Ex-NFL players seek to recoup losses after alleged fraudster's death - ESPN

Multiple former NFL players and others say they will continue trying to recoup their losses — in some cases more than $1 million — after the death of a man they say defrauded them in complicated, multilayered financial transactions now under investigation by federal authorities.

Three ex-NFL players, as well as some nonathletes, told ESPN that they lost the money they invested with Motion Venture, a company run by New Jersey resident Mohamed Coulibaly, 23, who was found dead July 31.

In some individual investors' cases, losses exceeded $1 million. Tae Crowder, a former New York Giants linebacker who played in the United Football League last season, told ESPN that he lost at least $500,000 — effectively wiping him out. He provided corroborating evidence of wire payments he made to Coulibaly's company.

The financial allegations were laid out in a Feb. 23 complaint, obtained by ESPN, to the Securities and Exchange Commission's whistleblower office, the FBI and Pennsylvania banking regulators. The sworn complaint was filed by Barry Minkow, who served prison time for fraud and now works to uncover financial crimes. He said he was hired by three Coulibaly investors.

According to the complaint, which refers to the company as Vent Motion LLC, Coulibaly offered investors to put their money into e-commerce stores on the Shopify platform. Once investors received their initial investments back, they were encouraged to pool their money into more Shopify stores in hopes of building the company's value to a level of at least $100 million, at which time a group of Middle Eastern venture partners would buy them out for a huge payday.

If all conditions were met, the complaint alleges, Coulibaly would supposedly divide the profits between