A man by the name of Calvin Darden Jr. has been handed a lengthy prison sentence after he defrauded a pair of former NBA players, Dwight Howard and Chandler Parsons, out of a combined $8 million. He has been sentenced to 151 months — which equates to more than 12 years — in prison.
Darden scammed Howard and Parsons under different circumstances. Regarding Howard, Darden tricked the former NBA big man into sending him $7 million, purportedly as an investment toward a purchase of the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream. Darden worked with Charles Briscoe, who used to be Howard’s agent, to carry out the fraud.
Instead of putting that money toward buying the WNBA franchise, Darden apparently used the money to buy himself a mansion as well as luxury cars and goods.
When Howard was asked if he got anything in return for the $7 million he shelled out, he said he got “a slap in the face.”
As for Parsons’ situation, Darden conned him into sending him $1 million that was purportedly going to aid in the development of former top NBA prospect James Wiseman.
Darden and Briscoe falsely claimed to know Wiseman and even forged a document indicating that Wiseman had agreed to make Briscoe his agent.
In reality, none of the money went to Wiseman. Darden used his portion of the fraud on a Mercedes, watches and other expenses.
Darden has a criminal background, as he was convicted of fraud in New York state back in the year 2005. He was convicted of fraud in the Southern District of New York in 2015 to boot.
His penalties for the latest fraud include more than just his prison term.
“In addition to the prison term, DARDEN, JR., 50, of Atlanta, Georgia, was sentenced to five years of supervised release,” a press release detailed. “DARDEN, JR. was ordered to forfeit $8,000,000 and a number of other items, including a Lamborghini, a Rolls-Royce, $600,000 of artwork by Jean-Michel Basquiat, and an Atlanta mansion. DARDEN, JR. was also ordered to make restitution in the amount of $8,000,000.”
It’s unfortunate that Howard and Parsons were victims of Darden’s scamming, and hopefully Darden won’t be committing fraud again anytime soon. But on the bright side, Howard and Parsons surely learned lessons from the situation will be more careful about who they send money to in the future.
