Ex-NBA agent, Charles Briscoe, pled guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and admitted to faking an NBA player’s signature on a $1 million loan.[1] Although prosecutors requested an 18-month prison term, Briscoe will avoid prison time. [2] Instead, he was sentenced to spend the first six-months of his three-year supervisory period on home detention.[3] He will also forfeit $1.5 million.[4]
Briscoe expressed extreme remorse for his actions. He said he “wake[s] up every day with regret.”[5] During sentencing, U.S. District Judge Vernon S. Broderick acknowledged that Briscoe conspired with serial fraudster Calvin Darden, Jr., and noted that Briscoe may have been duped by Darden.[6] Judge Broderick heavily weighed Briscoe’s young age (37) and his purported efforts to get his life back on track.[7]
Briscoe also conspired with Darryl Cohen (formerly a Morgan Stanley broker) and Brian Gilder (formerly a financial planner).[8] Gilder admitted to a count of wire fraud conspiracy and also avoided prison.[9] Darden and Cohen await their trials.[10]
Briscoe was initially charged as part of a larger scheme to defraud four NBAers of more than $13 million.[11] In one scheme, a player paid $7 million to buy a women’s professional basketball team, though the money never went towards the purchase.[12] Other fraud consisted of persuading players to purchase more than $5 million in marked-up life insurance policies.[13]
In October of 2023, I wrote about a Dr. Wahab conspiring with NBA players to defraud the NBA’s healthcare plan (read the article here). I wrote that Wahab’s scheme raised questions about the role of money in professional sports, and whether similar practices are happening elsewhere in sports. Briscoe’s case is yet another example of fraud in the sports world.
While Wahab’s scheme included NBAers trying to profit, Briscoe’s case reflects the opposite. Rather, Briscoe and his co-conspirators sought to defraud their clients, the athletes. The fraudulent signing of people’s names, and manipulation of another person’s finances is a serious act. It is alarming to see such selfish conduct from a player’s personal and financial advisors. Agents and financial advisors are supposed to be people players can trust. While not every agent is defrauding their clients, Briscoe’s case should cause athletes, and the general public, to take a hard look at who they trust to advise them.
Image Credit: NBA
[1] https://www.law360.com/sports-and-betting/articles/1803943?nl_pk=9ba2e64f-6b40-49a9-8029-c1a37ae85bfb&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=sports-and-betting&utm_content=2024-02-20&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=0
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] Id.
[7] Id.
[8] Id; https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/23/sports/basketball/nba-wire-fraud.html
[9] https://www.law360.com/sports-and-betting/articles/1803943?nl_pk=9ba2e64f-6b40-49a9-8029-c1a37ae85bfb&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=sports-and-betting&utm_content=2024-02-20&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=0
[10] Id.
[11] https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10069895-former-nba-agent-charles-briscoe-charged-with-scheme-to-defraud-players-of-13m-plus
[12] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/23/sports/basketball/nba-wire-fraud.html
[13] Id.
3L at the University at Buffalo School of Law
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