Jrue and Lauren Holiday, as well as former NBA stars Chandler Parsons and Courtney Lee are amongst victims in a fraud scheme estimated at $13 million dollars. Four people were arrested on Thursday, according to Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
The individuals in question are: Brian Gilder, Darryl Cohen, Charles Briscoe, and Calvin Darden Jr., and they are all being hit with wire fraud charges.
Jrue Holiday, who signed a 4-year extension with the Milwaukee Bucks valued at $134.9 million in Sept. 2022, is the highest profile victim involved.
How scammers stole money from Holiday, Parsons and Lee
According to the DA’s report, in one of the schemes, “three players were allegedly persuaded to purchase more than $5 million worth of life insurance policies at an enormous markup”.
“In another, a fourth player spent $7 million to buy a women’s professional basketball team, but prosecutors said the money never went toward a purchase”, Draper explained. For this particular scam, Darden Jr. transferred $1 million to Charles Briscoe, $500k to a relative, and spent the rest on luxury goods and home renovations.
Finally, the District Attorney also revealed a third ploy, in which “a player spent $1 million to fund a player representation agency that never existed”.
The maximum jail sentence for the scammers is 20 years
The four alleged perpetrators could be charged with up to 20 years of jail time. Meanwhile, the four known victims of the crime have filed claims against Darryl Cohen with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
Cohen was formerly employed by Morgan Stanley, but was fired in March of 2021. Meanwhile, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a civil complaint against the former securities industry employee.