It is known that this man met Liam Payne two days before the singer’s death. Their relationship may be related to the death of the former One Direction member.
According to the statements of some witnesses who were present at the restaurant on the evening of October 2, they saw 24-year-old waiter Braian Nahuel Paiz, who worked at the restaurant, sitting in front of an empty plate, restless, distracted and obviously under the influence of drugs.
As The Mail can now reveal, former One Direction singer Liam Payne met a 24-year-old waiter named Braian Nahuel Paiz in the restaurant that evening. The two began an unusual friendship that Argentinian prosecutors believe directly contributed to the singer’s tragic and untimely death just two weeks later.
So who is Braian Paiz, who was indicted last week by the Argentine Criminal and Penitentiary Prosecutor’s Office along with two other suspects for alleged involvement in the millionaire’s death?
Exactly one month ago, on October 16, Liam, then 31, fell from the third-floor balcony of his room 10 at the CasaSur hotel in the upscale Palermo district, where he had spent the last three days of his two-week trip to the South American capital. He had come to attend former One Direction member Niall Horan’s solo concert at the Movistar Arena.
When reporters previously contacted restaurant staff to ask about Braian, some colleagues said: “Braian was a good friend of mine. He was a great guy and often stayed at my place. But he had a cocaine problem. And now he has turned off his phone. No one who works here can reach him.”
Another colleague at the restaurant revealed that Paiz often drank at the Hard Rock Cafe after his shift at Las Lilas. He added: “He was sociable, always laughing – and was rarely alone.”
Although Paiz has apparently gone into hiding since Payne’s death and refuses to speak to journalists, he gave a brief interview to Argentine television station Telefe Noticias last weekend. According to Paiz’s statement, Liam asked the waiter at the restaurant for his contact information because he wanted to buy drugs. That evening, Paiz said, the two exchanged messages on Instagram, with Payne using a separate account under a discreet pseudonym.
In the interview, Paiz revealed:“He texted me because he wanted to do drugs. I thought he was going to a concert or something. We exchanged information and met up that same night.”
After the restaurant visit, Payne apparently went to Niall Horan’s concert, where he appeared in high spirits. After the show, he shared a selfie with Horan on social media and captioned it: “Reunited.”
That evening, Payne apparently arranged a meeting with Paiz at the Park Hyatt Palermo – a different hotel than the CasaSur, where he died just two weeks later. Paiz told Argentine television that Payne even picked him up from the lobby after the young man got lost looking for the star’s room. Later, while drinking together, they listened to some of Payne’s unreleased songs.
On the night of their second meeting on October 13 – 11 days after their first – Paiz admitted:“We took drugs together.“ The second meeting between Paiz and Payne took place, of course, in the fateful Hotel CasaSur, where the singer died just three days later.
During the extended drug session, Paiz appears to have smoked cannabis while Payne consumed large amounts of cocaine. Photos leaked after the star’s death showed a large amount of drug paraphernalia in his room, including crumpled pieces of burnt silver paper, a lighter and traces of white powder. Paiz has denied supplying the pop star with drugs: “I never gave him drugs… I have messages that he paid me because he was apparently used to paying for everything – but I never got anything.” However, Argentina’s Attorney General has insisted that Paiz was responsible for distributing “two clearly proven shipments [of cocaine] on two separate occasions” – apparently on two occasions when he visited Payne’s hotel.
In another surprising twist, Paiz told Argentine television that the couple had an “intimate” moment on the night of October 13. He claimed: “We slept together all night, we took drugs, because it’s true that something intimate happened.” “He wasn’t aggressive at all, he was very kind to me, he was really sweet. He asked me if I was OK. I have all the messages where we agreed to have a second meeting. I didn’t delete anything.”
Paiz added:“When I left, he wanted to give me some clothes so I would have memories of the time I spent with him. But I left them there because I didn’t want to take them with me. They were a pair of grey sweatpants and a T-shirt.”
After the late night encounter on October 13, which lasted into the early hours of the morning, Paiz returned home only to respond to Payne:“I told Liam that a close friend of mine wanted to meet him because he is a fan of Liam.”
The singer agreed and drove to Paiz’s house that same morning – October 14, two days before his death.“He showed up in front of my apartment and tried to get halfway into the building. He wanted us to go back to his hotel, but I told him I couldn’t because I had to go to work,”Paiz revealed. Payne got back in his car and drove away. “That was the last time I saw him,” the valet said.
The day after Liam’s death, Paiz posted two selfies with the singer and wrote: “Fly high boss. Thank you for enlightening me and entering my reality. I will always miss you. See you on the other side.” He ended his tribute with a heart emoji.
