A man in Georgia was sentenced to 12 years in prison for having scammed millions of dollars to a temple potential for basketball renown.
The triple defensive player of the year Dwight Howard declared before the court that he had given to Calvin Darden Jr. $ 7 million, thinking that it was an investment for the purchase of the dream of Atlanta from the WNBA.
Howard, an All-Star eight times, then learned that Darden was not the owner of the team when ESPN reported that the team had been sold to a group of investors.
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Dwight Howard of The Orlando Magic asserted a call in a pre-season match against Miami Heat at the Amway Center on December 21, 2011 in Orlando, Florida. (Mike Ehrmann / Getty Images)
The prosecutors said that Darden and a sports agent also made the former NBA Chandler Parsons player 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.
A judge of the Manhattan Federal Court ordered Darden on Thursday to lose $ 8 million and several luxury articles he acquired with his badly acquired earnings, including a Atlanta manor of $ 3.7 million, $ 600,000 in works of art by Jean-Michel Basquiat, a Lamborghini and a Rolls-Royce.
Dwight Howard of Los Angeles Lakers warms up before a match against the Raptors of Toronto in Scotiabank Arena on March 18, 2022, in Toronto. (Coleton Coleton / Getty Images)
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Darden was found guilty by a jury in October of fraud by thread, bank fraud and accusations of money laundering.
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.
Dwight Howard des Los Angeles Lakers in a match against Orlando Magic on January 21, 2022, at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. (Gary Bassing / NBAE via Getty Images)
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.
Howard was the first choice of the 2004 NBA recovery by Orlando Magic.
