A former NBA player and chief executive officer of a New Jersey real estate development firm has surrendered to federal authorities on charges of running a $2 million Ponzi scheme.
C. Tate George, 43, who once played for the New Jersey Nets and Milwaukee Bucks, allegedly collected money from investors from 2005 through March of this year and deposited it in the bank accounts of his company, which he claimed was a real estate investment firm, according to a release issued by New Jersey U.S. Attorney General Paul Fishman.
George, who turned himself in Friday, also deposited some of the money in personal bank accounts, prosecutors said.
The criminal complaint said that George, instead of financing real estate development projects, as he told investors, used some of the money to pay other investors as well as for home-improvement projects, meals, clothing and gas. His firm "had virtually no income generating operations," the complaint said.
Prosecutors said George claimed that his firm, The George Group, had more than $500 million in assets. His investors, including several former professional athletes, put up more than $2 million that George's firm falsely claimed was to be used for purchasing and developing projects in Florida, Illinois, Connecticut and New Jersey, the complaint said.
George, also charged with one count of wire fraud, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Patty Shwartz in Newark on Friday. He was released on $250,000 bail secured by the equity on his mother's property and ordered to relinquish his passport, the federal prosecutor's office said. His travel was restricted to New Jersey.
If convicted, George faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.