A former minority owner of the Minnesota Vikings will spend more than six years behind bars for his part in a cryptocurrency scam that federal prosecutors said defrauded the now-bankrupt Alliance of American Football league (AAF).
Reginald Fowler, 64, was sentenced to 75 months in prison, Forbes reported.
"Reginald Fowler evaded federal law by processing hundreds of millions of dollars of unregulated transactions on behalf of cryptocurrency exchanges as a shadow bank. He did so by lying to legitimate U.S. financial institutions, which exposed the U.S. financial system to serious risk," said Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
"He then victimized a professional football league by lying about his net worth in exchange for a substantial portion of the league," Williams added in a news release. "This office is committed to prosecuting people who lie to banks and skirt the law as a means to conduct their business.”
According to Forbes, Fowler must also forfeit $740 million and pay $53 million in restitution to the AAF. Prosecutors said Fowler misled league executives about funding the league with money from real estate, which brought about a deal that made Fowler the AAF's largest shareholder.
The so-called real estate accounts actually were bank accounts used to swap digital currencies for real money without the banks knowing who it belonged to. Fowler was able to process more than $750 million in cryptocurrency transactions in 10 months.
Fowler was one of many people that tried to buy the Minnesota Vikings in 2005. His offer was rejected, but nine years later he became a minority owner, according to Forbes. At the time he lost his Vikings ownership, he was also $60 million in debt.
Forbes reported that Fowler admitted to charges of fraud, conspiracy and operation of an unlicensed money transmitting business by pleading guilty last year.
