Luther Davis to plead guilty in $20M fraud case for impersonating NFL players

Luther Davis, a member of Alabama's 2009 national championship team, is expected to plead guilty in a $20 million case in which he is facing multiple fraud charges for reportedly impersonating NFL players, per The Guardian and court documents acquired by AL.com.

Charges were filed in federal court against Davis on March 19 in Atlanta, but had not come to light until The Guardian's report on Wednesday. Among the charges against Davis are two felonies for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

Per the court documents, Davis worked with a partner, CJ Evins, to obtain 13 loans in the names of current and former NFL players, including Michael Penix Jr., David Njoku and Xavier McKinney, the latter who was part of then-Alabama coach Nick Saban's 2017 signing class. The fraudulent loans obtained totaled more than $19,845,000, according to the documents.

Davis and Evins, according to the documents, "executed a scheme to fraudulently obtain millions of dollars in loans from multiple lenders ... by impersonating football players and falsely claiming those players were seeking multi-million dollar loans."

Davis is alleged to have worn a "durag-style head covering" to impersonate Penix and used online photos of players to carry out the impersonations. He and Evins also used wigs, makeup and fake IDs to disguise themselves during "virtual loan closings" in the names of players who had not consented.

According to federal prosecutors involved in the case, "Beginning no later than in or around May 2023 and continuing through in or about October 2024, the defendant, Luther Davis, and CJ Evins, executed a scheme to fraudulently obtain millions of dollars in loans from multiple lenders, including, but not limited to, Aliya Sports and All Pro Capital Funding, by impersonating professional football players and falsely claiming those players were seeking multi-million dollar Loans."

Davis, who owns a sports management company in Georgia, was part of Saban's first signing class at Alabama in 2007. The West Monroe, La., native is a former U.S. Army All-American who played 45 games on the defensive line over four seasons with the Crimson Tide.

A few years after leaving the school, Davis was viewed as a "runner" for advisers and agents looking to pay SEC recruits, Yahoo Sports reported in 2013. Former Alabama five-star offensive lineman D.J. Fluker was among those recruits.

--Field Level Media