National Basketball Association

Tim Duncan ex-financial advisor indicted on fraud charges

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Tim Duncan has had an ongoing lawsuit filed against his ex-financial advisor since 2015 for what he claims has been a total loss of $25 million since the pair began doing business together.

Federal authorities filed criminal charges Friday against Tim Duncan’s former financial adviser.

Duncan sued him over the loss of millions of dollars in an investment scandal.

Venture capitalist and investment counselor Charles Banks had been indicted on a pair of wire fraud charges, and later released on bail.

Banks has been investigated by the FBI for over a year, and faces up to twenty years in prison per charge if convicted for defrauding an investor, aka Duncan.

Banks’ lawyer insists that he’s innocent and that his client will come out unscathed from all charges once the evidence is presented, but that’s what he’s supposed to say.

Duncan met Banks in 1998, while Banks worked for the CSI investment firm. Banks became president of the company two years later and resigned from that position after another seven years.

The company was then acquired by SunTrust Sports and Entertainment Specialty Group in 2011.

Even with the shifts and the business acquisition, Banks still contacted and worked with Duncan as his adviser after leaving CSI, contacting him on a regular basis to offer investment advice, and pointing him to projects to loan and invest millions into, which he was usually involved with. Banks acted as a communications liaison on behalf of SunTrust and Duncan.

The filing claims that Duncan was fooled into investments in sports merchandising ventures, wineries, and hotels, including a $10 million investment in a sports entity Banks owned called Gameday Entertainment LLC as late as 2010. The SEC along with Duncan have similar accusations against the company that also entails securities violations.

Banks was sued by Duncan in 2015, with accusations of investment fraud. In the documents he claims upwards of $20 million in losses that he’s looking to have returned. The total amount of the losses from 2005 to 2013 were found when Duncan had a review of his finances completed during his divorce in 2013.

There was also a cosmetics company investment that Banks told Duncan he would profit from, but didn’t reveal to him that the company was in financial trouble at the time. He was also told Kevin Garnett would also be a fellow investor although that never happened.

While Duncan’s team is ecstatic about recouping his loses, Banks remains defiant and plans to fight the case until the end.

I knew that Tim was unhappy because he wanted to get out of some of his investments after his divorce. But we’ve got some terrific investments and I’m not going to let Tim Duncan or anyone else bully me into changing the fund and possibly hurting other investors.

Duncan’s lawyers released a statement after the court appearance which can be read below.

STATEMENT FROM DUNCAN’S ATTORNEYS:

We are gratified that the United States Attorney and the FBI discovered Banks’ criminal conduct on the Gameday issue and concluded that Banks, beyond a reasonable doubt, unlawfully extracted money to fund his lavish lifestyle at the expense of Tim Duncan and his family. We thank them for working to discover and expose Banks’ misconduct.

Banks insisted when our civil cases were filed that this was just Tim being “impatient to get out of a bad deal.” His comments were simply another effort to keep his criminal activity hidden. We believe that the trial of this case will confirm his unlawful activity. We look forward to continuing to cooperate with the U.S. Attorney’s office and the FBI as they bring him to justice.