A team of current and former members of the National Football League‘s Denver Broncos is tackling an Atlanta hedge fund, recently the victim of mass redemptions, for alleged theft, forgery and fraud, The Wall Street Journal reports. Filed in an Atlanta state court, the civil suit by Terrell Davis, Steve Atwater, Rod Smith, Ray Crockett, Blaine Bishop, Al Smith and Clyde Simmons claims the hedge fund, International Management Associates, and principal Kirk Wright, among others, engaged in a variety of untoward activity, such as forging the plaintiffs’ names on checks that bounced and misleading them about IMA’s investment style, according to the Journal. In addition, IMA allegedly has “failed and refused to return our clients funds,” plaintiffs’ attorney Mark Trigg told the paper, adding, “Even more alarmingly, they have failed to provide even the most basic form of accounting or auditing.”
The fund recently reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission that it was experiencing problems as a result of the redemptions.
The plaintiffs may already have scored some points with Fulton County Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford, who is handling the case. The judge is expected to grant a freeze of IMA’s estimated $150 million, and to confiscate the passports of firm principals and appoint a receiver to look after the firm’s remaining assets and invest as necessary.