Authorities are investigating the death of Mohamed Coulibaly, who allegedly targeted NFL players in a $1 million e-commerce scam, after police found him dead in a pool in Harrison Township, New Jersey. A family member requested a welfare check, after which authorities reportedly discovered Coulibaly’s body.
Coulibaly, a 24-year-old entrepreneur, had been accused of selling professional athletes’ shares in dubious online stores. A little over two weeks ago, a Barron’s investigation accused him of enlisting professional athletes to buy ownership stakes in Shopify-powered online storefronts that appeared to produce consistent revenue.
“The athletes and other investors would buy into these e-commerce shops that seemed to be doing really good business based on the sales logs that they were able to review,” Barron’s reported. “But we were able to determine that those transactions were manually input by somebody with access to the backend of these stores. And the purpose of this was to, to make these athletes think that they had these successful investments in these shops.”
Tae Crowder was one of the NFL players who believed he had been scammed
However, three former NFL players, including former linebacker Tae Crowder, informed the magazine that their combined losses from various investments connected to Coulibaly exceeded $1 million. Rapper YG, linebacker Nakobe Dean of the Las Vegas Raiders, defensive lineman Jalen Carter of the Philadelphia Eagles, and soccer player Mark McKenzie were among the other celebrities allegedly who invested with Coulibaly.
The Barron’s article also said months went by without Coulibaly paying them and “always had a different excuse.” It was then that they believed they had been scammed.
Despite the allegations, ABC New York reports that authorities had not filed any criminal charges in connection with Mohamed Coulibaly. He also denied to Barron’s that his e-commerce business was a scam.
Coulibaly stated that his investors were not compensated because a planned financial acquisition of his business by a third party had not been carried out, and that there was a “misunderstanding” about the website’s technology. Now, it appears that his former clients will have an even more difficult time recouping their investments.