A Georgia businessman who swindled former NBA players Dwight Howard and Chandler Parsons out of millions of dollars was finally sentenced Thursday to more than 12 years in federal prison.
Calvin Darden Jr. Convicted Of Scamming Dwight Howard Out of $7M In Atlanta Dream Sale Scheme
A Manhattan jury convicted Calvin Darden Jr. in October of wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering charges while cheating Howard out of $7 million in a contrived scheme to buy the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream.
The 50-year-old Atlanta resident was also found guilty in a separate case involving former NBA star Chandler Parsons, milking $1M from Parsons in a scam that had Parsons believing he was helping the development of then-NBA prospect James Wiseman.
Darden was ultimately convicted by a jury in October of wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering charges. He was previously sentenced to a year in federal prison in New York for impersonating his father, Cal Darden, a former executive at Atlanta-based United Parcel Service, in a failed bid to buy Maxim magazine.
Dwight Howard Swindled Out Of $7M and Ownership Of Atlanta Dream
Howard opened up about the betrayal that cost him $7 million and derailed his dream of owning a WNBA team on an episode of his podcast “Above the Rim With DH12.”
The former NBA star revealed that his former agent had stolen millions, crushing his plan to purchase the Atlanta Dream.
He explained to his co-panelists, including former NBA player Joe Smith, “$7 million, it was a part of the agent. What was my mentality? My mental was I wanted to find him and beat the h*ll out of him. Like, I wanted to kill him. My plan that I had was, I was looking to buy the Atlanta Dream. The basketball team for women.”
Howard, whose two daughters were born in 2010, continued, “And so I was like, man, I wanna really do this because I got two daughters. One day they’re gonna wanna play basketball. I can set it up to where they can play for the Atlanta Dream one day when they get older.”
Dwight Howard Thought He Had Closed A Deal To Buy The Atlanta Dream: “That One Hurt”
“So we put this little group together, and at the time, the NBA — because I was still playing — said that I couldn’t own the team outright myself,” he described. “I was like, ‘OK, I can have a group and be the face of the team for now, and then I could be behind the scenes making all the decisions and stuff like that.”
“I had talked to the GM, I had talked to the owners of the team,” Howard said. “I really thought this was going to be my team. So I gave the group the money, and the next thing I know, I didn’t hear from the people anymore. They started disappearing.”
Howard, who was inducted into the Orlando Magic Hall of Fame on March 24, then described when he knew he’d been taken. “Then I looked online, and it was breaking news. They said that some other people had bought the Atlanta Dream. I had even called my mom before that and told her, ‘Mom, I’m going to send you a whole bunch of Dream stuff. We own the Dream!’” he said.
The Orlando Magic took him with the No. 1 overall selection in the 2004 draft. He won an NBA title with the Los Angeles Lakers during the pandemic-affected 2019-20 season and has a treasure trove of accolades.
Howard’s Agent Charles Briscoe Imprisoned On Felony Fraud, Identity Theft Charges
In March 2023, as reported in a previous TSL story, “Howard’s former agent, Charles Briscoe, was arrested on felony charges, including wire fraud and identity theft. In February Briscoe pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud conspiracy charges but avoided prison time.”
Darden reportedly spent $6.1 million of Howard’s dough to purchase luxury items, including a Lamborghini, a $110,000 piano, $90,000 in watches, a down payment on a $3.7 million home, and hundreds of thousands in fine art and home upgrades.
Brisco and Darden scammed Howard to perfection.
“I really trusted this agent,” Howard said. “But these agents, these lawyers, all these people — they are scheming, they be lying, and they all have the same motive: to take from you. So it’s like you really can’t trust anybody,” Howard said.
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