Scamfluencers - Calvin Darden Jr.: The Flashy Failson Fraud | 192

Episode Date: December 15, 2025

Calvin Darden Jr. was a smooth-talking hustler with a gift for forging documents, name-dropping celebrities, and jumping from one shady scheme to the next before anyone knew what hit them. His rise reveals deeper issues inside early-2000s Wall Street, where firms – eager to cash in on Black celebrities, athletes and entertainers – were desperate for “insiders” who could open doors. So when Calvin showed up bragging about his star-studded Rolodex, no one bothered to check the facts. By the time they realized his entire pitch was built on lies…Calvin was already gone.Be the first to know about Wondery’s newest podcasts, curated recommendations, and more! Sign up now at https://wondery.fm/wonderynewsletterListen to Scamfluencers on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/scamfluencers/ now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey Scam Fluencers fans, Sarah here. If you love the drama, deception, and mind-blowing reveals, Wondery Plus is your VIP ticket to more. Add-free episodes, early access to the juiciest scandals, and deep dives you won't find anywhere else. Get the full Scampluencers experience. Sign up today. Sassi, we've talked a lot about people who become an easy mark for scammers. I think the rich and famous are just easier to scam than regular people at this point. I think a lot of them kind of lack basic financial literacy because they just have enough money to lose. And so they probably aren't thinking all the time about the dumb stuff that they invest in or that they buy or whatever nonsense guru they're going to any given day.

Yeah, I think also, you know, like rich people are always trying to get richer because they kind of think they have like a secret code that regular people don't know. know about to get rich so you can kind of tell them anything and maybe they'll believe it? Yeah, they think that they're rich because they're smarter than everybody else. Yeah. Well, today's scammer is somewhat of a nepo baby whose connections got him a job at major investment firms where he found his niche through exploiting his proximity to successful black celebrities. But when he turns out to be a much better hang than actual investor, even his dad can't save him. Hey Ontario, come on down to BetMGM Casino

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In our latest series, three teenage boys from West Memphis, Arkansas are accused of a vicious triple homicide. There's no real evidence linking them to the crime except rumor and fear, and that'll be enough to convict them. Listen to American Scandal on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. It's July 7, 2020, an NBA player Dwight Howard is in a hotel room at Disney World, cooped up in the league's pandemic bubble. Dwight is 610 with short braids and tattoos running down his muscular arms. He plays for the Lakers, and he's an NBA legend, an eight-time all-star, a dunk contest champ, and the player whose nickname is literally Superman.

He's also 34, which in NBA years means he's close to retirement. And like a lot of professional athletes at this stage in their career, Dwight's starting to think about what comes next. So tonight, while he's sitting in his hotel room watching ESPN, one particular story catches his attention. The WNBA is distancing itself from Senator Kelly Leffler. Kelly is a co-owner of the Atlanta Dream, and she's been vocal about her distaste for the Black Lives Matter movement. Meanwhile, the Dream's players have been pledging their support. It seems like it's only a matter of time before the team parts ways with their problematic owner.

Dwight immediately sees an opportunity. If Kelly gets pushed out, the dream could be up for sale. So he texts his agent to say he's interested in buying the team. Now, Dwight hasn't been working with this agent for very long, but he's already set Dwight up with a financial advisor. And this time, he comes through again. He says he knows someone who can help them put the deal together, a businessman named Calvin Darden Jr.

Calvin is a well-connected business manager who's handled money for lots of A-list celebrities, including Nellie and NBA player Littrell Spruwell. Calvin is in his mid-40s, bald with a boyish face, and in the black business world, he's basically royalty. His dad, Calvin Darden, Sr., is a senior vice president at UPS, which makes him a pretty big deal. He also sits on the board of companies like Coca-Cola and Target.

Between his celebrity connections and his family prestige, Calvin Jr. is exactly the kind of guy you'd want on a deal like this. Dwight's excited. Pretty soon, the three of them get on a video call to talk through the deal. In a slideshow, Calvin presents his vision plan for the dream, filled as celebrity partners and big-name sponsors, stars like Naomi Osaka, Issa Ray, and Tyler Perry, and companies like Starbucks and Affleck.

There's just one little hitch. Dwight is still an active NBA player, and league rules say that active players aren't allowed to own NBA or WNBA teams. But thankfully, Calvin Jr. has already thought of a workaround. He tells Dwight they can use a shell company to hide his involvement with the purchase. All Dwight has to do is send Calvin $7 million, and he'll take care of the rest. Okay, listen. Maybe we've been doing this show too long.

But what do you mean shell company? What do you mean like just a $7 million? Like what are you talking about? Immediately suspicious. That's not a little bit of money. Even if you are rich, that is too much money. It's too much money for something that is too confusing for me to understand. Yes.

Well, Dwight wires Calvin the cash. And soon after, Calvin tells him the deal is done. Dwight is now the proud owner of the Atlanta dream. They just need to wait for the paperwork to come. through. So Dwight waits and waits and waits until one night in February of 2021, seven months after this whole thing started. He's watching ESPN again and sees a report that the dream has been sold to a real estate mogul from Boston. Dwight never owned the team and now he's out $7 million. When no one can get a hold of Calvin Jr., Dwight knows he's been scammed. But what

he doesn't know is that he's just the latest in a long line of victims. Over the past three decades, Calvin has stolen millions from Wall Street firms, rappers, athletes, actors, and even his own dad. In fact, Dwight isn't even the only athlete Calvin's conning right now. And while this scheme might have seemed like a layup, it's about to bring Calvin's entire scamming career to an end. From Wondery, I'm Sarah Hagi, and I'm Sachi Cole, and this is Scamfluencers. Calvin Darden Jr. combines a few different scamfluencers' archetypes. He's a charming, smooth-talking Nepo Baby, who fakes documents, name-drops celebrities,

and jumps from one shady scheme to the next. trading on his dad's name and credibility the whole way. But Calvin's story is also about the laziness and racism of Wall Street. In the early 2000s, big financial firm started to realize that black artists, entertainers, and athletes could be a huge source of revenue. If only they had the right people to make these connections. So when Calvin showed up talking about his celebrity pals, they didn't bother to fact-check anything he said.

