Atlanta – A hedge-fund manager who has been missing for three months since he was accused of defrauding hundreds of investors, including several famous athletes, was arrested at a Miami Beach hotel this week, FBI officials said.
Kirk Wright of Marietta, Ga., was scheduled to appear in U.S. Magistrate Court in Miami on Thursday, FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said. He will be returned to Atlanta to face federal charges of mail fraud.
Among the clients whom Wright allegedly deceived, authorities said, are former and current Denver Broncos players Terrell Da vis, Steve Atwater, Rod Smith, Ray Crockett and Blaine Bishop, and former Philadelphia Eagles player Clyde Simmons.
Wright and his company, International Management Associates, also face a federal lawsuit from the Securities and Exchange Commission filed Feb. 27 and a civil complaint filed in Georgia state court Feb. 17.
According to authorities, Wright and his company collected as much as $185 million from at least 500 investors since 1997 and used false statements and documents to mislead some of them into believing the value of their investments was increasing.
When several investors demanded brokerage-account statements from hedge funds in October, Wright produced statements he said were from online brokerage Ameritrade, showing more than $155 million in securities from four accounts, SEC investigators allege in court documents. Three of the accounts did not exist, and the fourth was not held by any of those investors.
As recently as Jan. 25, International Management Associates reported $166.6 million in assets spread across five hedge funds it manages and advises. That money is now missing.
