Questions remain after death of man accused in alleged NFL investment fraud

Mohamed Coulibaly denied operating a scam before his death. Investigations into both his death and the allegations continue.

The alleged scammer behind a reported million-dollar investment scheme targeting former NFL players has been found dead in New Jersey. Mohamed Coulibaly, 24, who denied wrongdoing before his death, was discovered in a swimming pool as authorities continue investigating the circumstances surrounding his death and the alleged fraud.

According to ABC7, investors were encouraged to buy ownership stakes in what appeared to be successful online stores ran by Coulibaly. However, the businesses’ sales figures were allegedly inflated to make the stores appear profitable.

“The athletes would buy into these e-commerce shops that seemed to be doing really good business based on the sales logs,” Barron’s reporter Jacob Adelman said, “We were able to determine that those transactions were manually input by somebody with access to the backend of these stores… to make these athletes think that they had these successful investments.”

Three former NFL players told Barron’s they collectively lost more than $1 million through the alleged scheme. Among them was former New York Giants linebacker Tae Crowder, who said he invested $500,000.

“We was just, every day, talking about different investments,” Crowder recalled. “I saw Mohamed Coulibaly hanging out with a bunch of different guys that I know, which made me feel comfortable.” Crowder said he regularly logged into the online store and watched what appeared to be growing sales. “The more I kept logging in, the numbers started going up,” he said. However, Crowder said the promised returns never materialized.

Before his death, Mohamed Coulibaly denied operating a scam. He maintained that investors had not been repaid because of pending funding tied to a planned acquisition of his venture. As of now, no criminal charges have been filed. Authorities have not released a cause of death of Coulibaly and the investigation is ongoing.