Ex-NFL team owner Reggie Fowler gets 6 years for crypto ‘shadow banking’
Reginald Fowler, a former NFL team owner, has been sentenced to six years of prison for operating as a “shadow bank” to the crypto sector, which involved over $700 million in unregulated transactions over a 10 month timespan in 2018.
The 63-year-old, who was a co-owner of the Minnesota Vikings, was sentenced to a total of 75 months on bank fraud and money laundering charges, according to a statement from the United States Attorney’s Office in New York on June 5.
Former co-owner of Minnesota Vikings sentenced to 75 months in prison for providing shadow banking services to cryptocurrency exchangeshttps://t.co/Nc2PVhEajw
It marks the end of a five-year long case that began when he was arrested in 2019 for alleged shadow banking. Shadow banking is a term used to describe (often illegal) bank-like activities that are carried out by non-bank entities.
Fowler initially pleaded not guilty to all charges in 2020, but changed his plea to guilty in April 2022.
In his latest statement, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said that a string of lies enabled Fowler to mislead and deceive several banks:
Williams then said Fowler “victimized” the Alliance of American Football (AAF) — a former professional football league — by lying about his net worth in order to own a “substantial” stake in the league.
“Let it be clear: this Office is committed to prosecuting people who lie to banks and skirt the law as a means to conduct their business,” the U.S. Attorney stressed.
According to Williams, Fowler managed to pull this off by establishing Global Trading Solutions (GTS) around February 2018, which worked with Crypto Capital and other crypto firms operating out of Israel.
There, Fowler, GTS and the crypto firms sidestepped a license by lying to banks
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