Clinton Portis seems to have learned from his excessive spending and poor investments. (Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)
Former Washington Redskins running back Clinton Portis was in such dire straits financially he thought about murdering one of his advisors responsible for mismanaging his decimated $43.1 million fortune.
“It wasn’t no beat up,” Portis told Sports Illustrated of the 2013 night he waited outside a Washington, D.C., building in his car holding a pistol. “It was kill.”
An unnamed friend who had trained as a family therapist talked Portis, 35, out of murdering his ex-financial manager, which the magazine did not identify.
“We’d probably be doing this interview from prison,” Portis said, if he hadn’t been talked down from pulling the trigger.
With the money Portis earned in his nine-year NFL career, he made what he thought were safe investments and set aside money for the security of his mother and four sons. But according to lawsuits filed between 2011 and 2013, most of the wealth was lost due to financial advisor Jeff Rubin and his team persuading the RB to make poor investments like sinking $1 million into an Alabama casino and withdrawing $3.1 million without his consent from a BB&T bank account that was opened with a forged signature card. Portis said another manager, Jinesh Brahmbhatt, caused him to lose more money in a Ponzi scheme by Success Trade Securities.
Those advisers, who had the designation of being registered with the NFL, were prohibited from working in finance but were not sent to prison.
“No jail time, no nothing,” Portis said. “Living happily ever after.”
But Portis’ own spending also was out of hand. After he was traded from the Broncos to the Redskins in 2002, he scored one of the largest payouts for an NFL running back —$50.5 million and $17 million in bonuses over eight years. With those funds, a 22-year-old Portis bought “a lot” of houses with huge fish tanks, stripper poles and a slew of vehicles. While he also supported his family, the big spending led Portis to file for bankruptcy in 2015, which put his financial woes on the public stage, including four women’s owed domestic support totaling $412,000, $390,000 due to the IRS and over $287,000 owed to the MGM Grand casino. “Potential” $2 million and $8 million claims against Brahmbhatt’s and Rubin’s respective firms also were listed in the filing.
Portis only had $150 left in the bank at the time.
“The biggest regret is trusting people with my money,” Portis said. “You shouldn’t. Go to a bank.”
Many have taken Portis’ plight as a warning to anyone experiencing immense wealth.
A couple didn’t fault the athlete.
