Two Men Convicted in a Scheme to Defraud a Professional Athlete

ANNISTON, Ala. – Two men were convicted of financial crimes, including money laundering, structuring, tax fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud against a professional athlete, announced U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona, ATF Special Agent in Charge Marcus Watson, IRS-CI Acting Special Agent in Charge, Atlanta Field Office Demetrius D. Hardeman, and U.S. Postal Inspection Service Inspector-in-Charge Scott D. Fix, Houston Division.

The jury returned a guilty verdict against Anthony Lamon Frazier, 41, of Talladega, and Frederick Andre Spencer, 38, of Birmingham, after four days of testimony before U.S. District Court Judge Corey L. Maze. Frazier was convicted on twenty-four counts of money laundering, four counts of structuring, and three counts of tax fraud. Both Frazier and Spencer were convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

“This fraud was driven by the defendants’ greed,” said U.S. Attorney Escalona. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to investigate and prosecute those who commit complex financial crimes. I want to thank the prosecutors and our law enforcement partners for their hard work investigating and prosecuting this case.” 

“The verdict brought in this trial will have an immediate impact on this community,” said ATF Special Agent in Charge Watson. “This collaborative investigation, and the verdict rendered, will ensure those responsible for criminal activity in our community are held responsible. We at ATF will continue to work with our local, state, and federal partners in our continuing effort to combat violent crime, maintain public safety, and remove criminals who continuously show total disregard for the law.”

“A primary component of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service mission is to ensure public trust in the mail,” said Scott Fix, Inspector-in-Charge of the Houston Division. “When individuals like Frazier and Spencer challenge that mission, Postal Inspectors will aggressively investigate and remain steadfast in our resolve to seek justice to the end.”

“The defendants unjustly enriched themselves through financial fraud on their victim,” said Demetrius Hardeman, Acting Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation, Atlanta Field Office. “IRS Criminal Investigation special agents and our law enforcement partners will continue actively pursuing those who engage in these types of illegal financial activities.”

According to evidence presented at trial, between 2017 and 2020, Frazier worked as a Talladega County Tax Assessor, and used his county work truck for drug trafficking and money laundering the proceeds of drug trafficking. Frazier purchased and deposited postal money orders and input false information on the orders, purporting that they were for car sales, to launder his drug proceeds into his business bank accounts. Frazier also structured these proceeds into bank accounts and, in doing so, avoided reporting requirements for the U.S. Postal Service and for PNC Bank.

At the same time, Frazier and Spencer agreed to work on behalf of a professional athlete to create a sports-marketing agency called “Head of Game.” The professional athlete invested $500,000 for the purpose of building this agency and, based on promises made by Frazier and Spencer, wired the money into a “Head of Game” bank account held by Frazier.  Frazier immediately wired almost half of the funds into a bank account for “Mom and Son’s Towing,” which was held by Spencer’s mother. In 2019 and 2020, Spencer and Frazier used the athlete’s money on various personal expenses rather than to build the marketing agency.  Spencer and Frazier spent the money on luxury travel and dental bills and repeatedly withdrew bulk cash. By mid-2020, almost all the initial $500,000 investment had been spent to enrich Frazier and Spencer and not for the agreed-upon purposes. Frazier used over $100,000 of the Head of Game money to purchase a house in Atlanta on a short sale and deposited the proceeds of the sale into one of his own accounts.

The evidence also showed that Frazier substantially underreported his income on his 2017, 2018, and 2019 tax returns.  Specifically, he did not report income relating to drug proceeds and fraud proceeds from Head of Game. 

Prior to trial but as part of the same indictment, Spencer also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, false statements on a loan application, and wire fraud for his involvement in submitting false loan materials under the Paycheck Protection Program and obtaining “Covid loan” money from the Small Business Administration based on those false representations.

This investigation is part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF). OCDETF is an independent component of the U.S. Department of Justice.  Established in 1982, OCDETF is the centerpiece of the Attorney General’s strategy to combat transnational-organized-crime and to reduce the availability of illicit narcotics in the nation by using a prosecutor-led, multi-agency approach to enforcement.  OCDETF leverages the resources and expertise of its partners in concentrated, coordinated, long-term enterprise investigations of transnational organized crime, money laundering, and major drug trafficking networks.

ATF, IRS-CI, and USPIS investigated the case along with the Talladega County Drug Task Force.  Assistant United States Attorneys Allison Garnett, Blake Milner, and Austin Shutt prosecuted the case.