Kwame Brown Sues Financial Adviser For Allegedly Stealing $17.4 Million

FAH1223 · Post #1 » by **FAH1223** » Sat May 12, 2018 8:13 pm

Ex-NBA star Kwame Brown is suing his financial advisors for fraud and claiming they stole $17.4 million of his money.

According to court documents obtained by The Blast, Brown — who was the #1 pick of the 2001 NBA Draft straight out of high school — is suing Merrill Lynch, Bank of America and a financial advisor named Michelle Marquez.

Brown claims he was a client of the defendants from 2004 until 2017. Brown says they were to handle all his financial matters, collect his NBA income, invest his money and trade certain stocks for him, but only to invest or trade with his consent.

The suit claims Marquez began overseeing his account and, on several occasions, began investing Brown’s money into various projects and trading stocks without his permission.

Brown claims Marquez even opened several bank accounts under his name, without his knowledge and without giving him access to the accounts. He believes she was depositing his money into those accounts and began investing and trading his money while collecting a commission for herself.

According to the lawsuit, Brown claims he took out a $1.1 million loan in 2006 and instructed Marquez to pay off the balance of the loan right away. In 2015, Brown says he learned Marquez did not pay off the loan and instead converted the unpaid portion of the loan into a line of credit.

Kwame Brown says he never authorized that and claims he suffered a massive financial loss due to Marquez’s actions.

In 2017, Brown says he called Marquez to talk to her about his finances but could not get her on the phone despite previously being able to get ahold of her.

After several conversations with another employee of defendants, he was told he had no money with Merrill Lynch or Bank of America. The employee told Brown that he had signed authorization documents for defendants to invest, trade or otherwise control his monies.

But Brown believes the documents bearing his name were forged. He says he hired forensic experts to look at the alleged signatures, all of which were determined to be forgeries.

Brown claims he had deposited over $17,400,000 with defendants, which he claims was mishandled or misappropriated through fraud.

The lawsuit — filed on Thursday in Los Angeles by the NBA star’s attorney, Corey Boddie — is seeking for the return of Brown’s $17 million plus further damages.

We reached out to Marquez for comment — so far, no word back.

Brown played in the NBA from 2001-2013 and, according to Basketball Reference, made just under $64 million in his career.

adarsh1 · Post #2 » by **adarsh1** » Sat May 12, 2018 9:23 pm

Get 'em Kwame. That's a **** head move

Error Afflalo · Post #3 » by **Error Afflalo** » Sat May 12, 2018 10:08 pm

"Ex-NBA star Kwame Brown"

But in all seriousness, that's terrible if true. Hope things work out for him.

AFM · Post #4 » by **AFM** » Sat May 12, 2018 11:00 pm

The wizards should sue kwame for stealing 17M from them

closg00 · Post #5 » by **closg00** » Sat May 12, 2018 11:13 pm

Too-bad, what a mess

Kanyewest · Post #6 » by **Kanyewest** » Sun May 13, 2018 12:08 am

AFM wrote:The wizards should sue kwame for stealing 17M from them

Kwame Brown was involved in a few lopsided trades, Kwame Brown for Caron Butler, so overall he doesn't really owe Washington anything. The Lakers later used Kwame Brown in a package to acquire Pau Gasol, although I suppose the Grizzlies also got Marc Gasol.

I_Like_Dirt · Post #7 » by **I_Like_Dirt** » Sun May 13, 2018 4:11 am

AFM wrote:The wizards should sue kwame for stealing 17M from them

Ehhhhh.... I'm okay with Kwame having the money rather than Ted throwing it on the pile. Even if Kwame just loses it, is that really such a worse use of dollars?

AFM · Post #8 » by **AFM** » Sun May 13, 2018 4:48 am

just laugh at my joke you bisexuals

I_Like_Dirt · Post #9 » by **I_Like_Dirt** » Sun May 13, 2018 5:08 am

AFM wrote:just laugh at my joke you bisexuals

I prefer to be called pan-sexual, but however did you know.?

Post #10 » by **nate33** » Sun May 13, 2018 3:44 pm

This seems like it is too common. Sports, and to a lesser extent, entertainment are professions where people with no financial acumen whatsoever can end up in possession of millions of dollars and no knowledge of how to manage it. These guys are targets for swindlers. I wonder if the NBA players union has any programs in place to address this. Maybe they should have a service where the NBA can vet or recommend trusted financial professionals for use by players.

Wizardspride · Post #11 » by **Wizardspride** » Sun May 13, 2018 5:44 pm

nate33 wrote: I wonder if the NBA players union has any programs in place to address this. Maybe they should have a service where the NBA can vet or recommend trusted financial professionals for use by players.

I assume the NBA provides that service.

I know the NFL does.

If what Kwame says is accurate I can't imagine he won't be able to recoup his money.

Bank of America certainly doesn't want this stain on their buisiness.