Did Ex-NFLer Will Allen's Alleged Ponzi Scheme Prey On Jack Johnson?

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a complaint against Will Allen, a cornerback who played for the Giants, Dolphins, and Patriots—not to be confused with former Steelers safety Will Allen—accusing the NFLer of running a Ponzi scheme with a Florida woman.

The complaint, which was unsealed Monday, alleges that Allen and 54-year-old Susan Daub managed multiple companies known collectively as Capital Financial, offered shoddy loans to athletes, raised money from investors, and put that money to personal use. The SEC claims that Allen and Daub pulled the approximately $31 million scheme from July 2012 to February of this year.

Allen and Daub are alleged to have reeled in quite a few athletes from all four major American leagues, though the players aren’t named. One name you can make a well-educated guess on, however, is the NHL player who took a multi-million loan in May 2014—the size of which the alleged scheming fraudsters are accused of exaggerating using faked documents so as to lure investors into buying claims on the debt—and filed for bankruptcy on Oct. 7 last year:

From the complaint (emphasis mine):

In April and May 2014, at least twenty-four investors invested more than $4 million to participate in a purported $5.65 million loan to a NHL player. Daub provided some of the prospective investors with a purported copy of a $5.65 million promissory note signed by the player and a loan agreement signed by the player and by Allen. Daub told some of the prospective investors that the player would make monthly payments in accordance with the schedule in the loan documents. The purported $5.65 million loan to the NHL player was a sham. The player did not sign the $5.65 million promissory note or the loan agreement shown to prospective investors. Capital Financial did not make a $5.65 million loan to the player.

On October 7, 2014, the NHL player filed for bankruptcy and listed Capital Financial among his creditors. On February 9, 2015, Capital Financial filed a proof of claim in the amount of $3,429,750 and attached a $3.4 million promissory note signed by the player and a loan agreement. The documents that Capital Financial submitted to the bankruptcy court concerning the $3.4 million loan are dated April 14, 2014—exactly the same day as the phony documents concerning the supposed $5.65 million loan to the same player that Allen and Daub used to persuade investors to part with more than $4 million.

You can find the complaint and evidentiary appendix below.

Photo: AP