Former NFL Player and Former Bank Executive Sentenced for Ponzi Scheme and Money Laundering

BOSTON – A former New England Patriots player and a former bank vice president were sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Boston in connection with an investment scheme that took in over $35 million by making fraudulent loans to professional athletes.

Will D. Allen, 38, of Davie, Fla., and Susan Daub, 56, of Coral Spring, Fla., were each sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young to six years in prison, three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of approximately $16.8 million. Judge Young remanded both defendants to the custody of the United States Marshal Service.

“The defendants’ elaborate Ponzi scheme robbed many of the investors of a stable financial future,” said Acting United States Attorney William D. Weinreb. “The significant sentences the Court imposed today should remind investment professionals to handle their clients’ money with the transparency and integrity that the law requires.”

“Mr. Allen and Ms. Daub lied, cheated and swindled investors out of millions of dollars for their own personal enrichment,” said Harold H. Shaw, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division. “This behavior destroys the financial security of hard-working individuals in our community and the FBI will do everything in its power to bring to justice individuals who take advantage of unwitting victims.”

“The sentences imposed by the court today send a strong message – those who defraud investors to unjustly enrich themselves will pay a hefty price,” said Special Agent in Charge Joel P. Garland, IRS Criminal Investigation. “As a former professional football player, Mr. Allen’s conduct is especially egregious. He used his status as an NFL athlete to legitimize his dealings with investors. We are proud to bring our financial expertise to joint investigations of this magnitude, and help prevent future victims of such schemes.”

In November 2016, Allen and Daub each pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy and one count of money laundering. 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.

Acting United States Attorney William D. Weinreb; 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 Weinreb’s Economic Crimes Unit prosecuted the case.