How did now-jailed hedge fund manager Kirk Wright lure so many former professional football players to his hedge fund? Former National Football League star Steve Atwater had an unwitting hand in attracting millions to Marietta, Ga.-based International Management Associates, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In an interview, the former Denver Broncos safety says he not only plunked down a cool $2.7 million with Wright, but he was instrumental in getting the others, whom he described as his “best friends,” on his hedge fund team. It turns out that Atwater, who holds a degree in business and finance, went to work for Wright, drawing a salary and commission for bringing in new clients. Atwater did his due diligence by studying audit reports of IMA but says now he should have been “more suspicious” about the high returns Wright promised. He said he also was encouraged by the fact that the NFL Players Association listed IMA as registered with its Financial Advisors Program – a program, the paper says, that has left 78 players defrauded out of $42 million. Atwater admits that Wright was evasive about sharing information about the funds, and that his “heart sank” in January when Wright told him the former player’s funds were placed in a different account but that the check didn’t come from IMA. Atwater says his friends have been “gracious” over their potential losses, and confesses that “it was just greed” that allowed him to be dazzled with Wright’s tantalizing returns.
