ST. LOUIS (AP) — A former professional basketball player whose ex-girlfriend was sentenced to prison last year for fraud is now facing his own federal indictment, accusing him of falsifying applications for pandemic relief loans.
The indictment of Lorenzo Gordon, 40, comes three months after his former girlfriend, Brittish Williams, was sentenced to four years in prison for fraud-related felonies, which also included schemes connected to the COVID-19 pandemic. Williams pleaded guilty to five charges in May and was sentenced in October.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Williams was arrested last week after failing to report to federal prison in West Virginia.
Gordon is charged with three counts of wire fraud and one count of theft of government property, the Post-Dispatch reported. He is accused of lying on COVID-19 business relief applications about how long he had operated two businesses, how much money they made, and whether he was the sole owner of a janitorial company.
Federal prosecutors say Gordon collected nearly $273,000 unlawfully, the newspaper reported, citing charging documents.
Gordon is originally from St. Louis and played basketball at Illinois State. He played professionally in France, Germany, Turkey and Israel. He does not have a listed phone number and it was not immediately clear if he had an attorney.
Williams first appeared on the VH1 reality show “Basketball Wives” in 2014 when she and Gordon were dating. They later broke up but have a child together.