Veteran NFL running back Darren McFadden has made millions of dollars throughout the course of his career. Like most professional athletes with pockets as deep as McFadden’s, he trusted a financial planner and various business associates to handle his funds.
Unfortunately for McFadden, the relationship with his financial team has ended in the most staggering way possible. ESPN filed a report in 2016 detailing an investment strategy gone wrong that ultimately cost McFadden a $3 million investment in bitcoin that now would be worth an obscene amount of money. According to ESPN, McFadden filed suit against his former business manager, Michael Vick (no, not the quarterback Michael Vick) and ten other members of the financial team for what they called “misappropriated and mishandled money throughout his NFL career.”
Fast forward one year, and the failed investment seems even more painful for McFadden. The rise of bitcoin has created hundreds, if not thousands of new millionaires over the last year. On December 18th, 2016, one bitcoin would have cost you roughly $790. One year later, as of December 18th, 2017, the price of one bitcoin is an astronomical $18,800. You can see how an early investment in bitcoin could result in someone becoming very, very wealthy, and the amount McFadden missed out on because his manager never actually invested his money is absolutely staggering.
NFL running back Darren McFadden alleged a financial advisor wrongfully took $3 million from him relating to a #Bitcoin venture. Had it actually been invested in Bitcoin, it would be worth about $237,000,000: https://t.co/1OkX9Ll2WX
— Chase Carlson (@ChaseACarlson) December 18, 2017
McFadden alleges that his team was supposed to invest $3 million in bitcoin years ago, which investment fraud attorney Chase Carlson calculates would be worth $237,000,000 today. Instead of handing McFadden’s funds responsibly, McFadden claims Vick “covertly used Plaintiff’s income as his personal slush fund to subsidize his own lifestyle and expenses and to invest in his own projects.”
It gets worse from there. It turns out Vick tricked McFadden into giving him power of attorney over his funds, and it has been a disaster ever since.
Vick allegedly told McFadden that in order to safeguard his money, Vick needed to be “further empowered” to help the player avoid the “financial disasters that tend to flow from unsound spending habits, poor management, or speculative financial advice,” the lawsuit said.
McFadden gave Vick power of attorney on Aug. 10, 2008.
McFadden has since fired his old financial team, but the damage is clearly already done. Another $237,000,000 investment is going to be hard to come by and it is another cautionary tale for young athletes about being extra cautious when it comes to investments and who they let handle money.
