90 Day Fiance: The Other Way newcomer Shekinah Garner’s ex-boyfriend Berto has a lengthy rap sheet.
This season on The Other Way, viewers were introduced to Berto Matta, Shekinah’s much older ex-boyfriend, who is 27 years her senior.
The two were romantically involved when Shekinah was 23 years old, admittedly Shekinah’s “first real” relationship.
The exes dated for about four years, share a teenage daughter, Sofia, and are on good terms despite splitting shortly after Sofia’s birth.
Berto made an appearance during Episode 9, Sarper and the City, when Shekinah announced to him that she was leaving her life in the U.S. to move to Turkey to be with her boyfriend, Sarper Guven.
Until now, we’ve only gotten a glimpse at Berto’s background, but after some digging, it’s been discovered that Berto’s past is riddled with criminal and financial issues.
A look at 90 Day Fiance: The Other Way star Shekinah Garner’s ex Berto Matta’s financial and criminal rap sheet
In Touch did some detective work and found out that Berto has 55 criminal filings on his record, most of them vehicular incidents.
Berto was also convicted for contracting without a license and fraudulent use of a contractor’s license number back in 2005.
In addition to his criminal past, Berto also found himself in financial trouble, beginning in the early 2000s.
Per documents viewed by In Touch, Berto has had seven judgment liens and state tax liens filed in California since 2004.
Berto owed a state tax lien of $1,300 in 2004, a judgment lien of $5,920 in 2005, a civil judgment lien filed in 2006 in the amount of $936, a judgment lien for $1,416 in 2007, a state tax lien in the amount of $3,988 in 2015, and one for $16,482 in 2017.
Berto currently co-parents his and Shekinah’s daughter from a distance and opened a hotel in Costa Rica
It seems that Berto has left his problems in his past, however. As Shekinah explained during a September 4 confessional, Berto has been living in Costa Rica for nearly a decade, where he opened a hotel.
This means that Berto co-parents from a distance, but he’s still involved in Sofia’s life, coming to visit her in California often.
When Shekinah met up with Berto to announce that she was moving to Turkey to be with Sarper, Berto was flabbergasted and, like her friends and family, expressed his doubts that shacking up with Sarper was a smart move.
“That, to me, is very fast,” Berto told Shekinah of her decision.
Then, during a solo confessional with TLC’s cameras, Berto admitted, “Shekinah makes a lot of mistakes in the men that she [chooses]. She [bases] her choices on looks rather than, you know, morals, principles.”
“Now, she’s going for a guy in a whole different country, a whole different culture, a whole different ways of, you know, of life,” Berto continued, “For a guy that she doesn’t know.”
90 Day Fiance: The Other Way airs on Mondays at 8/7c on TLC.