National Basketball Association

Inmate charged in fraud against 3 ex-Heat players

Published Aug. 29, 2014 4:06 p.m. ET

foxsports

MIAMI (AP) A man already in prison on a real estate fraud conviction has been charged in Florida with a multi-million-dollar investment scam involving three former Miami Heat players and the team itself.

A grand jury indictment released Friday charges that Haider Zafar ripped off players Mike Miller, James Jones and Rashard Lewis in 2013 by promising to invest their money in various business opportunities. Instead, prosecutors say Zafar kept the money and used some of it to buy a $1 million, three-season Heat ticket package.

The indictment says Miller, Jones and Lewis gave Zafar $7.5 million combined.

Zafar faces five wire fraud charges that each carry maximum 20-year prison sentences. He pleaded guilty in February in Ohio federal court to multiple charges in an unrelated $10 million land-buying swindle.