A man recently accused of scamming multiple NFL players out of over $1 million now will never have to answer to those allegations.
Mohamed Coulibaly was found dead in a swimming pool last Friday by police at a home in Harrison Township, New Jersey, according to a report from financial news outlet Barron’s.
The discovery of Coulibaly’s body came just over two weeks after the outlet reported that he persuaded some NFL players to invest in an e-commerce website that was made to look profitable due to fake sales data someone manually entered on the site.
A family member called in a welfare check on Coulibaly last week, which led to his body being found.
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Among the NFL players ensnared in Coulibaly’s alleged scheme was former University of Georgia linebacker Tae Crowder. The Georgia native, who last was on a NFL roster in 2023 with the Tennessee Titans after being drafted by the New York Giants in 2020, says he was convinced to invest due to Coulibaly’s relationship with associates.
“I saw him hanging out with a bunch of different guys that I knew, which made me comfortable,” Crowder told “Good Morning America.”
“I would log into the store all the time to see how it worked and what was going on. I feel like the more times I logged in, the (sales) numbers kept going up.”
Crowder said he invested his entire savings account, totaling $500,000, in Coulibaly’s e-commerce business.
Prior to his death, Coulibaly denied to Barron’s that his e-commerce business was a scam.
Coulibaly told the outlet that there was a “misunderstanding” about the technology on the website, and that his investors were not paid because a planned financial acquisition of his venture from a third party had not been executed.
Other celebrities allegedly targeted by Coulibaly included rapper YG, Las Vegas Raiders linebacker Nakobe Dean, Philadelphia Eagles defensive lineman Jalen Carter and U.S. soccer player Mark McKenzie; there were no criminal charges filed against Coulibaly at the time of his death.
For Crowder and other high-profile figures affected, it is unclear whether Coulibaly’s death will further complicate getting to the bottom of the alleged scheme or recouping any of their initial investments.
“I don’t want anybody else to get involved in anything like this,” Crowder said. “And whoever has got involved, I just want to come together and make it right.”