And by the time they realized it was all a lie, Calvin was already gone. This is Calvin Darden Jr., the flashy fail-son fraud. Calvin Darden Jr. is born in Buffalo, New York in July 1974. His mother is a nurse who works long days, and his father, Calvin Sr., makes $3 an hour working on a loading dock for UPS. Now, Sachi, we're going to be talking a lot about both Calvin's throughout this episode. So to keep things straight, we're going to call Calvin Jr. Calvin and refer to his dad as senior.

Okay. I want to make sure we don't get them confused, even though Calvin is really going to want us to. The year Calvin is born, Senior gets his first promotion at UPS. It's a beginning of a swift, steady rise up the corporate ladder that runs throughout Calvin's childhood. First, Senior manages a few UPS distribution centers, then he's put in charge of a whole district. In 1995, he moves a family to Atlanta to be UPS's first quality coordinator, and in 1997, he's named Senior Vice President. But all of his success comes at a price, his relationship with his son.

Senior never misses a single day of work, which doesn't leave much time for family bonding. Calvin and his dad have a pretty rocky relationship during this period, and that might be at least part of the reason why, Calvin starts falling through the cracks. In 1992, he gets into Morehouse College, a prestigious HBCU in Atlanta, where he majors in finance. But he also acts out. In 1994, he's charged with shoplifting, and in 1996, he's charged with simple battery. None of this stops Calvin from benefiting from his dad's growing success.

Before he's even graduated, he's already receiving job offers from financial firms all because of his family. family name. And he ends up leaving college without completing his degree. In 1997, Calvin is hired by a Wall Street Investment Bank called Solomon Brothers. And a year later, he gets poached by Merrill Lynch. Calvin might not have been a dedicated student, but he's about to discover one subject he truly excels at, building his personal brand. It's 1999, about a year after Calvin started at Merrill Lynch, and he's living the good life in Manhattan. A typical night out for him includes dinner at a fancy restaurant and clubbing with VIPs and celebrities.

Tonight, he's chatting up a big-name publicist he met through an NBA player. He tells her that he made millions of dollars for Shaq and says he can do the same for her clients. She agrees and introduces him to Angela Bassett, and just like that, Calvin's got another client. As a broker at a big-name firm, part of Calvin's job is cozying up to wealthy people and convincing them to invest their money with him.

And Calvin is really, really good at this. He tells everyone he's managed money for huge stars like the Neptunes. He even starts a rumor that he made Shaq millions of dollars. He drops Shaq's name constantly, and he's so convincing, other NBA players believe it. A lot of this is just based on his energy. Calvin is 6'3 with a baby face and a sincere, people-pleasing vibe. He's charming and fun and really knows how to schmooze with rich people.

And while Calvin never actually works with Shaq, he does form relationships with other celebrities like Carlos Santana. Check out this picture of them. Okay, here's Calvin with Carlos and a bunch of other people. They're all wearing business casual to the club, remember when we were doing that? he looks like a nice guy he could probably convince a lot of people into a couple of things

I can see it yeah and all of Calvin's friends and clients think he's a big shot broker at Merrill Lynch but there's something he's been hiding from them he did do well in Merrill Lynch's training program but he's kind of a dud at his actual job he hasn't delivered the kinds of returns he's bragged about

and most of the business he does get comes from his dad's connections But thanks to his skillfully inflated reputation, people in the entertainment industry do actually start giving him money to invest. People like Cheryl James, aka Salt from Salton Peppa, who gives Calvin $500,000. And then, things get even better.

In November 1999, a few months after Calvin starts at Merrill Lynch, UPS goes public. At the time, it's the biggest IPO ever, and Wall Street is practically. practically drooling over the company and its executives. Suddenly, Calvin's last name is Golden. And Wall Street firms see Calvin as a way to connect with his dad's UPS colleagues,

many of whom are now millionaires thanks to the IPO. They also want something else from Calvin. Sachi, can you read this tasteful quote from the New York Times? Yeah, it says, Kurt or Sawn Calvin, a promising young broker with rich corporate and celebrity relationships, who could also lend a much-needed dash of racial diversity. Oh, Sarah, that's how people talk about us behind our backs. And also in front of us.

Oh, yeah, big time. In front of us together. But here's a thing. Calvin has a good reputation, but he's still really bad at his job. He's not making any money or doing any real business at Merrill Lynch. Now, Sachi, you may be wondering, how is it possible that Calvin's doing so poorly,

given that he has a bunch of A-list clients. After all, a few celebrities actually have invested money with him. The answer is very simple. He just takes their money and he spends it. He never even tries to invest it. For example, Calvin promised Cheryl James a huge return by a certain date. But when she checks her account, the money is completely gone. You'd think this would be an instant career killer, but it's not.

