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Financial Planning > Behavioral Finance

Kevin Garnett Sues for Fraud Involving Tim Duncan's Ex-Advisor

By Janet Levaux

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A year after ex-financial advisor Charles A. Banks IV received a four-year prison sentence for defrauding retired NBA star Tim Duncan and was ordered to pay $7.5 million in restitution,  fallout from the looting of clients by Banks and related parties continues.

This week, retired NBA star Kevin Garnett sued his former accountants for $77 million, saying they worked with Banks and a related party to commit fraud, according to report in the San Antonio Express-News.

(Duncan played for the San Antonio Spurs, while Garnett was on the Minnesota Timberwolves and Boston Celtics.)

The lawsuit, filed in Minnesota, names Welenken CPAs and accountant Michael A. Wertheim, who deny the allegations.

“This case involves the defendants’ complicity in enormous financial losses at the hands of (Garnett’s) long-term trusted wealth manager, confidant and personal friend, Charles A. Banks IV,” according to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by the paper.

Garnett’s lawyers reviewed accounting records last August, when it “became clear … that Banks intentionally and continuously looted Garnett of his earnings and assets for many years,” the suit said.

The looting involved Hammer Holdings LLC, an investment holding company, which the FBI investigated and found was the vehicle for moving money and investments cited by Duncan and his attorneys in his fraud suit.

According to the lawsuit filed by Garnett, the ex-NBA star attended the Duncan-Banks hearings in San Antonio and then discovered that Banks had taken millions of dollars from Hammer but failed to invest a similar amount as agreed.

While the federal suit Garnett has brought against his accountants does not include Banks, Banks is being sued by Hammer Holdings in Minnesota, the newspaper reports. Banks is now in prison at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, after a judge denied his appeal.

— Check out 12 Worst Financial Advisors in America: 2016 on ThinkAdvisor.

Janet Levaux

@Think_JanetL

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