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Dwight Howard found himself at the center of a scandal that is filling the covers of US magazines. Although the 39-year-old is trying to lead a quiet life after the end of his NBA career, Howard still attracts attention, but this time for something quite specific.
A businessman from the US state of Georgia, who defrauded former basketball players Dwight Howard and Chandler Parsons out of millions of dollars, was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison on Thursday.
A Manhattan jury found Calvin Darden Jr. guilty of defrauding Howard, a former NBA ace, out of seven million dollars, and the 50-year-old took the money by telling the former center he had bought the Atlanta Dream, the women's WNBA basketball franchise.
Darden managed to "extract" another million from Parsons, the former wing center of Houston, Memphis, Dallas and Atlanta, to invest in a young hope - James Wiseman, who played for the Indiana Pacers this season.
Fines
During the prison sentence, Darden will have to pay another eight million dollars, as well as give up illegally acquired luxury real estate and objects such as a villa in Atlanta worth 3.7 million dollars, a work by the Neo-Expressionist painter from New York Jean-Michel Basquiat, which is worth 600,000, as well as Rolls-Royce and Lamborghini vehicles.
He will feel the enormous consequences of his actions, and the public in the US is satisfied with the court's decision.
No one from Darden's legal team came to the courtroom, and they declined to comment after being called by the media. We will see whether they will react to this verdict in the coming days.
Dwight Howard obviously did not know what kind of things were being done behind his back, but he is happy that justice has been served and that he will emerge as the winner of this specific case, which attracted the attention of the public in the US. The NBA legend can be delighted that the whole case ended positively for him.
English (US)