(EXCLUSIVE) NBA’s Richard Jefferson – $550K Seized From Bank to Pay Off Creditor
theJasmineBRAND.com exclusively reports, NBA’s Richard Jefferson is $550K poorer than he was last year, with funds from his bank account seized by one of his creditors over an unpaid loan — but don’t cry for the NBA star, as he still has over $11.3 million in his account.
Jefferson was sued by Western Alliance Bank last year who accused him of taking out a 500k loan and refusing to pay it back. The NBA star informed the bank he never took out the loan and demanded documents proving he signed for the loan.
The NBA star fired back and counter-sued his ex-business manager Theodore Kritza — who worked with him from 2004- 2014 . He claimed that when he was trying to purchase a home he first became aware of the Western Alliance loan taken out in his name.
He accused his ex-manager of deceiving him, defrauding him and violating the duty to provide loyalty to him and demanded $500K in damages.
Jefferson also said he was a victim of fraud by his ex-manager and lost over 2 million dollars. He said he discovered the fraud back in 2013 and informed not only his bank, but the FBI. The feds then came to his aid and had him call Kritza and listened in on the phone call where Jefferson said he got his ex-manager to admit that he used the line of credit from the bank without Jefferson’s permission.
The NBA star says that during the phone call his ex-manager broke down in tears, admitted he stole the money and kept trying to make deals with the cash but they all kept falling apart. Jefferson says he asked for forgiveness and asked if he could make amends.
He claimed the FBI was not done with their investigation and during the time of the investigation he was slapped with the lawsuit by Alliance Bank and following being sued he attempted to get the recorded call and other evidence collected but was shut down by the FBI due to the ongoing investigation.
Jefferson said he wasn’t responsible for taking out the loan and demanded the suit against him be dismissed. The bank didn’t buy his argument and wanted the court to order him to pay back the loan ASAP.
On December 18th, the federal court judge came back with his decision in the matter and didn’t buy the NBA star’s defense. The judge ordered Jefferson to pay a total of $451,524.37 to Western Alliance Bank for the unpaid balance left on the loan.
Further, he was ordered to pay $83,604.13 in interest on the loan and other court costs including attorney fees. The judge dismissed all claims that Jefferson filed against West Alliance.
Alliance Bank demanded the bank hand over all cash in the account to satisfy the judgement they won.
Then on January 26th, docs were filed by Wells Fargo stating that they received the garnishment order from Alliance Bank. They state that Jefferson had $11,953,216 in his bank account with them.
Wells Fargo says they have garnished his account for the $554,572.61 owed by Jefferson to Alliance Bank and are turning it over. The docs state that the judgement has been paid in full by the NBA star due to it being seized by his bank and handed over. However, he is still appealing the judgement meaning if he is to win the appeal, Alliance would have to pay back the full amount to him.
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