Tate George Ponzi Scheme: Ex-NBA Player, NCAA Hero Indicted For Wire Fraud In NJ

Connecticut's Tate George, who had the game winning shot against Clemson Thursday, reacts during overtime action against Duke in the NCAA East Regional Final at East Rutherford, N.J. Saturday, March 24, 1990. Duke won the game 79-78. (AP Photo)

NEWARK, N.J. -- A former NBA player has been indicted in New Jersey on federal charges he ran a more than $2 million Ponzi scheme.

Prosecutors say C. Tate George used The George Group to run the investment fraud scam. The indictment on four counts of wire fraud was announced Friday.

Prosecutors say George persuaded people, including former professional athletes, to invest in what he promised would be high-return real estate projects.

The U.S. attorney's office says George instead used some of the money to pay existing investors and personal expenses.

The 43-year-old George played for the New Jersey Nets and the Milwaukee Bucks. The former University of Connecticut player is perhaps best known for hitting a buzzer beater in the 1990 NCAA Tournament.

His attorney didn't immediately return a call for comment.

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Comments

[charlesa1946]

05:27 AM on 04/01/2012

Batman would know what to say.

[allianceae]

07:35 PM on 03/26/2012

What do all Ponzi Schemes have in common? What is the hook they all use to snag their marks.? Yes, that's right ... the guarantee of a very high return on investment. Yep, that's the lure in every Ponzi Scheme. Of course, everyone has also heard the truism ... if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably isn't. Now ask yourself, what must all victims of Ponzi schemes have in common? Well, we don't have time or space to list all the adjectives ... do we? It is sad to hear when an old couple has lost all they had to some con man ... but you have to put it in perspective and temper your empathy.

[charlesa1946]

05:28 AM on 04/01/2012

greed is what most of them have in common and they're not so honest themselves.

[countdemonet9]

12:21 PM on 03/26/2012

Another BUM

[johndson]

12:17 PM on 03/26/2012

This isn't "oh another NBA criminal" at all. These 'Ponzi schemes' are way too easy and simple to pull off. The SEC has bee systematically dismantled, and the reulatory process that used to stop this kind of behavior dead in its tracks is, has been dissolved. The free marketeers who think that regualting money and markets is "big government" getting in the way of profits are wrong. Bernie Madoff was able to pull his nonsense for years because there was nothing in the way to stop him. I'd bet there will be many, MANY more unti we come to our collective senses and REGULATE these transactions, you know, the way we used to before deregulation nearly bakrupted the entire country.

[irishkids1234]

02:19 PM on 03/26/2012

You can never regulate greed.

[johndson]

03:31 PM on 03/26/2012

You can regulate transactions, and that is NOT being done, and hasn't been in the investment industry since the mid-80's. Since then we've had the S&L collapse, the stock market crash in '87, followed by a 5 year recession, then another wave of deregulation in 2000-2001-2002-03-04 followed shortly thereafter by a housing collapse, a banking collapse, a huge stock market crash, and another recession that is still affecting a vast majority of people. There is greed and there is stupidity. Deregulation is stupidity.

[mgr1929]

05:17 PM on 03/26/2012

you have it backwards the SEC who were and are regulators and bureaucrats were notified by competitors in the private sector of Madoff Investments and misdeeds....Mr Madoff a HUGE Democratic contributor somehow wasnt even investigated.... for over 10 years private sector entities questioned and reported Madoffs performance records and behavior only to have the SEC not act...who are you kidding?...do you know anything about this case?.......we sure as heck dont need even more bureaucrats paid off by even more politicians with even more tax dollars as you propose

[johndson]

