NEW YORK (AP) — A Georgia businessman who scammed former NBA players Dwight Howard and Chandler Parsons out of millions of dollars was sentenced Thursday to more than 12 years in federal prison.
A Manhattan jury in October convicted Calvin Darden Jr. of cheating Howard — who had been one of the NBA’s most dominant players in his prime — out of $7 million in a bogus scheme to buy the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream.
The 50-year-old Atlanta resident was also found guilty of bilking $1 million from former NBA forward Chandler Parsons in a separate ruse involving the development of then-NBA prospect James Wiseman.
A Manhattan federal court judge on Thursday ordered Darden to forfeit $8 million, as well as several luxury items he acquired with the ill-gotten gains, including a $3.7 million Atlanta mansion, $600,000 in artwork by Jean-Michel Basquiat, a Lamborghini and a Rolls-Royce.
Lawyers for Darden, who wasn't present in court when the sentence was handed down, declined comment.
Darden was allowed to the leave the proceedings after waiving his right to be present and telling the judge he had suffered a concussion last week while in custody, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Howard testified during the trial that Darden fooled him into giving him $7 million by convincing him that it was an investment toward the purchase of the Dream.
But the eight-time All-Star and three-time NBA defensive player of the year acknowledged he only learned he wasn't an owner of the Dream when ESPN reported the team had been sold to an investor group that included former Dream guard Renee Montgomery in 2021.
Prosecutors said Darden and a sports agent also conned Parsons into sending $1 million that was supposed to aid in the development of James Wiseman, who was drafted by the Golden State Warriors as the second overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft.
But the two didn't know Wiseman, and the player never agreed to be represented by the agent as they claimed to Parsons. Wiseman last played for the Indiana Pacers before being traded to the Toronto Raptors, who waived him earlier this year.
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.
Howard played for seven franchises after the Orlando Magic took him with the No. 1 overall selection in the 2004 draft. He won his lone NBA title with the Los Angeles Lakers during the pandemic-affected 2019-20 season.
Parsons had a nine-year NBA career playing for Houston, Dallas, Memphis and Atlanta teams.
The Atlanta Dream were once co-owned by former Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, but she was pressured to sell after clashing with players over her opposition to the league’s racial justice initiatives.
FILE - Los Angeles Lakers center Dwight Howard during an NBA basketball game against the Phoenix Suns, on Jan. 13, 2022, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri, File)
FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — A Virginia man who had a relationship with a Brazilian au pair is going to trial Monday in what prosecutors say was an elaborate double-murder scheme to frame another man in the stabbing of his wife.
Brendan Banfield is charged with aggravated murder in the February 2023 killings of Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan at the Banfields' home in northern Virginia. He has pleaded not guilty in the case.
Banfield and Juliana Peres Magalhães, the family’s au pair, were with the wife and Ryan on the morning the victims were killed in the primary bedroom of the Banfield home, court records say. Authorities have said on that day, Banfield and Magalhães told officials they saw Ryan, a stranger, stabbing the wife after he entered the house. Then they each shot the intruder, Banfield and Magalhães said at the time.
Prosecutors have painted a different picture, arguing that Brendan Banfield and Magalhães lured Ryan to the house and staged it to look like he and the au pair shot a predator in defense. Officials have said Banfield and Magalhães had a romantic affair beginning the year before the killings.
Both the au pair and husband were arrested between 2023 and 2024 and initially handed murder charges in the case. In 2024, Magalhães pleaded guilty to a downgraded manslaughter charge after giving a statement to officials confirming parts of their theory.
In that statement, Magalhães said she and Brendan Banfield created an account in his wife’s name on a social media platform for people interested in sexual fetishes. There, Ryan connected with the account in Christine Banfield’s name, and the users made plans to meet on the morning of Feb. 24, 2023, for a sexual encounter that would involve a knife, authorities said based on the statement from Magalhães.
Prosecutor Eric Clingan said last year that the au pair's statement helped the state solidify its theory ahead of trial.
“With 12 different homicide detectives, there were 24 different theories,” Clingan said. “Now, one theory.”
Not all officials investigating the case have believed Banfield and Magalhães catfished Ryan.
Brendan Miller, a former digital forensic examiner with the Fairfax County Police Department, testified last year that he analyzed dozens of devices and concluded Christine Banfield had connected with Ryan herself through the social networking platform.
An evidence analysis team at the University of Alabama peer-reviewed and affirmed Miller’s digital forensic findings, according to evidence submitted to the court.
Miller was transferred out of the department’s digital forensics unit in late 2024, though a former Fairfax County commander testified the reassignment was not punitive or disciplinary.
John Carroll, Banfield's attorney, argued that Millers' transfer was directly tethered to the case. He also said in court that Fairfax County police reassigned the case’s lead detective after that man had pushed back on the top brass’ catfishing theory.
“It is a theory in search of facts rather than a series of facts supporting a theory,” Carroll said.
Banfield, whose daughter was at the house on the morning of the killings, is also charged with child abuse and felony child cruelty in connection with the case. He will also face those charges during the aggravated murder trial.
FILE - This image provided by the Fairfax County Police Department and taken on Oct. 13, 2023, was submitted as evidence in the murder case against Brendan Banfield shows a framed photo of Banfield and Juliana Peres Magalhães on his bedside table in Herndon, Va. (Fairfax County Police Department via AP, File)
