Two Alabama men have been sentenced to federal prison for defrauding a professional athlete of $500,000.
A federal jury earlier this year convicted Anthony Lamont Frazier, 41, of Talladega, on 24 counts of money laundering, four counts of structuring, three counts of tax fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud following a four-day trial
The jury also convicted Birmingham resident 38-year-old Frederick Andre Spencer of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Before the trial, Spencer, 38 pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, false statements on a loan application and wire fraud for his involvement in submitting false loan materials under the Paycheck Protection Program and obtaining COVID-19 money from the Small Business Administration based on those false representations.
Authorities said Spencer and Frazier spent the money invested by the unnamed athlete on luxury travel and dental bills and repeatedly withdrew bulk cash.
U.S. District Judge Corey L. Maze sentenced Frazier to 10 years in prison and Spencer to just over four years, according to a Wednesday announcement by Northern District of Alabama U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona, ATF Special Agent in Charge Marcus Watson, IRS-CI Acting Special Agent in Charge Demetrius D. Hardeman, and U.S. Postal Inspection Service Inspector-in-Charge Scott D. Fix, Houston Division.
A restitution order of $500,000 for one victim and $239,316 for another was also entered, along with an order of forfeiture of various assets, including bank accounts, postal money orders, and cash.
According to evidence presented at trial, between 2017 and 2020, Frazier worked as a Talladega County Tax Assessor and used his county work truck for drug trafficking and money laundering the proceeds of drug trafficking.
Frazier purchased and deposited postal money orders and input false information on the orders, purporting that they were for car sales, to launder his drug proceeds into his business bank accounts.
Frazier also structured those proceeds into bank accounts and, in doing so, avoided reporting requirements for the U.S. Postal Service and for PNC Bank.
At the same time, authorities said, Frazier and Spencer agreed to work on behalf of a professional athlete to create a sports-marketing agency called “Head of Game.” The athlete has not been identified.
The professional athlete invested $500,000 for the purpose of building this agency and based on promises made by Frazier and Spencer, wired the money into a “Head of Game” bank account held by Frazier.
Frazier immediately wired almost half of the funds into a bank account for “Mom and Son’s Towing,” which was held by Spencer’s mother.
In 2019 and 2020, Spencer and Frazier used the athlete’s money on various personal expenses rather than to build the marketing agency.
Spencer and Frazier spent the money on luxury travel and dental bills and repeatedly withdrew bulk cash.
By mid-2020, almost all of the initial $500,000 investment had been spent to enrich Frazier and Spencer and not for the agreed-upon purposes.
Frazier used over $100,000 of the Head of Game money to purchase a house in Atlanta on a short sale and deposited the proceeds of the sale into one of his own accounts.
The evidence also showed that Frazier substantially under-reported his income on his 2017, 2018, and 2019 tax returns. Specifically, he did not report income relating to drug proceeds and fraud proceeds from Head of Game.
“This fraud was driven by the defendants’ greed,” Escalona previously said.
