Olympic Sprinter Montgomery Sentenced For Fraud
Posted on Friday, 16 of May , 2008 at 5:48 pm
NEW YORK—Timothy Montgomery, Olympic gold medalist and former world record holding sprinter, was sentenced Friday to 46 months in prison for his role in a check fraud scheme.
Montgomery, 33, of Gaffney, SC, and Virginia Beach, Va., was charged, along with 10 co-defendants, in a superseding indictment filed on April 26, 2006.
On April 9, 2007, Montgomery pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Kenneth M. Karas in White Plains federal court to bank fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud, as charged in the superseding Indictment. At that plea proceeding, Montgomery admitted, among other things, that he had “agreed with others to engage in a scheme to defraud numerous financial institutions by means of arranging for the deposit of counterfeit, altered checks in various accounts in an attempt to enrich [him]self and others.” Others convicted in connection with the scheme include: Steven Riddick, himself an Olympic gold medalist and track coach to Montgomery and former Olympic star Marion Jones-Thompson, as well as other world class athletes; Charles Wells, a well-known sports agent for track and field athletes; and Nathaniel Alexander, a prominent Norfolk, Va., businessman and a friend and officemate of Riddick’s.
Jones-Thompson was convicted of having made false statements to federal agents in connection with their investigation of this scheme, as well as for having made false statements in connection with the investigation into the activities of BALCO Laboratories, Inc. in the Northern District of California.
Evidence introduced at the trial of four of Montgomery’s co-defendants established that Montgomery caused at least three fraudulently obtained checks, totaling $1,225,000, to be deposited into accounts associated with him.
Specifically, Montgomery caused two checks, in the respective amounts of $550,000 and $575,000, to be sent to Wells, who deposited them into Wells’ accounts. Additionally, Montgomery deposited a counterfeit check for $200,000 into a business account he jointly controlled with Jones-Thompson.
Riddick, Alexander and Jones-Thompson were sentenced on Jan. 11 to 63, 46, and six months in prison, respectively. Wells was sentenced to six months of home confinement on Feb. 27.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Karas sentenced Montgomery to three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay restitution in the amount of $375,000. 5-16-08
Category: Courts, Crime, Sports
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