Famed University of Connecticut basketball star Tate George has been arrested on a criminal charge in connection with a Ponzi scheme, officials said.
The investment scheme involved collecting money from some investors and then using that money to pay other investors, according to authorities.
George was a key player on some of the famed teams coached by Hall of Famer Jim Calhoun.
An 83-year old former state representative, who lost his law license years ago for misconduct, was sentenced to 5 years in prison Monday for handling closings for a group of conspirators who concocted phony real estate deals in order to swindle more than $4.4 million from banks.
Morris Olmer, a Democrat who represented New Haven in 1967 and '69 and a former member of New Haven's Board of Alderman, was convicted by a jury in April of conspiring to defraud the government, eight counts of fraud involving money transfers and four counts of making false statement to investigators.
Federal prosecutors said Olmer was one of a 14 conspirators who obtained $10 million in residential real estate loans through "sham sales contracts, false loan applications and fraudulent property appraisals." The conspirators are accused of dividing nearly half the money among themselves.
Olmer and three other members of the ring were convicted by a jury earlier this year. Seven others pleaded guilty to a variety of fraud-related charges, including the man prosecutors call the leader of the ring, Syed Babar, 28, of New London. Babar agreed to cooperate with authorities and became the government's star witness.
The jury deadlocked on a verdict against a 14th alleged member, Rabbi David Avigdor, 57, who presides over New Haven's Congregation Bikur Cholim Sheveth. Avigdor, a lawyer, worked for worked for Olmer, who maintained a law office in New Haven after his license to practice was revoked following a fraud complaint about four years ago. Prosecutors have said they will retry Avigdor
Another conspirator, 68-year old Thomas Gallagher of West Haven - former grand marshal of the New Haven St. Patrick's Day parade and a member of the West Haven police commission - plead guilty to a charge of making a false statement midway through the trial. In return, prosecutors dropped more than a dozen other charges against him. He was given a five year sentence.
Gallagher was accused of manufacturing appraisals that inflated the value of the dilapidated homes the conspirators financed and transferred among themselves in distressed areas of New Haven, New London and other locations, mostly in eastern Connecticut.
Federal prosecutors said Babar arranged for straw buyers to finance and buy - at inflated prices - homes they had no intention of living in or paying for. When the deals closed, the conspirators split the loan amounts in excess of sale prices and walked away from about 30 properties, creating more blight in already struggling neighborhoods.
The conspirators created a paper contraction company called Sheda Telle Construction to launder money and justify home prices by with false claims of renovation work. Prosecutors said about $1 million in cash flowed into the company's bank account, without any work ever being done.
Prosecutors said the ring operated between 2006 and 2010.
Five conspirators. Including Olmer, have received prison sentences of from four to 7 1/2 years in prison, Syed and seven others await sentencing. Babar is scheduled to be sentenced in November 28.
