NFL star Dwight Freeney is suing Bank of America and a Merrill Lynch financial adviser for more than $20 million in damages for their alleged role in leading him into a massive fraud that brought him to the brink of bankruptcy.
Mr. Freeney, along with his company Roof Group, claims that the bank's global wealth and investment management unit played an “integral and indispensable part of the scheme.” He blames the firm and a current adviser, Michael Bock, for “aiding and abetting” a fraudster who siphoned off more than $8.5 million from his accounts at the firm, according to the complaint.“In 2010, Dwight Freeney authorized Bank of America to manage his assets, including his NFL salary,” said Mr. Freeney's attorney, Jeffrey B. Isaacs, in a statement. “Two years later, Dwight had lost more than $20 million because of BofA's fraud scheme.”
It is the latest development in a series of court battles that have gone on since 2012, when the FBI arrested a former Merrill Lynch adviser, Eva Weinberg, and her associate Michael Stern. Both are currently serving time in prison after pleading guilty to their roles in defrauding Mr. Freeney, according to the complaint.
Ms. Weinberg, who left Merrill Lynch in July 2010 to become a personal financial manager for Mr. Freeney, and Mr. Stern were engaged in an “elaborate and malevolent” scheme to defraud Mr. Freeney through a number of means, including stealing $2.2 million and having him take out a worthless $55 million life insurance policy with illegal kickbacks, the complaint said.
Bank of America has yet to file a response, but a spokesman, William Halldin, denied any wrongdoing.
“Although we sympathize with Mr. Freeney as the victim of a crime, the bank had nothing to do with the criminal scheme,” Mr. Halldin said in an emailed statement. “The primary wrongdoer never worked for the bank and any of its affiliates and the other person committed her criminal conduct after she left Merrill Lynch.”
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Mr. Freeney, who also filed suit last year against his attorneys for allegedly failing to recognize the fraud, said in this suit that Bank of America and Mr. Bock were negligent in failing to protect him from the scheme, which, he alleged, began in January 2010, while Ms. Weinberg was still at Merrill Lynch.
While he was being recruited as a client that January, Bank of America and Mr. Bock fraudulently induced him to join the firm by withholding information from him that would have kept him from getting involved in the scheme, he said.
By 2010, for example, Ms. Weinberg had already testified in a separate court case that she had been assisting Mr. Stern in committing bankruptcy fraud.
Mr. Bock also concealed from him that he and Ms. Weinberg, who worked together in the firm's Coral Gables, Fla., office, were romantically involved and were married twice from 1998 to 2009, having divorced for a few months in 2006.
Mr. Freeney said Mr. Bock failed to act in his best interests and accused Mr. Bock of purchasing some $890,000 in securities without authorization.
Mr. Halldin said, however, that there was “no indication” that Mr. Bock had any involvement in the alleged scheme.
Mr. Freeney entered the NFL in 2002 as a first-round draft pick for the Indianapolis Colts, where he played defense for 11 seasons. He signed a $34 million contract in 2007.
He said he came to Bank of America in 2010 as a 29-year old because he had already had a number of bad experiences with prior financial managers and was seeking the help of a larger, well-established firm.
