A businessman from High Point, NC, Michael Rowan, who provided financial services to professional athletes, including NFL players was sentenced to 65 months in prison for filing a false 2011 tax return and wire fraud.
Rowan would contact prospective NFL players in college offering them financial and wealth management services. Upon being drafted by the NFL, Rowan would offer his services for an annual fee of $15,000 to $50,000 and have them sign agreements that allowed him access to their bank accounts.
Instead of only making transactions that his clients authorized, Rowan transferred more than $2.9 million into his own personal accounts without the player’s knowledge. From 2009 to 2013, Rowan failed to report the embezzled funds on his federal tax returns. This caused a net loss of more than $479,000 to the IRS.
In addition to jail time, Rowan will have one year supervised release and ordered to pay restitution to his victims in the amount of $2,960,295 and $479,352 to the IRS.