Former NFL Player and Former Bank Executive Plead Guilty to Ponzi Scheme and Money Laundering

BOSTON – A former bank vice president pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Boston in connection with an investment scheme involving fraudulent loans to professional athletes.  Her co-defendant, a former New England Patriots player, pleaded guilty to similar charges last week.

Susan Daub, 56, of Coral Spring, Fla., pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy and one count of money laundering.  U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young scheduled Daub’s sentencing for Feb. 13, 2017.  Will D. Allen, 38, of Davie, Fla., pleaded guilty on Monday, Nov. 14, 2016, to two counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy and one count of money laundering.  He is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 9, 2017.  

In June 2015, Allen and Daub were arrested on criminal charges after being sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission in April 2015.  Between 2012 and April 2015, Allen and Daub defrauded investors out of millions of dollars by claiming that the funds would be used to back high-interest, short-term loans to professional athletes through Capital Financial Partners (CFP), Allen and Daub’s Massachusetts-based company. While CFP did make some loans to athletes, Allen and Daub also diverted millions of investor dollars to themselves and other business ventures. In total, Allen and Daub took in over $35 million in investments. To date, they have repaid less than $22 million.

As part of the fraud, Allen and Daub collected money from investors to fund fictitious loans, then used the money, in part, to pay themselves. Other times, Allen and Daub told some investors that the loans CFP made to professional athletes were larger than they actually were, allowing Allen and Daub to collect more money from investors than they were lending out to athletes. To keep investors from discovering their fraud, Allen and Daub used newly invested money to make payments to existing investors, which they falsely characterized as interest and principal payments from athlete borrowers.

The charges of wire fraud and conspiracy each provides a sentence of no greater than 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, a fine of up to $250,000 (or twice the gross gain or loss), and restitution. The charge of money laundering provides a sentence of no greater than 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release, a fine of up to $250,000 (or twice the gross gain or loss), and restitution. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than maximum penalties. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based on the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Harold H. Shaw, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division; and Joel P. Garland, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations in Boston, made the announcement today. The U.S. Attorney’s Office received valuable assistance from the Securities and Exchange Commission, which previously charged Allen and Daub in a civil complaint. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Seth B. Kosto and Brian A. Pérez-Daple of Ortiz’s Economic Crimes Unit are prosecuting the case.