A man of Georgia responsible for the scam of former NBA players in two separate projects was sentenced to a long prison sentence.
Calvin Darden Jr. of Atlanta was found guilty of multiple crimes by a jury in Manhattan in October 2024.
On Thursday, a federal judge of the city sentenced Darden to over 12 years in a federal prison and ordered him to lose $ 8 million.
He is also mandated to hand over several luxury items he bought with these stolen funds – including an Atlanta manor of $ 3.7 million, a Lamborghini, a Rolls Royce and an art work of $ 600,000 by New York Fire Artist Jean -Michel Basquiat.
Darden was found guilty of having scammed the former great man of the NBA Dwight Howard out of $ 7 million in a promising program to buy the WNBA Atlanta dream.
In addition, Darden stole $ 1 million to another former NBA star, Chandler Parsons.
A man who stole $ 7 million at former Nbaer Dwight Howard was sentenced to 12 years in prison
The man stole the funds in Howard with the declared intention to buy Atlanta’s dream
Parsons was extorted in part of a program involving the development of the NBA James Wiseman prospect.
Darden was authorized to leave the procedure after renouncing his right to be present and to tell the judge that he had undergone a concussion last week when he was in detention, according to the American prosecutor of the South District of New York.
Howard testified during the trial that Darden had cheated on him to give him $ 7 million by convincing him that it was an investment for the purchase of the dream.
But the eight time All-Star and triple defensive player of the NBA of the year admitted that he had only learned that he had not owned The Dream when ESPN reported that the team had been sold to a group of investors who included the former dream guard Renee Montgomery in 2021.
The prosecutors said that Darden and a sports agent also made parsons to send $ 1 million who was to help the development of James Wiseman, who was drafted by the Golden State Warriors as the second overall choice of the NBA 2020 draft.
But the two did not know Wiseman, and the player never agreed to be represented by the agent as they claimed in Parsons.
Wiseman played for the last time for the Indiana Pacers before being exchanged at the Raptors of Toronto, who gave it up earlier this year.
Darden was finally found guilty by a jury in October of fraud by wire, banking fraud and accusations of money laundering.
The same person was also sentenced for stealing $ 1 million to the former NBA Chandler Parsons star
Parsons was deprived of his money in a program on the development of James Wiseman
He has already been sentenced to a year in New York federal prison for usurped his father, Cal Darden, a former manager of United Bâl Service, based in Atlanta, in an attempt to buy Maxim’s magazine.
Howard played for seven franchises after the Orlando Magic took him with the overall selection n ° 1 in the 2004 draft.
He won his only NBA title with the Los Angeles Lakers during the 2019-20 season assigned by the Pandemic.
Parsons has had a career of nine years of career in the NBA for the Houston, Dallas, Memphis and Atlanta teams.
Atlanta’s dream was once a co -owner by former American Republican Kelly Loeffler, but it was in a hurry to sell the players against her opposition to the initiatives of the League racial justice.