Man, woman accused of $3.5M scam impersonating NBA, NFL players

May 1, 2026, 7:39 p.m. ETA man and woman were recently indicted in connection with a multimillion-dollar scheme, in which federal prosecutors allege they posed as professional athletes and took out loans in the players' names.Albert Paul Weber, 42, and Cyntrelle Lash, 39, were arrested for allegedly impersonating athletes who were "on the cusp of being drafted by NBA and NFL teams and paid multimillion-dollar contracts," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana.The scheme, beginning as early as 2016, involved the two and their unidentified coconspirators stealing the identities of professional athletes, their family members and others to defraud "businesspeople and lenders who believed they were dealing with the athletes themselves," the federal prosecutors allege.According to court records obtained by USA TODAY, the couple is alleged to have laundered about $3.5 million through multiple bank accounts.On April 24, Weber and Lash were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Weber also faces an additional six counts of aggravated identity theft and one count of interstate transmission of a threat.Lash, on the other hand, faces an additional count of aggravated identity theft.According to the U.S. attorney's office, each of the