Word doesn't spread about the money he's stolen. possibly because the people he's scamming are too embarrassed to admit they've been duped. Meanwhile, at Merrill Lynch, Calvin is still flopping hard. But recruiters from other financial firms don't know that, so they start working overtime to snatch him up. They whine and dine him at fancy restaurants and strip clubs

and offer huge bonuses if he signs with them. In 2001, he finally picks a new employer, a firm called Smith Barney. Part of the reason Calvin goes with them is their sign-on bonus, $344,000. These bonuses are standard practice in the finance industry. But they're not exactly free gifts. They're more like glorified loans. Big firms will give new hires a big check when they join,

but brokers are expected to bring in a certain amount of business, usually through commissions. When they hit their target, the loan is forgiven. But if they fall short, they're on the hook for the money. So suddenly, Calvin has hundreds of thousands of dollars in his bank account for a job he hasn't really done and frankly isn't very good at. But thankfully, his partying days are over. He decides to put his nose to the grindstone and become the best broker ever. Just kidding.

In his entire time at Smith Barney, Calvin brings in less than $80,000 in commissions. That makes him one of the firm's lowest earning brokers, which is pretty pitiful for a guy who's supposed to have a ton of Aitless clients. That is no money for any real, like, investment firm, but it's also no money for how much he's been taking in. That's a shockingly low amount of money. It's genuinely crazy. And Calvin is in a tight spot.

But in 2002, just a year after joining Smith Barney, he gets a lucky break from another financial firm. He's approached by recruiters from Wachovia, and once again, they are so dazzled by Calvin's image that they don't bother to fact-check what he's actually done. Now, he gets a fresh start and another huge sign-on bonus. Sure, he hasn't paid back the first one, but that's a problem for another day.

All Calvin has to do is close the deal. So he gives the Wachovia recruiters a printout that says he manages more than $120 million in assets, and brings in more than $1 million a year in commissions. Basically, he's telling them he's one of Smith Barney's top brokers. And it works. Because of this faked piece of paper and his general charm, Wolcovia hires Calvin and gives him a sign-on bonus of $632,000.

At this point, Calvin's officially hit a new scam milestone. Lying is one thing, but now he's forging documents. and it's only going to get worse from here. Calvin might not know Shaq in real life, but he's about to pull off a 360 dunk on the entire finance industry. It's the summer of 2003, and Michael Lee Chin is flying high

over the Toronto skyline in his personal helicopter. Next to him is his passenger, a 29-year-old business prodigy named Calvin Darden, Jr. I like to imagine that as they pass the beautiful curves of the sky dome in the sparkling shores of Lake Ontario, Michael looks over at Calvin to see he's impressed, because that's exactly what Michael's trying to do.

Michael is 52 years old with a receding hairline, a disarmingly genuine smile, and a penchant for flashy ties. He's the owner of AIC, Canada's largest privately held mutual fund company. Michael and Calvin met a few months ago at a party in New York City. Michael was immediately intrigued when he heard the name Darden because he and Calvin's dad, senior, are kind of kindred spirits. Born just a year apart, both are extremely successful black businessmen

who climb their way up from the bottom. Michael grew up working class in Jamaica, where he worked menial jobs like scrubbing out the engine room of a cruise ship. In the 70s, he moved to Canada for college and started investing, buying companies, and building an empire. Now, 30 years later, he's one of the richest men in Canada. Meanwhile, in 2001, Senior was ranked above Oprah on Fortune Magazine's list of the 50 most powerful black executives in America.

So Michael naturally recognized Calvin's name and believed Calvin when he said he was one of Wachovia's most successful brokers. In fact, Michael was so impressed, he decided he just had to hire this kid. AIC is looking to expand in the U.S. sports and entertainment worlds, and Calvin seems like exactly the connector Michael's been looking for. Like the others before him, Michael started aggressively courting Calvin. That's why he's trying to impress Calvin with this private helicopter tour.

Later, they even go for a drive in Michael's super rare Enzo Ferrari. Calvin loves luxury cars, so he's delighted. Michael's plan works. At the end of the trip, Calvin tells Michael he wants to work for AIC. He promises to bring over his roster of celebrity clients, including, of course, Shaq. He also shows Michael a balance sheet that says

he currently manages $734 million in assets. Based on all of this, he asks Michael for a sign-on bonus of $3.1 million. I mean, Sarah, what's $3.1 million if you're managing $734 million and fake assets? Yeah, I mean, it's probably a steal. Fake. He's a bargain. It's a bargain, and to Michael, it does seem like a smart investment.

After all, he's not just getting Calvin's expertise, he's also getting his amazing network. So, at the beginning of October, just a few weeks after their helicopter flight, Michael hires Calvin. and gives him his bonus. What Michael doesn't know is that Calvin is somehow doing even worse at Wachovia than he did at Smith Barney. His only real client is his dad. And after six months on the job, he's generated less than $500 in commissions. Honestly, it's more embarrassing for it to be $500 as opposed to zero. If it's zero, you can just be like, I didn't work.

I'm lazy. I didn't do anything. Yeah, it's like you didn't do anything. Where does $500 even come from at a place like that? $500 is what percentage of what? Well, Michael is excited about his new hire, but he doesn't realize that he's just become the latest and last person to get stuck with Calvin,

because Calvin's former employers are starting to connect the dots, and after years of partying and pretending, his bill will finally come due. The second he's on AIC's payroll, Calvin gets right to work, spending his $3.1 million bonus. In October 2003, just days after the money hits his account, Calvin buys a mansion in Glencove, a ritzie town on Long Island. It's a huge place for a single guy.

