A Former NFL John Robert Leake, has been sentenced to two and a half years in federal prison for defrauding friends out of $5 million in a gambling-related Ponzi scheme.
This week, Leake, who played for teams like the Atlanta Falcons and Green Bay Packers, admitted to running a Ponzi scheme that involved investments in West African gold mines and properties in Central America, among other things.
He convinced friends and acquaintances to invest in these ventures, which turned out to be mostly nonexistent, using their money to fuel his gambling habit instead.
Federal prosecutors described Leake’s actions as blatant deception, stating that he misled those who trusted him and used their investments to cover personal expenses or pay back previous victims to keep his scheme going.
Over five years, Leake managed to defraud his investors of $5 million. He pleaded guilty in September to charges of wire fraud and transactional money laundering, as reported by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge John F. Walter sentenced Leake and ordered him to pay $5 million in restitution to the six victims he scammed. Leake’s attorney, Evan J.
Davis, mentioned that his client is remorseful about deceiving his friends to support his gambling addiction but is now seeking treatment and making positive changes in his life.
Leake played college football at Clemson University from 2000 to 2003, contributing to the team that won the 2003 Peach Bowl.
He was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Tennessee Titans in 2004 and later played for the Falcons and Packers before leaving the Falcons in his final season. Ghanaian gold mines and property in Costa Rica:
What was the cash for?
Leake was all about flashy pitches to investors, talking up gold mines in Ghana and Alaska, along with real estate in Southern California, Costa Rica, and the Middle East.
He managed to rope in six friends and acquaintances, convincing them to fork over more than $8 million for his supposed projects from 2015 to 2020, as per court documents. While some of the funds were actually invested, over $5 million ended up benefiting Leake personally.
He splurged on gambling, covered his own bills, and made payments to victims to keep them trusting him, according to the plea deal. His personal expenses included credit card bills, car payments, and rent, prosecutors noted.
This whole operation fits the classic Ponzi scheme mold, where money from investors is funneled into a fake business. Investors think they’re getting returns from a legit operation, but it’s really just cash from newer investors. It’s like a pyramid, with the bottom investors propping up the profits for those at the top.
Who were the victims, NFL Player?
The court documents don’t name Leake’s six victims but describe them as friends and acquaintances. The first victim believed he was investing in gold mines in Ghana and Alaska, along with other financial schemes, according to the plea agreement.
A small portion of the $1.7 million he handed over to Leake actually went to gold mines, but the other financial schemes were a total scam.
Over $1 million went straight to Leake. They met through mutual friends around 2014, as stated in the court filings. Leake’s second victim was also a friend, as mentioned in the plea agreement. He managed to pull in this friend, his father, and two others into the scheme.
Leake went to great lengths to mislead his friend, pitching investments in high-end real estate projects in Los Angeles and Costa Rica.
In California, Leake allegedly planned to use funds to pay for years of rent on luxury homes, which he intended to sublet at a higher price to pocket the difference. He took over $1 million, but the properties he mentioned were nonexistent.
Additionally, NFL Player
A friend handed Leake $600,000 to invest with a so-called “prominent billionaire” that Leake falsely claimed to be associated with, according to court documents. Prosecutors revealed that Leake also tricked the same friend into investing about $500,000 in a supposed “Costa Rica property.”
He provided fake contracts and checks but never actually sent anything to the supposed developer. Over two years, the friend ended up losing nearly half of his investment.
Leake managed to pay back the remaining amount using money from other victims, including two investors he met through this friend. The last victim, whom Leake met during a dinner with friends, lost the most: $2.8 million, as stated in court filings.
Instead of investing in properties in Dubai as promised, Leake used this money to settle debts with other victims.
John Robert Leake, a linebacker for the Atlanta Falcons, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for orchestrating a Ponzi scheme. In a letter to the judge, he described the moment his gambling-driven scheme unraveled as a profound reckoning.
Later that month, he checked into a mental health clinic in Houston, where he stayed for about 60 days, as mentioned in the letter. At that time, Leake was living just north of Dallas.
I remember feeling really confused during that first week, trying to figure out how I ended up in such a dark place that I thought I could never get out of, he shared.
According to the letter, the treatment included Leake participating in Alcoholics Anonymous, along with groups focused on gambling and drug addiction.
He mentioned that he removed all gambling apps from his phone and cut ties with bookies, casino hosts, and friends from his gambling days.
He expressed a desire to speak at an addiction conference in April and hopes to return to his job at the clinic after completing his sentence. “It’s really important to me to start making amends to all six victims,” he wrote in the letter.