Kirk S. Wright, the jailed hedge-fund manager for National Football League players, was found guilty Wednesday of money laundering and fraud that cost investors, including several professional athletes, more than $150 million.
A federal jury in Atlanta found Wright, founder and chief executive of the International Management Associates hedge fund, guilty on all counts after a two-week trial, U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said in a statement. Wright faces a possible life term and a fine of as much as $16 million when he is sentenced Aug. 26.
IMA collapsed in February 2006 after investors, including former NFL players Terrell Davis and Clyde Simmons, received bad distribution checks and sued. Wright, who went into hiding, was arrested three months later at the Ritz Carlton in Miami Beach, where he was staying under an alias.
“A measure of justice was served today for the hundreds of investor-victims in the stunning collapse of International Management Associates,” Nahmias said in the statement. “Those victims poured over $150 million into Wright’s hedge funds over the years, only to find in 2006 that the money was gone and that Wright had lied to them.”
Steve Atwater, a former defensive back for the Denver Broncos, and six other players sued the NFL and the NFL Players Association in June 2006, claiming the two entities had recommended IMA to them.
