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Former NFL Player Sentenced To 30 Months In Federal Prison

Originally posted on The Spun | By Tzvi Machlin | Last updated Mar 11, 2025 11:47 AM ET

At one point linebacker John Leake got to live the dream of going from playing college football to playing in the NFL. But in the years since his retirement, he's been busy in some pretty bad ways and is now set to spend a few years in prison.

On Monday, Yahoo Sports reported that Leake has been sentenced to 30 months in prison on one count of wire fraud and one count of transactional money laundering. He entered his guilty plea on the charges this past September.

Leake had been running a Ponzi scheme where he "defrauded victims out of more than $5 million by lying to them that he was involved in lucrative luxury real estate investments, gold mines in Alaska and Ghana, and other ventures, and promising them high rates of return on their investments," per the outlet.

Participation in sports does not make men moral or virtuous. John Leake, 43, a former NFL linebacker, ran a real estate Ponzi scheme defrauding multiple victims out of more than $5 million. He didn’t become an immoral person, all of a sudden, at 43.https://t.co/BSdpoSelJX
— Anthony Bradley (@drantbradley) March 11, 2025

The Justice.gov report states that the events took place over several years, with Leake engaging in various acts of fraud in order to get money from his victims. All told, he defrauded his victims over over $5 million and has been ordered to pay $5,314,059 in restitution.

"From June 2015 to March 2020, Leake solicited money from victims by falsely claiming that he was participating in multiple lucrative business ventures, including subletting luxury real estate properties and real estate investing. Leake offered his victims the opportunity to loan him funds for him to invest in these purported ventures in exchange for a high rate of return," Justice.gov stated in their report from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Central District of California.

ATLANTA - 2006: John Leake of the Atlanta Falcons poses for his 2006 NFL headshot at photo day in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Getty Images) Getty Images/Getty Images

"He also fraudulently offered to personally guarantee return of the victims’ loans and provided them promissory notes purporting to memorialize his promise to repay the victims at a fixed rate of interest. Leake’s lies to his victims included his claims that his business ventures were successful, and he had accumulated substantial personal assets and income. In fact, Leake lacked sufficient personal assets and income to repay his victims."

Leake played college football at Clemson and went undrafted in 2004. He played in the league for three years, appearing in 25 games for the Atlanta Falcons and Green Bay Packers. His career ended with 17 tackles.

This article first appeared on The Spun and was syndicated with permission.

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