Authorities in New Jersey say records related to the death of Mohamed Coulibaly, the alleged ringleader of an e-commerce scheme targeting professional athletes, pertain to an ongoing criminal probe, indicating that investigators are considering the possibility that he was murdered.
The prosecutor's office in Gloucester County, N.J., denied Barron's requests for records related to Coulibaly's death because the records "or portions thereof pertain to a criminal investigation and are therefore exempt from disclosure."
Coulibaly was found dead on the evening of July 31 in the swimming pool of a Harrison Township, N.J., home by police responding to calls from a family member concerned about his well being, officials said earlier this month. He was 24. Barron's requested a recording of the call and records from the medical examiner's office.
While federal investigators are known to be probing Coulibaly's e-commerce business, that's unlikely to be the investigation cited by Gloucester County officials, says Lee Vartan, a former federal and state prosecutor in New Jersey.
County prosecutors wouldn't commonly be involved in-and may not even know about-probes directed by federal or state officials who are the authorities that investigate large-scale financial crimes, Vartan says.
"Any investigation by the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office would likely have to do with the cause of Mr. Coulibaly's death," says Vartan, who added that his analysis was based on a general understanding of how such probes are conducted and not any specific knowledge of the case.
A prosecutor's office spokesperson didn't respond to messages from Barron's.
In the hours before his death, Coulibaly described himself as "on the edge" in a text exchange with a past investor from whom he was seeking a new loan he said was vital to keep his business going. Barron's viewed screenshots of the texts.
Coulibaly negotiated a $75,000 loan from the investor after agreeing to secure the debt with his car-a Lamborghini Urus-and two high-end watches.
Coulibaly asked the investor to send $37,500 of the loan to him directly. The rest was to be wired to a Robert Brown in Coatesville, Pa. A Coatesville-based Rob Brown had posted reactions to updates on Coulibaly's now-offline Instagram feed. Brown identifies himself on his LinkedIn profile as a partner and head of sports and entertainment with Vomos, a Philadelphia-based luxury travel firm.
Brown describes himself as the "Charter King" on LinkedIn and other social-media platforms. His Threads profile advertises: "Private Jet. Wheels up in 2 hrs"
Brown declined to respond to questions from Barron's about the funds Coulibaly was seeking, saying he was unable to confirm or deny client relationships.
The investor ultimately called off the loan when Coulibaly apparently failed to provide the required collateral, according to the text exchange. A courier sent by Coulibaly arrived at the investor's suburban New York home without the Lamborghini, according to the exchange with the investor, who also determined that the watches delivered weren't authentic.
"Fake cards, fake sleeves," the investor wrote in a text at 4:15 p.m., less than three hours before Coulibaly's body was found by police. "Go see your jeweler."
Coulibaly responded: "You can't be serious right now."
The investor said how serious he was: "Dead."
"I will be," Coulibaly replied, before continuing to plead his case for a loan.
Coulibaly's alleged scheme has attracted widespread attention because of the roster of pro athletes that he had claimed as investors, as well as the involvement of former Arizona Cardinals general manager Steve Keim, who had served as Coulibaly's operations chief.
Barron's was the first to report on the alleged scheme in July.
Some two dozen current and former pro athletes and other public figures are named as clients on a pitch deck that Coulibaly had circulated to potential investors.
A spokesperson for Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider, who is among those named, told ESPN earlier this month that he lost money investing with Coulibaly. Former New York Giants linebacker Tae Crowder, another investor named in the pitch deck, told Barron's that he lost $500,000.
Three additional former NFL players previously interviewed by Barron's collectively said they lost more than $1 million across separate investments with Coulibaly.
Coulibaly told investors that they were buying ownership of Shopify-powered web stores, which purportedly sold items such as motorized water guns, hand-held electric fans, and smartphone cases. He said he owned a factory in China that manufactures the goods.
Coulibaly then provided the shop owners with login credentials to track activity on the stores' internal dashboards.
Those sales data were apparently falsified by using a manual entry feature built into Shopify's software, Barron's reported. Website owners thereby got the impression of a thriving store, while they waited for the proceeds from their investment.
Coulibaly previously told Barron's that its analysis was based on a misunderstanding of the technology and that his investors hadn't received returns from their deals because he himself hadn't received expected funds from a planned acquisition of his venture.
Crowder says he became suspicious when Coulibaly repeatedly failed to deliver returns on his investment that had become long overdue earlier this year.
Crowder says an attorney he hired to help with the matter connected him with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which sent agents to his home in early July for a lengthy in-person interview. The agency confirmed to the attorney that its investigation was ongoing as of last week, Crowder says.
Keim, the former Cardinals general manager, said in an interview posted on YouTube on Aug. 12 with sports broadcaster Trey Wingo that he had just been interviewed by the FBI about the alleged scheme.
The FBI declined to comment to Barron's.
Keim told Wingo, with whom he hosts a streaming sports program called Inside Football, that the agency considers him a victim of Coulibaly's scheme, in which he himself had also invested.
He said he had been used by Coulibaly to "legitimize his business." Multiple players targeted in the alleged scheme told Barron's that their confidence in Coulibaly was buttressed by Keim's involvement. The Seahawks spokesperson told ESPN that Keim introduced Schneider to the investment opportunity.
An attorney for Keim didn't respond to a request for comment from Barron's.
Keim said in the interview with Wingo that Coulibaly's death had come as the "walls were closing in" on the would-be entrepreneur, with investors-including himself-growing increasingly agitated about his failure to repay them.
"He ended up either getting murdered or killing himself, unfortunately," Keim said.
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