A Georgia businessman was convicted Friday by a federal jury in Manhattan of defrauding former NBA players Dwight Howard And Chandler Parsons for a total amount of $8 million, in 2021.
Calvin Darden Jr. was convicted of fraud, bank fraud, money laundering and two counts of conspiracy. He was involved in numerous schemes with former NBA agent Charles Briscoe, who pleaded guilty for his role in the affair last year.
Investigators presented evidence showing that the kingpin sent Calvin Darden Jr. $7 million for what was supposed to be the proposed purchase of the Atlanta Dream, the WNBA franchise.
“ I wanted to find him (his agent) and beat the shit out of him. I wanted to kill him. It was a group of people who were all in the same boat. […] They had the same goal: to take from you what you have “, recently denounced Dwight Howard in his podcast. A native of Atlanta, he had discreetly worked on this takeover project while he was still playing in the Big League.
A million to develop the career of… James Wiseman
“ My plan was to buy the Atlanta Dream. I was like, 'I really want to do this because I have two daughters. One day they will want to play basketball. I can make sure they can play for the Dream when they're older.' », was aimed at the former pivot, who had already promised his mother to buy him tickets for the season and to send him products derived from the women's team.
Except he got screwed, just like his former Rockets teammate. Chandler Parsons was trapped in a fraudulent investment supposed to contribute to the development of the career of… James Wiseman. Calvin Darden Jr. had managed to take a million dollars from him. Incredible.
Through his fraud, the defendant used 6.1 of Dwight Howard's $7 million to buy two cars, including a Lamborghini, a $110,000 piano, $90,000 watches and a house in Atlanta. 'worth $3.7 million.
A sentence of 11 to 14 years should be requested against Calvin Darden Jr. who, eight years earlier, had already been sentenced to one year in prison. He had pretends to be his fatherCal Darden, who served on the boards of several major companies, in a failed attempt to purchase Maxim magazine. He also took $500,000 from a company in Taiwan by claiming to be able to bring the Knicks to play in Asia…