The house has five bedrooms and seven bathrooms, and he has to take out two different mortgages to pay for it. But to Calvin, it's worth the investment. After he moves in, he installs a movie theater and outfits a living, living room with huge white leather couches. But Calvin barely has time to enjoy his new home, because just one month later, Wachovia sends him a letter demanding he pay back the money they gave him, or they'll sue. And just a few months after that, in January of 2004, someone else gets suspicious, his current boss, Michael. Calvin hasn't delivered on any of the

results he promised AIC. So Michael warns him, if he doesn't start generating money soon, he'll have to repay their signing bonus as well. To buy some time, Calvin tells Michael his assistant lost a bunch of papers and messed everything up. Then, as a Hail Mary, he actually flies to Toronto in March to try to reassure Michael in person. He promises to bring in 27 new clients by the end of the month. But Michael isn't buying it. Just three months after they hired him, AIC fires Calvin and tells him to pay back the full $3.1 million signing bonus.

So Calvin tries an interesting new tactic. He just straight up tells them he can't pay them back. But all this does is buy him a little more time. And it's not just Calvin's bosses. Some of his celebrity clients are starting to realize that their money is gone as well. Nellie and NBA player Littrell Spruwell both threatened to sue Calvin. He's lucky they're not threatening to surgically remove his kneecaps for how much money he is fully stolen.

Yeah, it's really something else. How's our hero gonna get out of this jam, Haggy? You got Nellie, you got a basketball player, you got your bosses. Oof. Calvin is getting backed into a corner, but he just keeps spending money. He's flying around the world, dropping cash on

ridiculous cartoon rich guy stuff. In April, just a month after getting fired from AIC, he spends $80,000 at a New York art gallery. He also buys an enormous shark tank that costs over $200,000 just to set up. Inside it, he sets up an ecosystem of exotic fish and black tip reef sharks.

He feeds a shark salmon every day. Keeping them alive costs $3,200 a month. Obviously, all of these purchases are so absurd, but it seems a little like he's trying to project crazy rich guy. Do you know what I mean? Like, how could I have money problems? so I'm spending $3,200 a month on, like, some buck-ass fish. Yeah, it really doesn't make sense.

And while it might seem crazy, for Calvin, I think it's just self-care. He's under a lot of pressure right now. And it helps that at the end of each stressful day, he can sit on one of his white leather couches and stare at the sharks. It makes sense that Calvin likes him so much. Just like a shark, he can only survive if he keeps moving forward. But pretty soon, for the first time in his life, he's going to have nowhere to go. It's November 2004, eight months after Calvin was fired by AIC.

And Calvin is in his element. He's partying with celebrities at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. One of his buddies from Merrill Lynch, Al Reynolds, is getting married to Starr Jones. The hotel's glamorous Art Deco Ballroom is full of eight. listers like Angela Bassett, Samuel L. Jackson, and Hillary Clinton. And Calvin is right there chatting them up. As paparazzi snap pictures for the tabloids, Calvin appears happy, successful, and comfortable, just like he's always been. But it's all a lie. Calvin's life has never been worse. We don't know exactly how, but the Manhattan DA's office has learned about Calvin scamming,

and he's about to finally face actual consequences. He's charged with larceny and fraud. A judge begins a process of seizing his assets and Calvin is facing up to 50 years in prison. Under all this pressure, his lifestyle starts to crumble. Just a heads up, Sachi, this next part is both so gross and so sad. A few weeks ago, Calvin stopped being able to feed his super expensive sharks. Now, they are literally.

rotting away in the tank with the other exotic fish feeding on their flesh. Obviously very cruel, but also, Sarah, what a horribly apt metaphor for all of this. I know. And, you know, something that's that expensive to install, you can only imagine how expensive it is to uninstall, right? Oh, Jesus. In December, a couple of weeks after Al and Starr's wedding, Calvin turns himself in. But he hasn't lost all of the of his flare. He shows up at the Manhattan DA's office in a velour Sean John sweatsuit. Just in case you forgot this was the early 2000s. Calvin gets released on $1 million bail paid for by his dad. We don't exactly know what Calvin's relationship with seniors like at this

point, but it's not the first time his dad has billed him out of trouble, and it won't be the last. At first, Calvin insists he's not guilty, but in August of 2005, after some six, serious talks with his lawyer, he enters a guilty plea. He admits to defrauding Wachovia, Smith Barney, and AIC, as well as individual investors. He's facing up to 12 years in prison and ordered to pay back $5.7 million in restitution. For most people, this would be the end of the story. But for Calvin, this is somehow just the beginning. Once he gets out of prison, he's going to stage a second act, one that's wilder, bolder, and way more desperate. In 2008, Calvin is released from prison.

In 1993, three eight-year-old boys were brutally murdered in West Memphis, Arkansas, as the small town local police struggle. to solve the crime. Rumors soon spread that the killings were the work of a satanic cult. Suspicion landed on three local teenagers, but there was no real evidence linking them to the murders. Still, that would not protect them. Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of Wondry Show American Scandal. We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in U.S. history, presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud. In our latest series, three teenage boys are falsely accused of a vicious triple homicide. But their story doesn't end with their trials were convictions. Instead, their plight will capture the imagination of the entire country

and spark a campaign for justice that will last for almost two decades. Follow American Scandal on the Wondria, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of American Scandal, the West Memphis 3, early and ad-free right now on Wondry Plus. He only served three and a half years for his crimes. After he gets out, his dad gives him a few hundred thousand dollars to help him get back on his feet. For the next few years, it seems like Calvin tries to get his life together. While he was in prison, he married a woman named Suhain. We don't know much about her, except that when they met, she worked at a Sephora.

