NEW YORK (AP) โ A former part-owner of the Minnesota Vikings who defrauded a short-lived professional football league known as the Alliance of American Football in a $700 million cryptocurrency scam was sentenced Monday to more than six years in prison.
Reginald Fowler, 64, of Chandler, Arizona, was sentenced in Manhattan federal court to six years and three months in prison and ordered to forfeit $740 million and pay $53 million restitution.
The Football Alliance came to a quick end in 2019 when it ran out of money.
Prosecutors said Fowler lied to league executives when he claimed he controlled bank accounts with tens of millions of dollars of real estate investments and government contracts that he could use to support the league.
In 2005, he tried to purchase the NFL's Minnesota Vikings, becoming a minority owner before his involvement with the team ended in 2014.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement that Fowler violated the law by processing hundreds of millions of dollars in unregulated transactions on behalf of cryptocurrency exchanges that were used as a shadow bank.
โHe did this by lying to legitimate US financial institutions, which exposed the US financial system to serious risk,โ Williams said. โHe then victimized a professional soccer league by lying about his net worth in exchange for a substantial share of the league. โ
In a sentencing filing, defense attorney Edward Sapone wrote that Fowler was heartbroken that he allowed himself to participate in crimes after more than six decades of extraordinary contributions to family and community.
"Reggie is extremely sorry," Sapone wrote. โThe American Football League did not benefit from the investment that Reggie had planned to make. Reggie's bank accounts were frozen, he couldn't secure the investment money, and he couldn't invest the large sum of money he promised to invest.โ
