Kirk Wright commits suicide

Associated Press is reporting that Kirk Wright, founder of International Management Associates, committed suicide today in jail. Wright was convicted Wednesday of operating an investment scheme that bilked millions of dollars from clients, including many NFL players.

Kirk Wright bilked investors, including many current and former NFL players out of at least at least $20 million. He fraudulently provided investors with reports claiming his firm, International Management Associates, had over $180 million in assets. But when he was finally busted, there was less than $500,000 accounted for. In February 2007, Wright was ordered to pay nearly $20 million as part of a default judgment by the U.S. District Court in Atlanta. In March 2007, six current and former players sued the NFL and its union, seeking to recoup $20 million they lost in this fraud scheme. The NFLPA, in response to significant financial losses experienced by several NFL players, began the Financial Advisor Program, a first-of-its-kind program aimed at protecting players against incompetent and fraudulent advisors.

I wrote an article on Kirk Wright in Sports Business Journal: "Pro athletes must use caution to avoid financial runaround" (August 28, 2006). I also used this as a case study in my book, Money Players.

Former Denver Broncos player Steve Atwater was hired by Wright to solicit investors for IMA and also invested $2.7 million of his own money. After learning of Wright's death Atwater told the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, "It's a tragic deal all around."

Sad story. Hopefully there are some valuable lessons learned here.

--Marc Isenberg

Comments

[Anonymous]

As tragic as this whole sordid affair has turned out to be, there are still questions about the intricacies, logistics, and various third parties involved in pulling this off. Is it really this easy to set up a private firm and bring in $150 million with no accounting for it? What's wrong with this picture?

[Grady]

Kirk Wright was a bad, bad dude and his suicide the end of very sad life. But lax oversight by investors played also significant role in allowing this to get out of hand. Where are you getting the figure that Wright's firm brought in $150 million? According to reports, IMA raised $20 million. The rest were bogus profits reported on forged Ameritrade statements. Why didn't investors look at (or demand access to) their online statements? Perhaps if they did, redflags would have been raised earlier.

[Anonymous]

As sad as the taking of one's life is, it could have been a calculated Kenneth Lay style of avoiding final conviction and the consequential civil suits. It was all for nothing. Just a very sad story but one which unfortunately reflects more on the US culture than most care to notice or admit to.

[Anonymous]

Kirk Wright remained consistent and adamant that this was mismanagement. Could he have been correct? Was his conviction and facing up to 710 years a reflection of our very racist society? Did the punishment fit the crime? We have murderers who face less time. How many years did our friends at Enron receive? I'm no history or current events guru, but how many "white coller" criminals have ever had such a punishment? Was our Harvard educated, black man going to be made an example of? This should be a civil suit from the family members he left behind.

[Anonymous]

He was never sentenced. The 710 years were based on the maximum possibility based on statute. He probably would have received around 25 to 30 years but he obviously didn't want to stick around to find out.

[ahso]

people have got to stop playing the race card. the truth is that kirk wright stole people's money and was about to get punished severely for it. and kirk chose to not face the music unfortunately.

the paper trail in this case pretty unambiguously shows that he systematically worked to deceive his investors. believe it or not, our justice system is one of the fairer and impartial ones in the world. and it works for the most part.

[?]

The brother was a bronx dude who wanted the good life. Many times black men are denied and in most cases it is manifested in other ways. In Kirk's case, he wanted the drug dealer, athlete, and entertainment $, but did not wish to go down the same road to achieve those riches. He hide behind the Bing, Harvard, pretty wife and kids, but all he really wanted is to be respected, accomplished, educated, paid, and loved. Unfortunately, he just did not know or was taught how to get those things the honest way and like many other black men in the inner-city where crime runs rampant, (drugs, homelessness, and the like-result), his went afoul. Let me be clear, what he did was questionable, and to some people was dead wrong, but more important than than, he lost his life in doing it and in the very worst way, by hanging himself, which begs the question, what will become of his four sons. God bless them.

The X

[rjesq]

no doubt this is a tragedy... i grew up with KW, same hood, same friends, same school. only a few of us left to do something positive... his brother included. life changes us over time... we become blinded by ambition, greed, the externalities of this world, the things that gradually errode our true self. I guess after a while KW lost touch with hearing his voice. The same voice that empowered him to leave the valley, get educated and build an empire should have been the voice he listened to to disclose losses, defer from over endulging, and keep himself humble. In short, this is not the KW that was raised in the BK. This is the KW that got caught up, strung out and made example of because he dared to live his dream that turned out to be a nightmare in the end. White collar crime doesnt apply to us. No matter what color collar we wear the penalties are stiffer, harder, quicker and more publicized. Especially if we have accomplished something or worse yet, have flaunted our success. My best wishes and prayer's to KW's family and all of us that ran the up and down hills of BX's Valley! RIP-KW...