After Calvin gets out of jail, they have a kid together, and he seems to be at least somewhat present for his family. But there's one thing Calvin doesn't do during this time. Get a job. The people that we cover on this show are allergic to a W-2. it's like you have a clean slate like more than a clean slate you have a clean slate plus a few hundred thousand dollars a little monster dot com

just do anything searching could do a lot of good I mean it does seem likely that for a while he's living off the money his dad gave him but eventually this money starts to run out instead of trying to make an honest living Calvin falls back into his old habits

only this time he has a new tactic He borrows a technique straight out of Ferris Bueller's day off, pretending to be his dad. In 2011, communicating under his dad's name, Calvin tells a sports promoter he can set up a boxing match featuring Floyd Mayweather. All the promoter has to do is wire him $450,000 to close a deal. Of course, the boxing match is completely fake and Calvin just keeps the money. Senior actually gets sued over it. And this is just the beginning. If anything, prison didn't scare Calvin Strait.

It just seems to have made him even more reckless, because pretending to be his dad isn't a one-off. It's about to become his new business model. It's a spring of 2012, and Melvin Yen is hanging out in the lobby of a W. Hotel in New York City waiting to meet his new business partner. Melvin is a Taiwanese businessman whose job is bringing touring musicians

like Bob Dylan to Asia. He's also a big sports fan. So last year, when he saw the news that the NBA is planning international exhibition games with all-star players like Kobe and LeBron, he got excited about hosting one in Taiwan, and he reached out to the businessman who's organizing these games,

a guy named Calvin Darden, Sr. Senior and Melvin had dozens of phone conversations, to work out the terms of the deal. Senior said it would cost $500,000 to arrange the game. But to start, Melvin just had to wire him $250,000 as a consulting fee. Melvin sent the cash. After that, Senior invited him to come to New York to hash out the details. The two men have a big day planned.

They're watching the Knicks game from a private box at Madison Square Garden, where they'll be meeting the team's main owner and talking about the deal. But when a luxury car rolls up to the hotel, the person who gets out is much younger than the seasoned business executive Melvin expected. He tells Melvin that he's actually Calvin Darden, Jr. His dad is sick, so Calvin is here to meet with Melvin instead.

Also, their request for their VIP passes came in too late, so they're not going to make it to the Knicks game. But they can still go out for lunch and talk about the deal. Even though their plans got ruined, Melvin likes Calvin and thinks he's charming. He has a nice time and leaves feeling good about their deal. When he gets back to Taiwan, he wires Senior the rest of the money. I guess I would do the same if somebody showed up and was like, hey, that's my dad. I don't know if I'd think too much about it. Yeah, I guess also it's kind of like, I'd be pretty annoyed if I went to this country to go to like,

a VIP Knicks experience, and I love basketball. And I think it just speaks to how charming Calvin is. He made this guy forget all about that. They just want a buddy. Men just need friends. We would have far fewer episodes if men just made friends if they could be normal and make friends with each other. Wow, that is very true.

Well, friend or not, pretty soon Melvin's correspondence with the Darden's slows way down. Eventually, he doesn't hear from either of them for a full month. And then in September, he gets a cease and desist letter from the NBA. The league doesn't understand why he's been telling everyone

he's going to bring players to Taiwan because the exhibition games don't exist. Melvin realizes he spent half a million dollars on a basketball game that's never going to happen. He's furious about losing the money. But while he may be done with Calvin, Calvin's far from done. and his next target won't be a businessman,

it will be an American institution that's just as brash as he is. It's September of 2013, and Calvin is at a resort on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. The white sand beaches and lapping blue waves make it the perfect place for a busy guy to relax and unwind. But for Calvin, this is more of a working vacation, because right now, he's trying to close the biggest deal of his life. Back in March, Maxim Magazine was put up for sale by a company called Cerberus Capital. Calvin immediately convinced his dad that they should try to buy it

for $31 million. And Senior agreed. Now, it's tough to say why Senior would agree to get back in business with his son after Calvin has impersonated him and gotten him sued multiple times. But my best guess is also the saddestest. one. Maybe Senior just really wants to help his son. Whatever the reason, he agrees to join him

on the Maxim deal as an advisor to provide some much-needed credibility for investors. Me and my brother sometimes say this to my dad, that he's like so lucky we're not evil because it would be very easy to take advantage of him. I feel like, that's true in some families where it's like, I'm pretty sure I could probably scam my parents and they'd be like, well, you know, yeah, I mean, a parent just doesn't want to see their kids struggle sometimes. Yeah. I mean, even though it's kind of the worst thing you could do, it's hard. I could see why he would do it.

Yeah. But this could be an opportunity for Calvin to do some legitimate business. But of course, Calvin can't or won't do things by the book. Instead, he uses this opportunity to start running his boldest and most elaborate grift yet. Two months after Maxim went up for sale, he set up an Atlanta-based-based-year-old. phone number in seniors' name. And ever since then, he's been using this phone number to impersonate his father when he speaks with different investors.

