I hope you are all well and had an excellent week, welcome to CryptoGod-1’s blog on all things crypto. Today I will be looking at a story regarding the former co-owner of the Minnesota Vikings, who has become caught up in a cryptocurrency scam worth a reported $700 million.
Minnesota Vikings
The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis and compete in the National Football League (NFL). They are a member club of the National Football Conference North division, and were founded in 1960 as an expansion team, beginning to compete in the league the following year. The Vikings are known for having the highest regular season and combined winning percentage among NFL franchises who have never won a Super Bowl, currently sitting at 534-451-11. They also have the most playoff runs, division titles, and Super Bowl appearances (tied with the Buffalo Bills). The Vikings are also one of only three teams, along with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Los Angeles Rams, to appear in a conference championship every decade since the 1970s.
Reginald Fowler
Back on the 14th of February 2005. then owner of the Minnesota Vikings, Red McCombs, announced the proposed sale of the team to Reginald Fowler. Fowler attempted to purchase the NFL's Minnesota Vikings in 2005 which lead to him becoming the team's minority owner. He ceased his involvement in the side in 2014. Fowler had always been a keen sports investor, and as one of multiple figures that tried acquiring the Minnesota Vikings in 2005.
He had been involved as owner of Kyrene OEM and Spiral Inc., the latter of which had divisions in real estate and manufacturing. However, he lost control of his companies as he was straddled with $60 million in debt.
According to attorney Damian Williams, the prosecuting lawyer, Fowler violated the law by processing millions of dollars in unregulated transactions on behalf of crypto exchanges used as shadow banks.
“He did so by lying to legitimate US financial institutions, which exposed the US 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.”
The former co-owner of the Minnesota Vikings, Reginald Fowler, was convicted by the Manhattan federal court for a $700 million crypto scam. Fowler, now 64 years of age, is charged with having defrauded the Alliance of American Football (AAF), a now-shut-down professional football league, in a fraudulent crypto investment. The crimes took place over a ten month period in 2018. Fowler made use of his accounts to conduct the crypto transactions, while also convincing the AAF owners that he could support the league. This led to him entering a stock purchase agreement and becoming the largest shareholder in the league’s parent company, but he missed payment deadlines and some payments that were sent did not follow guidelines of his agreement with the league.
The US Attorney’s Office in New York stated that the Arizona-based businessman would be forced to serve a 75 month (6.25 years) prison sentence for his crimes, and along with the prison sentence he would also be forced to forfeit $740 million and pay restitution of $53 million. His sentencing marks the end of the multi-year-long case which began when he was arrested in 2019 for allegedly taking part in shadow bank transactions.
His crimes included using crypto currency exchanges to pose as banks while initiating bank-like transactions. The specific exchange involved in Fowlers shadow banking activities was Crypto Capital Corp. The exchange is know to facilitates transactions for cryptocurrency startups outside the traditional banking system, acting as a source of funding for the startups. Fowler pleaded not guilty to the charges back in 2020, but changed to a guilty plea in April 2022.
Tough news for the former co-owner, but a just result for a man who decided his best course of action was to funnel money through a crypto exchange to avoid detection of the banks.
Have a great day.
CryptoGod-1.
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