Former Kings executive Jeffrey R. David was sentenced Monday to seven years in federal prison for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in a scheme in which he intended to steal more than $13 million from his victims, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced.
David, 44, was ordered by U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb in the Eastern District of California to surrender on Aug. 20.
"David used his high-ranking position with the Sacramento Kings to deceive businesses across the country into sending him millions of dollars," Scott said in a statement. "The brazen scheme involved forgeries, stolen corporate executive identities, money laundering, and even instructing a former colleague to destroy evidence."
According to court documents, David, in his position as chief revenue officer of the NBA team, negotiated sponsorship and other marketing agreements with companies in California and elsewhere.
But from October 2012 through July 2016, David used the position to defraud companies by representing to them that payments they made were going to the Kings, when in fact the payments were going to bank accounts under his sole control, held in the name of Sacramento Sports Partners LLC.
In particular, prosecutors said, David took advantage of the Kings' opening in 2016 of their new arena, Golden 1 Center, by amending, without the team’s knowledge, two major sponsorship agreements with Golden 1 Credit Union and Kaiser Permanente, a nonprofit healthcare plan, so that $9 million and $4.4 million wires from these entities went to accounts controlled by David, rather than the Kings. David forged the signatures of various individuals, including the then-president of the Kings, the president and CEO of Golden 1, and an executive at Kaiser Permanente to carry out his scam.
He then used the money to buy and remodel real estate in Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach, in Southern California. He also spent the fraud proceeds on various personal expenses, including checks to family members, a private jet membership and substantial credit card bills, authorities said.
According to the U.S. Attorney, $13.2 million of the $13.4 million has been recovered, in part, "(t)hanks to the fast actions of the Kings organization."
