8 NCAA Football Players on Same Team Arrested for Credit Card Scam
The Rutgers University football team is in the news again — for all the wrong reasons.
Eight Rutgers football players were arrested last Wednesday for their alleged involvement in a credit card scam.
At the center of the scandal is Scarlett Knights linebacker Brendon DeVera, according to NJ.com. In April, DeVera allegedly used the dark web to obtain credit card numbers and transferred funds to various Rutgers debit-card accounts, NJ.com reported.
The first of eight Rutgers University football players facing charges in an alleged credit card scheme will face a judge today. @jennamdeangelis has the latest: https://t.co/E6UHSNpBu0
— CBS New York (@CBSNewYork) August 23, 2018
Overall, DeVera allegedly took $11,450 from various credit card accounts through this scheme.
The seven other players arrested are junior defensive back K.J. Gray, redshirt freshman defensive back Edwin Lopez, redshirt junior linebacker Malik Dixon, redshirt freshman linebacker Syhiem Simmons, sophomore defensive end C.J. Onyechi, senior defensive back Kobe Marfo, and redshirt freshman defensive back Naijee Jones. All allegedly recived funds through this credit card scheme.
All eight players were charged with conspiracy to commit theft by deception in the third degree, reported NJ.com. They will appear in Middlesex County Superior Court on Sept. 13 to answer the charges.
DeVera and Gray also face second-degree charges that could be punishable by up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $150,000, NJ.com reported.
DeVera and Gray were released by the team in July for violating team rules, which likely had to do with this investigation, which has been ongoing for four months.
DeVera was the “ringleader,” according to the NJ.com article. Gray isn’t being accused of making fraudulent deposits, but he is charged in assisting the process by allowing DeVera to use his laptop.
“While the criminal activity was brought to law enforcement’s attention a couple of months ago, as you can imagine with something like this we need to time to gather the evidence, get the financial records,” Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey said, reported NJ.com.
“Rutgers University Police Department did a very good job on this case. We’ve been able to work with the credit card companies and we’re continuing to work backwards as we move forward with the investigation,” Carey added.
NJ.com reported that DeVera allegedly launched the scheme to pay off outstanding parking tickets.
Why did the Rutgers football players allegedly steal $11K? How did they get caught? Everything you need to know about the credit card fraud scheme https://t.co/n32DhPD8By #rutgers
— Keith Sargeant (@KSargeantNJ) August 25, 2018
Simmons and Lopez transferred from Rutgers in August. The other four players — Dixon, Jones, Marfo, and Onyechi — have been suspended until at least after the hearing.
“We have not made and will not make any final decisions on their status until this thing is resolved,’’ Rutgers coach Chris Ash said, according to NJ.com.
“Our players understand what our standards are, what our expectations are, and they understand there are consequences if they don’t live up to those behavior standards. … Issues are going to happen. We don’t like it, but we’re going to deal with them,” Ash added.
It’s the second major scandal at Rutgers in the last few years. Earlier this month, former Rutgers players Teejay Johnson and Andre Boggs were sentenced to 12 years in jail for their involvement in a series of armed robberies in 2015.
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