Entertainment agency Roc Nation has asked a federal judge in New York to strike portions of a legal brief filed by Terrance Dixon in an ongoing sanctions dispute, alleging that the filing relies on fabricated quotations that appear to have been generated by artificial intelligence rather than pulled from actual court rulings.
In a letter submitted to the court last Friday, Roc Nation, which manages Bronx rapper Joseph Antonio Cartagena, known professionally as Fat Joe, said Dixon's brief contains numerous citations bearing the hallmarks of AI hallucination and repeatedly cites language supposedly drawn from a 2012 Second Circuit decision that does not actually exist in that ruling.
According to Roc Nation's letter, while the underlying cases Dixon cited do appear to be genuine, the specific language attributed to those rulings was invented, and the legal arguments Dixon built around those quotes find no actual support in the opinions themselves.
The company said it identified at least 17 additional quotations scattered throughout the brief that similarly cannot be located anywhere in the source material being cited. Beyond the citation issues, Roc Nation also flagged procedural problems with the filing, noting that Dixon submitted his opposition after a court-ordered deadline had already passed, without ever requesting an extension, and that the brief runs longer than the word limit set by the court.
Dixon, who previously worked as a hype man and creative collaborator for Cartagena, filed the brief in question on Wednesday in response to Roc Nation's push to have him sanctioned over claims made in his lawsuit. Those claims, laid out in Dixon's second amended complaint, describe what he characterizes as a long-running and deliberate pattern of exploitation spanning multiple decades.
Roc Nation's letter represents the newest development in a broader lawsuit Dixon filed in the Southern District of New York, in which he accuses both Cartagena and his management team of a range of employment law violations, including allegations involving unpaid wages and human trafficking.
The legal fight has produced counterclaims as well. Cartagena has filed his own lawsuit against Dixon alleging defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress, describing Dixon's underlying claims in an amended complaint as nothing more than a transparent attempt to extract a payout.
Dixon's attorney, Tyrone Blackburn, pushed back forcefully against Roc Nation's allegations. Blackburn rejected the suggestion that AI-generated hallucinations found their way into the brief, insisting that every case cited is real and genuinely supports the legal points he made, and explaining that any perceived discrepancies stem from his choice to paraphrase language from the rulings rather than reproduce exact quotations. He was similarly combative toward Roc Nation's legal team, dismissing their work on the filing and accusing them of misrepresenting a U.S. Supreme Court holding elsewhere in its own submission.
Blackburn also disclosed that he intends to withdraw as Dixon's counsel, citing a conflict of interest tied to a separate defamation lawsuit he has filed against one of the attorneys representing Cartagena.
The planned withdrawal adds another layer of complexity to a case that has already grown contentious on multiple fronts, from disputed employment allegations to dueling defamation claims and now questions over the accuracy and integrity of court filings themselves.
It remains unclear how the presiding judge will rule on Roc Nation's request to strike portions of Dixon's brief, or whether the broader sanctions motion against Dixon will move forward given his attorney's planned exit from the case.
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