Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - She Scammed Professional Athletes For Millions - The Peggy Fulford story

Episode Date: April 6, 2025

The Peggy Fulford case involves a con artist who posed as a wealthy financial advisor and defrauded professional athletes out of millions of dollars. She convinced clients—including NBA player Travis Best and Dennis Rodman and NFL star Ricky Williams—to let her manage their finances, falsely claiming to be a Harvard-educated financial expert. In reality, she had no formal financial training and used their money to fund her luxurious lifestyle, including private jets, mansions, and designer goods. In 2018, she was sentenced to 10 years in prison for wire fraud and money laundering.

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Remember that basketball player Dennis Rodman? Remember when that woman stole millions of dollars from him? So the story starts with this woman, Peggy. And Peggy is from New Orleans and she really wants to be rich. Like she'll do anything to get that money. And one day in the 90s, an opportunity arrives for her to do just that. Because her friend gets drafted into the NBA. This guy, Travis.

And so Travis gets drafted and he gets a contract worth several mills. million dollars. And Peggy finds out about this and she's like, oh, I'm gonna get that money. And so she decides to start lying to everyone and saying she got a degree from Harvard Law and that she used to work on Wall Street. And so then she goes to Travis and she asks him, hey, let me manage your finances for you. I went to Harvard Law and I worked on Wall Street. And Travis, he's a busy guy. He ain't got time to be managing finances. So he's like, I. And so she gets to work, managing his money. And by managing his money, I mean she's funneling it into her own secret bank account. And she's spending it on herself.

And she's like out shopping and buying herself like designer drip and stuff like that. But five years later, Travis finally somehow realizes that Peggy has taken nearly two million dollars from him and spent it on herself. And so boom, he fires her. However, other than that, he doesn't want to make a big deal out of it, And so Peggy doesn't get into any real trouble. And this is a mistake because it allows her to move on and keep the con going with other people. And then one day, around 2001, Peggy gets another opportunity.

She finds out her interior designer friend is doing a job for this NFL player, a rookie named Ricky. And so Peggy tags along and that is when she meets Ricky and she charms him up and she's like, I have a law degree and I worked on Wall Street. And soon enough, they become friends, and she eventually offers to help manage his finances. And Ricky, he's like, I. And so, pow, they're off to the races. And she's helped managing Ricky's finances.

And she's like opening bank accounts for him. She's managing his investments, helping his bills get paid on time. She's like, don't worry, I'll take care of everything. And of course, by take care of everything, she really means she's going to low-key funnel his money into her own bank account. And so over time, she becomes really close. to Ricky, like family. She helps him and his girlfriend plan their wedding. She drives the girlfriend home from the hospital after they give birth to their kid. And like when Ricky gets traded to a different football team and has to move, Peggy moves to the new city with them to

stay close to them. So Ricky, not knowing he's being robbed by his own friend, he thinks Peggy is doing a really good job. In fact, he thinks she's doing such a good job that eventually word spreads around and suddenly her management services are in high demand. And she and her company start managing a bunch of other pro athletes. And that is when she meets this guy, Dennis Rodman. Now, Rodman was a really famous basketball player. But at this time, around the mid-2000s, he's actually retired. But he's still got a ton of money to manage.

And so Peggy meets Rodman, and she's like, I went to Harvard Law and I worked on Wall Street. And Rodman's like, I. Regardless, he needs Peggy's help. He's in a bad place financially and a moment. Apparently he's been drinking a lot lately. And so Peggy steps in and she starts managing his finances and just like with Ricky She becomes close friends with Rodman and so she also starts mothering him like reminding him when his drinking is getting out of control stuff like that and she legitimately does some good for him And over the next few years Rodman he kind of starts getting his life back together a bit like things are looking better for him and when he gets inducted into the basketball Hall of Fame he of course

on stage, thanks Peggy. Peggy King, Elkin King, the family, these guys are taking care of me these days. Thank you, Peggy. Now, as you've already predicted, while she's helping Rodman manage his life and his finances, she's also funneling his money directly into her own pocket.

