A former employee of three NBA teams has been charged in the U.S. with "duping one of Australia's largest basketball associations" into paying him $4,000 per month for nearly two years, according to the AAP. According to the indictment filed in the U.S. District Court, Seattle-based Stephen Bruce Gordon tricked Melbourne's Knox Basketball Inc. into believing "one of the world's richest men," former Microsoft CEO and L.A. Clippers Owner Steve Ballmer, "wanted to promote basketball overseas." Ballmer, however, was "not involved" and Gordon was "allegedly operating a Ponzi scheme that fleeced Knox Basketball and 29 other victims" out of at least $4M. The scheme began when Gordon reached out to Knox Basketball's then CEO and two-time Australian Olympian Wayne Carroll, and claimed Ballmer and Microsoft wanted to "provide funding for the international promotion of basketball." The indictment said, "In reliance upon these representations, Wayne Carroll and Knox Basketball agreed to pay Stephen Bruce Gordon $US4,000 per month as a consultant." Prosecutors said that Ballmer "never agreed to invest in overseas basketball operations through Gordon" (AAP, 4/21).