He's trying to secure several multi-million dollar loans, supposedly to help buy the magazine. Calvin is putting seniors' reputation at risk in a big way. But he does take one tiny, useless step to try and protect his dad. He adds a fake middle initial to some of his forged signatures. We don't know if he actually thinks this will help. It's also not clear whether Calvin ever actually plans on trying to buy Maxim. Even its current owners are a little suspicious about his intentions. On September 9th, he signs a purchase agreement, which is not the same as closing the deal.

The agreement says he has to pay the full $31 million by September 20th. If he wants to extend the deadline, he'll start owing. a cascading series of multi-million dollar fees. Naturally, Calvin finds a masterful and completely unhinged way to cover his tracks. On September 13th, the Wall Street Journal publishes an article with the headline, AXA Magazine sold to Darden.

We don't know the details of the story because the article has since been removed from the journal's website. But we do know that the journal's source was Calvin pretending to be his father. The journal doesn't seem to fact-check this. They print Calvin's claims, even though a Darden definitely hasn't bought the magazine.

How embarrassing for the Wall Street Journal? Like, this is a pretty easy thing to check. And also, you're the Wall Street Journal. You don't have access to a database about, like, who owns stuff. Also, it's a magazine. How hard it is to find out who owns a magazine? Whatever. Well, as the September 20th deadline comes and goes,

Calvin's extension fees start stacking up. He pushes the deadline to the end of September, then to October, and finally to November, at which point he owes almost $10 million in fees. On November 22nd, Cerberus finally cancels a deal, but no one outside of the immediate circle knows a deal has fallen through, which means Calvin can keep fundraising, at least for a little longer. Calvin keeps pitching the deal to potential investors while posing as his dad. Eventually, he gets connected with Mark Weinberg, the CEO of Versant funding.

Mark's in his 50s, has piercing blue eyes, and is known for handing out big loans very quickly. Calvin, still posing as senior, asks him for $5.5 million and offers to put up some stock he owns as collateral. Then he sends Mark some fake financial documents with seniors' forged signature to steal the deal. And it works. Mark agrees to lend him the money. All Calvin has to do is provide the collateral. Obviously, Calvin can't actually do this.

He tells Mark he needs more time, which makes Mark suspicious. Mark says he'll put the loan in an escrow account and when he gets senior stocks, he'll release it. To someone who wasn't long, lying through their teeth, this would be a perfectly reasonable compromise. But Calvin is not that person. Instead, he's about to make a truly desperate move to snatch Mark's cash.

And this time, the authorities are going to notice. It's November 12, 2013, and Special Agent Paul Deal is sitting at his desk when the phone rings. Paul is a secret service agent who works for the electronic crimes. task force. He specializes in computer fraud, hacking, and white-collar crimes. Paul is pretty private, and we don't know what he looks like, so let's just imagine him as Tom Hanks wearing a fedora and catch me if you can. When Paul picks up the phone, there's an extremely flustered venture capitalist on the other end. His name is Mark Weinberg, and he says someone just tried to steal $5 million from him using a fake email address. Mark tells Paul

about the escrow account he created for the Maxim deal. And he says that shortly after making the account, he got on a plane. During the flight, he checked his email and noticed that someone sent an email to his lawyers, pretending to be him, telling them to release the money to Calvin. Mark immediately ran up to the plane staff and asked if he could use their phone. When they asked if he had an emergency, he said yes, a financial emergency. Sarah, that is so lame. That is the lamest thing I've ever heard.

What an embarrassing thing to say out loud. Even if it's true. I know, but you know what? They didn't let Mark use the plane's phone. But he was able to email his assistant and get them to stop the transaction before Calvin took the money. And then, as soon as he got off the flight,

Mark called the Secret Service. Paul is intrigued. He starts digging and it doesn't take him long to figure out what has. happened. First, he traces the email address that was used to impersonate Mark. It turns out, Calvin used a Russian spoofing service to set it up and paid for it with his wife's PayPal account. It's a pretty half-assed way to cover his tracks. Next, Paul starts tracking down and interviewing some of the people who've loaned Calvin money for the Maxim deal. Just like Mark, they all thought

they'd been corresponding with senior in emails and over the phone. This is when Paul figures out that Calvin's been using a fake Atlanta phone number, forged signatures, and a bogus email address to impersonate his dad. But the wildest thing Paul learns about Calvin is that he's still going. The fiasco with Mark didn't stop him at all. It's hard to know whether Calvin just doesn't understand that the authorities are watching or if he's in so deep he can't afford to stop running the scam. Maybe he just can't help himself.

Whatever the reason, Paul watches as Calvin keeps fundraising for the Maxim deal by linking up with the only person who could possibly dig him out of this hole, another Nepo baby. After the debacle with Mark's money, Senior stops talking to Calvin for two whole months. But during this time, Calvin manages to get connected to a new potential investor, Shane McMahon. Shane is the son of wrestling kingpin Vince McMahon and the founder of an unsuccessful clean energy company called Ideonomics. A broker brings Calvin and Shane together

because Shane wants to use the Maxim brand to create a new cable channel. He offers Calvin $20 million to get in on the Maxim deal. This amount of money basically sends Calvin into a frenzy. Over the next few weeks, Calvin does everything he can to keep Shane on the hook. He's not just impersonating his dad anymore. He also starts forging emails from executives at Target, where Senior is a board member, and even the former mayor of Atlanta. All of them vouched for Senior and encourage Shane to trust him. It would be funny if it wasn't so illegal. At one point, Shane wonders why he's never met with Senior directly, which only fuels Calvin's

desperation further. So Calvin poses as his dad's oncologist, and makes up excuses for why Senior can't travel to New York for in-person meetings. He even flies to Atlanta to forge and notarize a doctor's affidavit saying that Senior is in the hospital. But somehow, Sachi, it's even more depressing. Senior actually does have cancer. But he's not in the hospital, and he's definitely not involved in any business dealings with Shane.

