On Monday, it was announced that a former professional basketball player had been sentenced to prison on charges related to an extensive charity fraud scheme. 66-year-old Kermit Alan Washington of Las Vegas, Nevada was sentenced to six years in federal prison without parole. The defendant has also been ordered to pay $967,158 in restitution. Washington pleaded guilty to two counts of filing a false tax return and one count of aggravated identity theft on November 30, 2017.
Washington is among 11 defendants who have been convicted in several cases stemming from the investigation into one of the largest software piracy schemes ever prosecuted by the United States Department of Justice. Investigators seized more than $20 million in assets from the conspirators. It is estimated that they sold more than $100 million worth of illicit, unauthorized and counterfeit software products to thousands of online customers.
Washington ran the charity The Sixth Man Foundation, which was doing business as Project Contact Africa. The charity operated an eBay store and used PayPal to facilitate payments. Roughly $12 million in items were sold on the Project Contact Africa eBay store. In a separate, related case, Reza Davachi of Damascus, Maryland pleaded guilty to a fraud scheme for abusing the benefits afforded a charity in these sales.
Further details can be found here.