Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had purchased a lakefront property in Burlington, Ontario earlier this year. However, the previous renter of the house, Aiden Pletereski, who is also known as Ontario’s Crypto King, was convicted of fraud before he decided to leave the property. Gilgeous-Alexander had paid $6.1 million to get the deal done, however, he and his family would soon face major issues while residing in the property.
Advertisement
Pletereski had accumulated $40 million in dues as his crypto empire fell apart. The creditors then started paying him threatening visits to his home which he had now abandoned, rendering the property unsafe. The seller of the house had failed to disclose these pertinent security threats before Shai bought the house.
View this post on Instagram
The Canadian superstar had filed a lawsuit to void the sale after he and his family faced the wrath of investors allegedly threatening to burn the place down. On November 27, in an unprecedented verdict, the Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Centa ruled the case in Shai’s favor.
Justice Robert Centa ordered that Gilgeous-Alexanders’ $8.4 million deal should be voided because of misrepresented details. He also declared that the NBA star deserves the damages for the mortgage and insurance payments that he accumulated since the beginning of the lawsuit, amounting to $8.7 million.
“[The seller] suppressed the truth about the Burlington property, which in this case amounted to a fraudulent misrepresentation,” wrote Justice Centa in his decision.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is not the first NBA player to be defrauded
In March this year, former Stanley-Morgan adviser Darryl Cohen was charged with defrauding NBA players of $13,000,000. Along with him, prosecutors also charged financial planner, Brian Gilder, NBA agent Charles Briscoe, and serial offender Calvin Darden Jr. Cohen and Gilder deceived three of these players to buy insurance at markups that were up to 310%.
Cohen allegedly acquired $500,000 under the pretext of charity and spent more than half of it on building athletic training facilities. Briscoe and Darden Jr. allegedly engaged in fraud related to the sale of a women’s professional team. Gilder was accused of spending $200,000 to write off his credit card bills and pay for his romantic expeditions. Meanwhile, Darden spilled $900,000 on buying luxury cars.
Three of the alleged victims were named Jrue Holiday, Courtney Lee, and Chandler Parsons. Ernst & Young LLP posted a report in 2021 that claimed that athletes had lost $600,000,000 from 2004-2019 due to such fraudulent schemes.