This is like when people are like, oh, I'm sorry, I can't calm my grandmother's in the hospital. and it's like your grandmother's been dead for 10 years, except it's worse because he is alive and he has cancer. I know, and I feel like these people who like lie about family members being ill don't believe in anything.

Like, they're not remotely superstitious. It's bad karma. Well, in the end, Shane can tell there's something off and he pulls out of the deal. And just a couple of months later, in February of 2014, Calvin is picked up by the FBI and charged in federal court

with two counts of wire fraud. Sachi, can you read part of what he told the judge? Yeah, he said, To say that I'm sorry is an understatement. More than sorry, I'm embarrassed and ashamed. My father worked his entire life, you know, to, and really built up the Darden name. I can't even begin to explain what this has done,

not just to my father individually, not just to my entire family, but just our family name. It's beyond embarrassing. Why is he talking like he didn't do it? Yeah. Why is he talking like somebody else did it? It's very like a dog ran in here and just like fucked everything up.

And it's like, no, you did it. It's also crazy that he's so obsessed with being embarrassed and not that he did something like pretty freaking crazy and evil. Being like, oh, it's so embarrassing. Oh, my God. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe use stronger words.

Use different words. Mm-hmm. Well, no matter how embarrassed Calvin. says he is, he's still not ready to stop scamming. That's right Sachi. After another stint in prison, Calvin's going to try the biggest con of his life.

And it will blow up more dramatically than anything he's tried before. Calvin is sentenced to a year in prison for the maxim fraud. When he gets out, he doesn't have a big pile of his dad's money to burn through like last time, so he starts hustling right away. And whether it's desperation or just the fact that he doesn't know how to do anything else, he starts sending texts from his fake senior number

pretty much right after he gets released. One of the people he connects with is an NBA agent named Charles Briscoe. We're not sure who introduces them, but it's a natural pairing. Charles is a young an ambitious sports agent, in other words, exactly the kind of person Calvin wants in his orbit. For a few years, they text back and forth

with Calvin pretending to be senior. He makes a lot of references to his relationships with Target and Coca-Cola, hinting that he could help Charles and sponsorships for his clients. But they don't make any concrete plans until 2019

when Charles says he's left his old agency to start his own business. That's when Calvin sees his opening. And Sachi, this is where things get complicated. Over text, Calvin, still pretending to be senior, offers to hook Charles up with his son, Calvin Jr. He says that Calvin's got some pretty cool ideas for Charles' new business, and his pitch has some Freudian undertones.

Sachi, can you read this text from Calvin who's impersonating his own father to Charles? He says, it really is a pleasure. When I see young black entrepreneurs, I try to do what I can to help. With young black men, I think about what I'd want someone to do for my son. As a matter of fact, the NBA tour I was doing a few years back was all my son's doing. I was essentially just the figurehead, so I appreciate your hustle because my son is the same type. What fucking, like, therapy, dull house reenactment is he playing here for his, like, childhood trauma?

his dad didn't pay enough attention to him. This is so bleak. Yeah, this is when you really kind of realize, like, oh, this is so deep in such a crazy way. Yeah. And if that weren't enough, around the same time Calvin starts talking with Charles, he's also linking up with a few shady finance world guys.

Two of them used to work on Wall Street, like Calvin, and they're actually running their own separate scam, one that includes several NBA and MLB players. It's a match made. in heaven. Calvin introduces them to Charles, and before long, all of them start working together. It's unclear if Charles knows the full extent of his new business partner's shadiness, but he's happy to introduce them to his biggest clients. Remember at the beginning of the episode, when NBA player Dwight Howard tried to buy the Atlanta Dream, this is where

that scam begins. Dwight is one of Charles' new clients, and when he says he wants to buy the team, Charles connects him with Calvin, who says he can set up a shell-com. company to help with the purchase. In December, Dwight wires Calvin $7 million to buy the dream. And of course, Calvin spends the money almost immediately. He buys a house in Atlanta, a Porsche, and a Lamborghini, and tens of thousands of dollars worth of art and jewelry, including multiple Baskiats. He also buys a $10,000 Steinway piano and a $20,000 coin. No sharks this time, though. It is illegal for this man to have any more fish. I know, he should be on an animal cruelty registry or some shit.

Just for fish, just like a fish list. These guys can't have fish. Like those kids who get a lot of goldfish and they're always dying. Like at a certain point, you can't let them have any more fish. You shouldn't be allowed. It shouldn't be allowed to deal with living creatures. And true to form, even after he's been caught, Calvin still can't stop lying. When Dwight finds out someone else bought the dream,

instead of admitting what he did, Calvin forges a new document claiming that the team's real owners are going to let Dwight have a stake in it. But of course, it doesn't work. On March 3, 2023, Calvin is arrested by the FBI in Atlanta. Along with Charles and the two other lawyers

who are involved in the scheme, he's charged with wire fraud, among other crimes. U.S. attorney Damien Williams even makes a cute little pun in the press release. Sachi, do you want to read it? Yes, he says, says, as alleged in the indictment, these defendants believe that defrauding their professional

athlete clients of millions of dollars would be a layup. That was a huge mistake. Every so often, the cops catch something in one of these stories, and then they're really proud of themselves and, you know, patting themselves on the back by being very clever. And I just want to take a second to remind all of us that it seems like this went on for a really long time before they did anything. Yeah, and we don't even know how the feds learned about the scheme. But Calvin has been scamming enough famous people

that it's not hard to imagine one of them blowing the whistle. It's also possible that Calvin didn't get himself caught this time. A few journalists had already been looking into one of his co-conspirators, a former Morgan Stanley broker who stole from other athletes. However the authorities got to him, the shot clock has run out on Calvin's NBA scheme. And this time, there is no buzzer-beater to save him. The feds are about to secure.

