Big Pun's widow sued Fat Joe for his posthumous royalties, saying payments stopped in 2005

Christopher Rios, known as Big Pun, collapsed at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in White Plains, where his family was staying, and died of a heart attack and respiratory failure at 28. He weighed 698 pounds. His second album, "Yeeeah Baby," came out in April 2000. His widow, Liza Rios, took charge of his name. Fat Joe, his mentor and label head, says he gave her the whole advance for the posthumous album "Endangered Species." In 2014 Rios sued Fat Joe and music publisher John "Jellybean" Benitez of Jelly's Jams in federal court for $1 million. She alleged Fat Joe had agreed to split profits Pun earned after his death and that she had received nothing since 2005. Royalty expert Ali Adawiya testified the estate was underpaid by at least $2,076,093. At a status hearing on 22 June 2016 the parties confirmed a confidential settlement; neither defendant attended. Rios later accused Fat Joe on Instagram of withholding $2.3 million. In March 2018 she sued Walmart, Redbubble and others for trademark infringement over merchandise using a logo she registered after his death, seeking all profits and $10 million in statutory damages from the manufacturers. No outcome of the Walmart suit was found^†. In 2026 the Bronx street where Pun grew up carries his name, and Rios controls the trademark.