09:48 PM on 03/26/2012

Acrually you not only have it backwards you are 100% incorrect. I worked in the bond business for 17 years from 1979-1996. When I began on Wall St. the SEC was omnipresent and feared. Their diligent presence was a constant. In the mid 80's Mr. Reagan, and under the misguided advice of one Sen Phil Graham, decided that the SEC carried too much weight, and one day like magic the SEC overseerers were gone and didn't come back. Trades cleared without any oversight, funds that were monitored to insure that the trades were done within guidelines of monetary holdings ceased to be checked. The bonds trade in units of one million dollars, treasury bills in $5 million lots. Trade, which never failed prior, failed with reoccuring predictability. The Bush administration further cut and dismantled the SEC beyond recognition. Their function as a preventer of failed trades evaporated. The regulations they USED to enforce were laxed and laxed again. The SEC was reduced to a clean up crew that had neither the manpower or authority to do anything but try and render decisions long after the fact. Your right wing nonsense is 1980 degrees from history and reality. I was there, I saw waht happend, and we are ALL paying for it. Oh and now you can give me your right wing verson of Enron, another disasterous situation wholly created by the dismatling of the SEC by Reagan, Bush and Bush.

[cheaptrick00]

12:10 PM on 03/26/2012

Imagine that....another rat-bazzturd, gangbanging NBA player..

[johnnygnsvll]

11:36 AM on 03/26/2012

"A fool and his money will soon part."

[rkeeeballs]

11:03 AM on 03/26/2012

Can't an athlete ju$t stay humble with all the money from their career and invest wisely ? This $ounds ju$t as pathetic as Allen Iverson $tory !..$$..they blow it !..$$

[mcwhomper]

10:22 AM on 03/26/2012

i think that anyone found guilty of crimes involving money should lose all assets same as if they were drug dealers and that moneybe returned to those people hurt by the crime as long as they were not involved in the crime. if there is any money left it should be used to reduce taxes

[redbuns]

07:32 AM on 03/26/2012

i'm a right wing, white, republican geezer, and these racist comments make me sick. there have been ball players who went on to a life of crime who were white as well.

[irishkids1234]

02:20 PM on 03/26/2012

Name me the three or four, I'll name you the 40 or 50

[redbuns]

07:29 AM on 03/26/2012

innocent until proven guilty...but it doesn't look good.

[madenusa]

07:27 AM on 03/26/2012

NBA player commiting a crime.......................NO WAY!

[adamantthe1st21]

03:17 AM on 03/26/2012

He probably cheated on his exam too, so he could get to the university.

[redbuns]

07:29 AM on 03/26/2012

he was on a basketball scholarship...he just had to hit three pointers in practice.

[suntowncare]

02:52 AM on 03/26/2012

he should wear a hood and walk in a white neighborhood

[billscaf]

06:47 AM on 03/26/2012

It wa a Latino who shot that kid and it is far from a white neighborhood. AHOLE!!

[NealtheDeal]

10:56 AM on 03/26/2012

Half Latino/half white.
Zimmerman's father is white, and his mother is Hispanic.

[WILLIEMOJORISIN]

11:22 AM on 03/26/2012

So many people want this to be a white/black thing, it's sickening, a young man lost his life and people want to use this tragedy to further their political agenda.

smh

[irishkids1234]

02:22 PM on 03/26/2012

Willie...your President just did.

[rlw626]

02:46 AM on 03/26/2012

gotta love aol, you make a big deal of this guys ponzi scheme because he is a former nba player and scammed people he knew and such that had money to blow, but a man that cons overs 5 million out of common people , retirees , churches, life savings etc , and has a 10 million dollar warrant out for him nationally and worldwide , you dont even have it make your news, apparently you dont care about the common people being taken advantage off , and on this case I do know personally what he has done and he should be held accountable , but its not news worthy enough for aol...

[HomeGrower]

09:35 AM on 03/26/2012

It was worthy enough for you to comment.

[Apelika]

02:20 AM on 03/26/2012

Just because he was a college athlete does nto mean he is not a crook.

[irishkids1234]

02:23 PM on 03/26/2012

Heck with the rising cost of tuition (far above the inflation rate) the crooks are the school administrators.