Alleged NFL player investment scam organizer dies at 24

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Mohamed Coulibaly, who died July 31, as the former registered securities broker associated with Trinity Wealth Securities LLC. That identification was based on a FINRA BrokerCheck record for a Mohamed Coulibaly (CRD 8019963), which lists a Philadelphia-based registration with Trinity Wealth Securities and an affiliation with Florida Financial Advisors. The two individuals share the same name, are associated with Philadelphia and are 24 and 25 years old, respectively. 

"The Mohamed Coulibaly who was affiliated with our firm is not the individual referenced in the Barron's articles. The individual associated with our firm is 25 years old, is alive, and is not the person described in those reports," Alex Lunyong, compliance manager and supervisory principal at Florida Financial Advisors, said in an email to InvestmentNews on August 19.

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A 24-year-old man was found dead in a swimming pool in New Jersey, weeks after he was alleged to have targeted multiple former NFL players in an e-commerce scheme that left the athletes with more than $1 million in losses. 

Authorities are investigating the death of Mohamed Coulibaly, who was found dead in a swimming pool on July 31 in Harrison Township, New Jersey. Police were contacted over concerns of his well-being and went over to the home for a welfare check. 

Coulibaly’s death follows a report published July 15 by Barron’s that detailed his role in organizing a purported scam that got athletes to invest in bogus online retail stores. The websites were reportedly built using e-commerce platform Shopify and showed fake sales for items such as motorized water guns, handheld fans, and smartphone cases. 

"The athletes and other investors would buy into these e-commerce shops that seemed to be doing really good business based on the sales logs that they were able to review,” Barron’s reporter Jacob Adelman told Good Morning America. “But we were able to determine that those transactions were manually input by somebody with access to the backend of these stores. And the purpose of this was to make these athletes think that they had these successful investments in these shops.” 

Athletes invested over $1 million

Three former NFL players told Barron’s they collectively lost over $1 million in investments made to Coulibaly. Former New York Giants linebacker Tae Crowder, who now plays in the UFL, reportedly invested his entire savings of $500,000 in one of Coulibaly’s websites. 

“I saw him [Coulibaly] hanging out with a bunch of different guys that I knew which, made me feel comfortable,” Crowder told GMA. “I don't want anybody else to get involved in anything like this. And whoever has got involved, I just want to come together and make it right.” 

Barron’s reported that Coulibaly’s Instagram account showcased a lavish lifestyle boarding private jets and rides on yachts. His Instagram feed, now deleted, reportedly showed Coulibaly posed with active NFL players Nakobe Dean and Jalen Carter—both members of the Philadelphia Eagles’ 2025 Super Bowl championship team—as well as friendly comments from fellow NFL player Terrel Edmunds and U.S. men’s World Cup soccer player Mark McKenzie. 

The athletes tied to Coulibaly were also reportedly impressed by his connection to former Arizona Cardinals general manager Steve Keim, who was operations chief of Coulibaly’s e-commerce company called Motion Ventures, according to Barron’s. Keim spent 10 years as GM of the NFL team, later becoming an executive with Klutch Sports, the firm founded by superstar agent Rich Paul and is now part of United Talent Agency.  

In exchange for investments of at least $50,000, Coulibaly reportedly offered the athletes the opportunity to become the owners of e-commerce sites. He guaranteed investors a return of their principal after six months, plus 80% of any profits from the sites. 

SEC, FBI alerted to alleged fraud

According to Barron’s, athletes complained in a report submitted earlier this year to federal and state authorities that Coulibaly sold them an unregistered investment for a business that generates no actual income, seemingly relying instead on new participants to pay existing ones. The report was sent to the SEC, the FBI’s Philadelphia office, and the Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities. 

Coulibaly told Barron’s in May that its reporting was based on a misunderstanding of the technology and that his investors hadn’t received returns from their deals because he himself hadn’t received expected funds from a planned acquisition of his venture. 

So far, no criminal charges have been filed connected to the alleged scheme. Shane Lemieux, a retired NFL player now pursuing a career in financial services, wrote a LinkedIn post in response to news of Coulibaly’s death. 

“Terrible story all around. Having a former teammate impacted by this hits home,” wrote Lemieux. “Athletes: make sure your inner circle is tight and vetted… and if it smells like a scam, it’s probably a scam.” 

Scams targeting athletes and sports teams resulted in nearly $1 billion in fraud losses from 2002 to 2024, according to a report from Ernst & Young. Earlier this year, Merrill Lynch paid a second settlement to a former Miami Dolphins who was a client of Isaiah T. Williams, a former broker who was charged with grand theft, fraud and money laundering.