Tim Duncan's attorney says NBA legend aimed to keep former adviser from bilking others

After the former financial adviser found guilty of stealing millions of dollars from retired San Antonio Spurs star Tim Duncan was sentenced to federal prison and ordered to pay restitution, the attorney for the NBA legend told The Vertical that Duncan never wanted the publicity of the case, but only wanted to prevent Charles Banks from illegally profiting off other athletes.

Banks, 49, of Atlanta, a longtime financial adviser for Duncan, was ordered to repay Duncan $7.5 million and sentenced to four years in prison in a San Antonio court on Wednesday.

Banks pleaded guilty to wire fraud earlier this year after bilking $6 million from Duncan in an investment deal.

“When the government approached us about this, the last thing Tim wanted was to have his name in the [public] for anything outside of basketball, or to spend time with lawyers, but he was really concerned that Banks was such a bad guy and we were worried about him doing these things to someone else,” Duncan’s attorney, Tullos Wells, told The Vertical.

“We already knew from civil litigation that, in our view, he was doing funny things with other people’s money, too. Tim didn’t want him to get away with doing it to someone else.

“That drove Tim even though he hated every minute of this [legal process].”

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