Lawyers to the embattled former minority owner of the Minnesota Vikings have withdrawn from his case, citing over $600,000 in unpaid fees. Reginald Fowler has been accused of misleading his lawyers regarding his financial status, having paid just $25,000 since the case started over two years ago.
As CoinGeek reported, law firm Hogan Lovells submitted a motion to withdraw from his shadow banking case a month ago. At the time, the lawyers claimed that they couldn’t give an official reason for their withdrawal due to client privilege.
In a supplemental ex parte letter to the Southern District of New York, the lawyers have finally revealed their reason—unpaid fees. According to the letter, Fowler led the lawyers to believe he was a high net worth individual with substantial assets. However, he has refused to pay them their dues.
They stated, “Yet, to this day, despite repeated requests and efforts, we have not received payment of a single invoice beyond the $25,000 initial retainer received on November 6, 2018, while our current bill exceeds $600,000.”
The lawyers started working with Fowler on his shadow banking case in October 2018. At the time, he claimed that the Justice Department had frozen his assets. Reportedly, he also presented himself as a man who had been taken advantage of by digital currency entities. These entities wanted to use his personal balance sheet as a means of transacting without drawing the attention of the banks.
“As noted, it was during this period of time that Mr. Fowler made his first and last payment of $25,000 to Hogan Lovells.”
In the two years that followed, the lawyers said they learned about properties and government bonds that Fowler owned. Per their letter, Fowler owns a company that holds bonds worth over $900 million. The former NFL player also made other payments to a law firm in Portugal. However, Hogan Lovell’s dues remained unpaid.
U.S. authorities charged Fowler and his business partner Ravid Yosef in 2019 with operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. The two allegedly funneled hundreds of millions of dollars through their bank accounts for a number of digital currency exchanges globally.
Fowler’s company Global Trading Solutions was one of the companies tied to the infamous Crypto Capital. The connection made Fowler one of the people at the heart of the $880 million Bitfinex scandal.
Follow CoinGeek’s Crypto Crime Cartel series, which delves into the stream of groups—from BitMEX to Binance, Bitcoin.com, Blockstream, ShapeShift and Ethereum—who have co-opted the digital asset revolution and turned the industry into a minefield for naïve (and even experienced) players in the market.
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