Reginald Fowler – age 64 and a former part owner of the Minnesota Vikings football team – has been sentenced to six years in prison for his role in a crypto-related scam.
Reginald Fowler Heads to Jail
Fowler is alleged to have defrauded the short-lived professional football organization Alliance of American Football. The scam is said to have lost investors as much as $700 million at the time of writing. Originally from Chandler, Arizona, Fowler was found guilty in a Manhattan federal court and was sentenced to six years and three months in a federal institution.
He will also have to pay back as much as $740 million to those who were hurt by the event, and he will pay over $50 million in restitution fees.
The Alliance of American Football lost all its funding in the year 2019 and was immediately closed. Fowler is believed to have told executives in charge of the league that he held bank accounts with tens of millions of dollars in them. These funds were garnered, he said, through real estate investments and government contracts, all of which could be used to boost the league and the big future that was believed to be ahead of it.
Unfortunately, things moved in the opposite direction and the league didn’t last long. At one point, in 2005, Fowler attempted to buy the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings team and became a minority owner before departing from the position in 2014.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams claims that Fowler engaged in hundreds of millions of dollars in unregulated transactions via crypto exchanges that operated as shadow banks. He commented in a recent statement:
He did so by lying to legitimate U.S. financial institutions, which exposed the U.S. financial system to serious risk. He then victimized a professional football league by lying about his net worth in exchange for a substantial portion of the league.
In a statement, Edward Sapone – the attorney for Fowler – said his client was absolutely devastated by his actions and disappointed in himself that he took part in such atrocious behavior and activities. He’s not happy about the crimes he committed and feels terrible that his actions brought so much shame to his community and family. Sapone mentioned:
Reggie is extremely remorseful. The American Football League didn’t benefit from the investment that Reggie had planned to make. Reggie’s bank accounts were frozen, he could not secure the investment money, and he was not able to invest the large sum of money he promised to invest.
This Happens a Lot
Crypto crime has been around since the industry first came to fruition roughly 14 years ago.
One of the main reasons behind the large amount of crime in the arena is that it’s unregulated and controlled primarily by its users.