a major W against Calvin Darden Jr. Calvin's trial begins in September of 2024. He submits a letter to the court asking for the shortest sentence possible so he can help care for his dependents, especially his father, who at this point has both cancer and dementia. In October of 2024, Calvin is found guilty on all counts. But the court allows him to remain out on bail until he's sentenced, as long as he stays under house arrest and doesn't handle any financial

transactions. But of course, Calvin's never followed the rules no matter what the stakes are. So in December, his parole officer catches him trying to sell his old house for $5.1 million and buy a different one for $4.5 million. The worst part is he's still doing all of this under senior's name. On December 23, 2024, the court revoked. his bail. And on April 3rd, 2025, Calvin is sentenced to 12 years in federal prison. He's ordered to forfeit his expensive stuff, including his fancy cars, his baskiats, and the mansion he was caught trying to sell. And he has to repay $8 million to his victims. You know, this is one of those stories where it's like, sure, financial crime, whatever, whatever. But I think

think the most remarkable thing about Calvin is that he never actually ever did his job. There was not a point where it was like the job was the way to like create some legitimacy around the scam part. It's like he never did that job for a second. Yeah, it seems like there's a version of the story that could have existed where like Calvin felt like he couldn't measure up to who his dad wanted him to be. And so he scammed to get his foot in the door. And then, you know, It totally got away from him. That's not even what happened. He was just like rotten from the start and scanned from the beginning

and was really throwing his dad's name around. And you know what, Haggy, all you have in this world is your name. Why do you think he really couldn't stop? Like, there were moments he did his time. It was over. He just couldn't stop and involving his dad was just such a crazy, crazy way to go. Yeah, I feel like the more we do the show, the more I realize that some people are just like not connected to the,

the version of reality that I live in. And there's sort of no way to get them out of it. And it doesn't even seem like Calvin ever really got out of it. I mean, he was using his dad as an excuse up until the very end. It's also crazy that, like, obviously the story has so much of the actual scams and how he got to people and whatever. But he must have been the most charming guy you have ever met to get away with it for this long and for that many people to have trusted him based on basically nothing and forged documents.

and for people to be courting him basically to scan them. Yeah, I mean, I do think a big part of the story is like the length that a celebrity name can go because he's like, shacks with me and like Angela Bassett, like that will do a lot of heavy lifting for you. The thing about him being charming, I mean, a lot of famous and rich people are really lonely and they just want friends. You can scam a lot of them. Wow, you're weirdly soft today. Well, I'm not saying that we need to accommodate it, but I do. What the world needs now is love.

No, no, no, listen, we don't need to give it to them, but it's certainly what they're looking for. And I think if you don't really know how to do that, then, like, this cool, charming guy who's going to make you a bunch of money, you're like, all right, Pat, let's do it. Yeah, I agree. And it is also one of those episodes where we got the names of some celebrities we don't usually have in our show, like Star Jones,

Vince McMahon's son, whose name I already forgot. Maxim Magazine, that was crazy. Maxim Magazine is crazy. This is a very 2010's culture story. It's just like all these weird figures that used to intersect all the time with sports and TV and media and, you know, I miss that.

Yeah, I miss Star Jones. This made me miss Star Jones. I wonder on my screen again. Hmm. Star, if you're out there, we're here. I think the lesson is to not trust your ungrateful, rotten children. Yeah, and, you know, I don't know what his relationship was like with his father, but imagine your kid giving them everything,

And it, wow, you know, I sound like one of my parents now. Oh, my God, this is how it starts. Imagine someone giving you everything and you're just ruining it, you know, oh, wow. Sarah, all it took was for you to get a cat and now you understand your immigrant parents so much better. I understand. I understand everything. Loving scam influencers, get exclusive episodes and early access to new ones all ad-free on Wondry Plus. Join now in the Wendry app, Apple Podcasts. or Spotify. Before you go, help us out by taking a quick survey at wendry.com slash survey.

This is Calvin Darden, Jr., the flashy fail son fraud. I'm Sarah Hagee. And I'm Sachi Cole. If you have a tip for us on a story that you think we should cover, please email us at scam influencers at wendry.com. We use many sources in our research. A few that were particularly helpful were Catch them if you can by Landon Thomas Jr. for The New York Times. decades of grift by Matt Steeb for New York Magazine and court filings in Calvin's various trials. Emma Healy wrote this episode. Additional writing by us, Satchie Cole and Sarah Hagee.

Eric Thurm is our story editor. Fact-checking by Kalina Newman. Sound design by James Morgan. Additional audio assistance provided by Augustine Lim. Our music supervisor is Scott Velasquez for Frieson Sink. Our managing producer is Desi Blaylock. Janine Cornelow and Stephanie Jens are our development producers. Our associate producer is Charlotte Miller.

Our senior producers are Sarah Eni and Ginny Bloom. Our executive producers are Jenny Lara Beckman and Marshall Louie for Wondery.