her into prostitution, subjecting her to repeated physical abuse and sexual assault over a two-year span.[1] She claims she was sexually assaulted “hundreds of times” and that the rapper controlled her movements and profited from sex acts he compelled her to perform.[1]
The civil judgment arrives less than a year after Gibson’s high-profile criminal case wrapped in Fulton County. In July 2025, a jury found him guilty of rape, pimping, aggravated sodomy, sex trafficking and racketeering tied to what prosecutors described as a coordinated trafficking ring that exploited women across metro Atlanta.[1][2][4] According to the Los Angeles Times and local Atlanta coverage, prosecutors argued that Gibson, his mother Linda Smith (a.k.a. “Mama Ca$h Out”) and his cousin Tyrone Taylor used their Pyrex Music Group imprint and multiple properties as fronts to coerce women into sex work and control the flow of money.[2][4] Gibson was sentenced days later to life in prison plus 70 years, with some of the time to be served consecutively, and ordered to register as a sex offender.[1][2][4]
Smith was convicted on trafficking-related charges and sentenced to decades in prison, while Taylor received a life-plus-70-year term after being found guilty on multiple counts including rape and aggravated sodomy.[1][2][4] Authorities and witnesses at trial described a years-long “house of horrors” operation marked by violence, deprivation and threats against the women involved.[1][2] Although Ca$h Out maintained his innocence at sentencing, claiming that accusers were coerced into testifying, the jury rejected those arguments.[3][4]
The $40 million civil award represents one of the largest reported judgments in a U.S. sex trafficking case involving a hip-hop artist and underscores the expanding legal fallout from Ca$h Out’s downfall.[1] While it is unclear how much of the judgment J.M. will realistically be able to collect given Gibson’s incarceration, the ruling adds another layer of accountability and highlights how civil courts are increasingly being used alongside criminal prosecutions to address trafficking and abuse within and beyond the music industry.[1][2]
