NEW YORK, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- A New York man faces charges he impersonated his businessman father while attempting to scam investors out up to $28 million, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a release Calvin Darden Jr. was arrested Wednesday on charges he allegedly defrauded some victims out of more than $8 million and tried to take another victim for about $20 million.
Darden, 39 is charged with two counts of wire fraud, each of which carries a maximum term of 20 years in prison.
In the first scheme, Darden is accused of tricking or trying to trick several lenders into giving him a total of $28 million to finance the potential acquisition of Maxim magazine and related assets. In the other scheme, he got his hands on $500,000 from a Taiwan company by allegedly falsely claiming he was arranging for the New York Knicks to play an exhibition game in Taiwan.
Federal authorities allege Darden presented a lender with a phony bank account statement purporting to be for an account held by his father and showing stocks he held that would serve as collateral. He also allegedly sent the lender a fake email supposedly from a bank employee verifying his father's stock holdings.
Darden also is accused of paying a Russia-based email "spoofing" service to send an unauthorized and fraudulent email to the escrow agent to secure the release of the funds.
In the second case involving the Taiwan company, Darden allegedly impersonated his father in multiple email communications and forced his father's signature on documents.
New York magazine reported Darden's father is a former executive at UPS and a board member for Coca-Cola and Target.