And at this point, she's already stolen over a million dollars from him. And this poor guy has no idea. Meanwhile, Peggy's just out here living the good life. Like, she's got all this money now, and she's spending it on herself, She's like always wearing Gucci, like Gucci dress, Gucci bag, Gucci shoes. She lives in a big ass mansion.

She's got a whole fleet of expensive cars, a Bentley, a Maserati. I mean, she could at least attempt to hide her fraud a little better. But not only that, as if the situation couldn't get any more ridiculous, Peggy has such a good reputation and she's so popular with people that she pairs up with some producers. And she gets a deal to shoot and star in her own reality. TV show on BET called The Peggy Show. And it's about this woman who manages the finances of all these pro athletes. And they actually film a pilot for it.

However, the show doesn't end up going to air. Regardless, everything is working for her. I mean, at this point, she seems more successful than most of the people she's managing. And for some reason, no one questions anything. Until. One day, everything changes, because Rodman is. chilling in his condo and suddenly, boom, his power goes off. And Rodman's like, that's kind of weird. So he has an assistant look into it. And it turns out the power bill

for that condo hadn't been paid in months. In fact, a lot of his bills hadn't been paid in months. Now, who was supposed to make sure all of Rodman's bills are paid on time? The woman managing his finances. Peggy. Not only that, around this same time, around 2013, the IRS hits Ricky and his girlfriend, who is now his wife, they get hit with a fat-ass tax bill, telling him he now owes them $450,000. Plus, Ricky's Range Rover suddenly gets repossessed one day. And Ricky's like, what the fuck?

And of course, guess who was supposed to make sure all of Ricky's taxes and car payments are made on time? Peggy. Then they get a call from the wife of another different NFL player. And their car had also gotten repossessed, and their debit card got declined at the grocery store or something like that. And guess who was in charge of making those payments? Peggy! And so all of these people are like, what the hell is happening?

Where's Peggy? Meanwhile, Peggy is like, oh, shh. And she ghosts everyone. Like, she's not answering emails. She's not answering texts. And so they start putting two and two together. And they realize that Peggy hasn't been paying anyone's bills on time. because she's been stealing from all of them for years.

And so, Ricky's wife starts investigating and looking into it, and she discovers what you already know. Peggy never went to Harvard Law. She never worked on Wall Street. It was all a lie. So then, pow, Ricky and his wife file a lawsuit against her, claiming that she defrauded him out of millions of dollars. Then, in 2015, kaboom, this story hits the news.

And now it's a number. national headline. And around this time, an FBI agent is on his lunch break, reading the sports section of the news. And he sees that Ricky, this NFL player, is suing his own financial manager, Peggy. And he's like, oh, well, I'm going to look into this because this sounds like it could be a criminal case. And so he starts looking into it. And looking into it, he discovers that old Peggy is overseeing more than 85 secret bank accounts, with money bouncing around between all of them, making it all extremely hard to trace. So this turned out to be a way more complicated scheme than anyone had imagined.

But anyway, so now the FBI is involved and they're investigating. And at this point, Peggy's life has already started to fall apart. I mean, her own famous clients are all suing her. So most people are afraid to work with her now. And so she has to file bankruptcy and she has to sell all of her cars and Dennis Rodman is obviously no longer talking to her. And then so eventually the FBI goes to Peggy's house and there they question her

and they ask her all about these things she's being accused of. And of course, Peggy is stubborn and she denies all of it and she says she didn't do anything wrong. However, the FBI knows she's full of sh-h. And so, bam, Peggy gets arrested. Here's her mugshot. And she ends up taking a plea deal and she's sentenced to 10 years in prison.

and she has to pay everyone back, which in total is $5.7 million. She took $5.7 million from these guys. Damn, girl.