San Antonio Spurs great Tim Duncan spent 19 years in the NBA, successfully constructing a Hall of Fame career. But when it comes to trusting the right people with his money, it seems as though it’s not as easy to him as making a bank shot.
Charles Banks, who was Duncan’s former financial adviser, was given a four-year sentence on Wednesday in a San Antonio court after he admitted guilt to one count of wire fraud back in April.
Duncan made sure that he gets to express what was on his mind, as he was very vocal of his disdain of Banks.
From Guillermo Contreras of MySanAntonio.com:
“I just wanted you to own up, pay up and we’d move on,” Duncan told Charles A. Banks IV during a victim impact statement at Banks’ sentencing in federal court. “You wouldn’t, so now we’re here with this in front of a judge.”
Banks had embezzled Duncan $6 million through questionable investment deals with a court testimony saying the former Spurs big man had lost a big fraction of the $24.1 million he had invested with Banks.
In pleading guilty, Banks, 49, of Atlanta, admitted he bamboozled Duncan into guaranteeing a $6 million loan used as part of an investment in a sports-merchandise company, Gameday Entertainment LLC that Banks was chairman of.
If it weren’t for the divorce Duncan had gone through in 2013 in which his finances were closely scrutinized by the court, there’s likelihood that Banks’ shady deeds would remain unnoticed to this day.
Incidentally, it wasn’t just Duncan who was the former big-time NBA player present in the hearing, as Kevin Garnett was also present due to the fact that he had previously invested in and partnered with some of the business ventures Banks used to steal money from Duncan.
Garnett had been a previous investor in Gameday, and at the time also was a 50-50 partner in Hammer. He had also invested in Gameday.
Duncan, however, didn’t seem to have any ill-will on his former on-court rival.
As the parties left court, Duncan approached Garnett, a notorious trash-talker when he was a player, as he stood in a corner avoiding the media, and shook his hand in an apparent peace offering.
Pro athletes getting conned aren’t fresh news these days but the same narrative keeps on repeating itself. Hopefully, this would be the last time we hear of a player getting duped.
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