Two Alabama men were convicted of federal financial crimes Wednesday for defrauding a professional athlete of $500,000, prosecutors said Wednesday.
A jury in federal court in Anniston found Anthony Lamont Frazier, 41, of Talladega, guilty 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, prosecutors said.
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Before the trial, Birmingham resident Frederick Andre 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.
Frazier and Spencer agreed to work on behalf of the unnamed professional athlete to create a sports marketing agency called Head of Game.
The athlete gave the men $500,000 to invest in the agency, but Frazier immediately wired about $250,000 of those funds into the bank account for “Mom and Son’s Towing,” which was controlled by his mother, prosecutors said, citing trial evidence.
In 2019 and 2020, Frazier and Spencer used the athlete’s money for their personal expenses instead of building the agency.
The money was used on luxury travel, dental bills and cash withdrawals.
Frazier used $100,000 of the funds to purchase a house in Atlanta on a short sale and deposited the proceeds of the sale into one of his own accounts, prosecutors said.
The evidence also showed Frazier substantially underreported his income on his 2017, 2018, and 2019 tax returns. He did not report income relating to drug proceeds and fraud proceeds from Head of Game.
Between 2017 and 2020, Frazier worked as a tax assessor for Talladega County and used his work truck for drug trafficking and money laundering the proceeds.
He bought and deposited postal money orders and input false information on the orders, claiming they were for car sales to launder his drug money into business bank accounts.
He also structured the proceeds into bank accounts to avoid reporting requirements with the U.S. Postal Service and PNC Bank.