A bad day for Cal Football alumni. The San Francisco Chronicle reported today that former Cal lineman Reed Diehl pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. He was indicted on charges that he bilked a developer out of $2.5 million. He faces 70 years in prison. The FBI press release states:
According to a plea agreement in the case, Diehl falsely represented himself to potential clients as a banker who made "hard money loans" to businesses or individuals. Diehl also admitted that he fraudulently collected deposits for lines of credit for people who desired financing for construction and development projects in Mexico. In relation to the "hard money loans," Diehl told investors that he would pool their funds and make secured loans to individuals or businesses that had shortterm cash needs. Instead of using investor funds to make loans, he used investors' money to repay earlier investors and to fund his lifestyle. In relation to the second part of his scheme, Diehl told victims involved in construction projects in Mexico that he could secure multimillion dollar lines of credit. Diehl told one victim that it would cost $1.175 million to secure a $24 million loan and that the deposit would be used as collateral for the line of credit. The victim eventually paid Diehl $2.5 million, money that Diehl used to pay, among others things, other people who had made investments with Diehl. None of the victims ever obtained a line of credit through Diehl.
According to this blog,
“While attending Cal, Diehl married his wife, Rachel, and they had two children. The player's ability to juggle football, family and academic duties impressed the San Francisco Chronicle, which wrote “At 6-4, 300 pounds, he is Cal's best offensive lineman and has started college games at tight end, tackle, center and guard. He has a chance to play in the NFL. He is a husband to Rachel, the person he knew he would marry the first time he saw her, when he was 16. He is a father to Preston, a football-crazed 4-year-old boy who wants to wear football jerseys everywhere, who loves hanging out with his father in the locker room to soak in the discussions and the atmosphere, and who has collected hundreds of the smelly wristbands and gloves discarded by players after games. He is a father to Madison, a delightfully cute girl who has suffered through four scary bouts of pneumonia and who kisses the television screen when daddy's games are on TV.”
A very sad story all around, especially for his wife and two children.
Also making the news today was Noah Smith. The Oakland Tribune reports that Noah Smith was convicted of rape and sentenced to four years in prison:
A former Cal football player found guilty this year of raping one student and trying to rape another was sentenced Tuesday to four years in state prison. Ending a case that included unsubstantiated admissions of football player drug cover-ups and accusations by three other women of sexual assault by the former top high school prospect, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Thomas Reardon sentenced Noah Smith to four years in prison instead of the 17 years sought by the county's district attorney. Smith, 23, who must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, was arrested in May 2007 after a fellow student told police the football player had forced her to give him oral sex and then raped her in her apartment during what was to be a meeting about a class. Investigations by the UC Berkeley Police Department found another woman who said Smith tried to rape her but she escaped. Smith was arrested and charged with one count of rape, one count of forced oral copulation and one count of attempted rape. During the trial, two other women stepped forward and said Smith raped them. Although they testified in the case, no separate charges were filed because they had not reported the rapes to police when they occurred and did not want to pursue criminal charges afterward. Both women told similar stories about how Smith feigned an illness that he said required him to collect and store his own sperm.
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