Yahoo Sports Former Kings executive Jeffrey David sentenced to seven years in prison for stealing $13.4 million
Former Sacramento Kings chief revenue officer Jeffrey David was sentenced to seven years in prison on Monday for stealing $13.4 million from the team.
David pled guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in December and faced up to 22 years in prison.
The 44-year-old’s harebrained scheme to siphon millions from the Kings emanated from his role of raising money through sponsorships and advertising. He was able to take money in himself by having companies pay him through a shell company and forging signatures from other executives to hide his misdeeds.
With the stolen money, David bought an $8 million beachfront property in Southern California, as well as a private jet worth nearly $3 million.
It would have been hard to keep up the jig forever, since the Kings would eventually want their money. Even if David had time to invest the money or re-sell the properties and skim the profits, it would have been hard not to get caught.
His plan was eventually uncovered by a Kings employee after his position was eliminated and he got another job with the Miami Heat. As reported by the Sacramento Bee, he had left the information in a file titled “Turbo Tax” on a team computer.
“The brazen scheme involved forgeries, stolen corporate executive identities, money laundering and even instructing a former colleague to destroy evidence,” U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott said in a statement. “Today's sentence should deter others from committing substantial frauds such as this one.”
David reportedly cooperated fully with the FBI once the bureau contacted him, although the Department of Justice says that he has only returned $13.2 million of the stolen $13.4 million.
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