Fake football recruiter accused of ripping off Georgia athletes, police say
Man accused of scamming Georgia athletes
Malcolm Walker is accused of pretending to be a football recruiter and scamming families college football hopefuls out of thousands of dollars across Georgia.
GAINESVILLE, Ga. - Gainesville police say they’ve arrested and charged a man with pretending to be a football recruiter and scamming families of college football hopefuls out of thousands of dollars.
What we know:
Gainesville Police Department investigators say Gwinnett County law enforcement arrested Malcolm Walker on their behalf last week.
Investigators have charged him with theft by deception.
First Lt. Kevin Holbrook of the Gainesville Police Department said Walker was posing as someone who could get high school athletes meetings with college recruiters and coaches.
But after Walker collected money from people for travel and other expenses, Holbrook says he doesn’t fulfill any of his promises to families.
"He talks the talk, but, unfortunately, that's all he's got going for him. He's just stealing these people's money and leaving them with absolutely nothing," Holbrook said.
The backstory:
Phyllip Becoats filed the original report with Gainesville Police after he said Walker took his money and left him high and dry.
He originally contacted Walker to help promote a student-athlete he was helping.
"Since I was maybe 10. I've been playing football since then," said Gainesville High School senior B.J. Bailey.
During all those years, he says it’s been his dream to play college football.
"To live out the dream that my dad or my uncles just couldn't live out. So I just wanted to do it for them and the rest of my family," Bailey said.
B.J. Bailey playing for Gainesville High School (Courtesy of Phyllip Becoats)
Becoats, his coach and mentor, was trying to help him achieve that dream, and a fellow coach referred him to Malcolm Walker to make him a hype video about Bailey to get him noticed by colleges.
After Becoats received the video, he thought that was the end of their business relationship until Walker called him about three months later with an incredible offer.
Walker claimed that he had coaches at the University of Colorado who were interested in Bailey and wanted to have him come visit.
"Man, they want to see your kid bro!" Walker can be heard saying in the voice message.
Becoats says Walker posted videos on his social media that seemed to back up his claim.
"I'm seeing him at Colorado rubbing elbows with the coaches. Plus, he's dealing with his kid. So I'm thinking he's a good guy," Becoats said.
Walker also has tens of thousands of followers on social media.
He told Becoats he had the airfare, hotel, and game tickets all lined up for a trip to Colorado, so he just needed Becoats to pay him.
"I gave him, I think, $1,023," Becoats said.
But when the time came, Walker abruptly canceled the trip and promised they’d go in the future.
For around six months, Walker kept delaying and making excuses as to why they couldn’t go.
Finally, Becoats asked for a refund. Walker said he would pay him back in five days. Those five days turned into weeks with no more responses from Walker.
"He kept blowing me off and blowing me off and then that's when I just got to the point like, ‘Man, I ain't even going to worry about it and I'm just going to go up here to Gainesville Police Department and file a report on it,'" he said.
Dig deeper:
"We had a diligent investigator on this case that went above and beyond. This investigator … was able to track the banking and some other evidence that led us exactly to Walker," Holbrook said.
He says the evidence pointed to the fact that Walker never planned to take them on a trip.
Officers arrested Walker in Gwinnett County last week and booked him into the Hall County Jail on theft by deception charges.
That’s when Holbrook said the calls started coming in.
"We've been notified by multiple law enforcement agencies, multiple individuals who have said, ‘Hey, that's the same guy who did this to us,’" Holbrook said.
Malcolm Walker's mugshot (Hall County Jail)
Holbrook says his M.O. has apparently been the same in each case, promising families and coaches that he can get their kids to meet college coaches, taking their money, and never following through.
"We've been in contact with investigators from far South Georgia to the state line at Valdosta. So he's been a very busy man," Holbrook said.
Holbrook says they believe Walker has stolen at least tens of thousands of dollars this way.
What's next:
Becoats says the alleged theft aside, he can’t understand how someone can prey on kids’ dreams.
"These kids, they work so hard to get to that level, and for some guy to do something like that, to just build them up, and then they get that emotional letdown like that is just crazy," he said.
Bailey says the whole experience upset him.
"I don't think that you can have a soul if you're preying on kids that are working really hard to get what they want and then you just playing them out of their money and out of their dreams," he said.
But Becoats continued to help Bailey and got him a meeting with coaches at Maryville College in Tennessee.
B.J. Bailey signing with Maryville College (Courtesy of Phyllip Becoats)
He now has a full-ride scholarship to play football there when he graduates.
What you can do:
Holbrook is asking anyone who believes they may have been a victim of Walker’s to file a report with your local law enforcement agency.
"We can work with our other law enforcement partners, such as the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, to tie all these together so that we can ensure that he's going to remain in custody for a long time. And hopefully, some of these people can get their money back," Holbrook said.
The other side:
FOX 5 reached out to Walker to ask about the allegations against him but he did not respond.
In a lengthy social media post he wrote after his arrest, Walker claims that he "did not reach out to anyone for me to ever scam anyone."
"There are specifics that coaches and organizations look for and your child may not be that one that they are in search of but that doesn’t mean stop trying other opportunities for your child and that definitely doesn’t mean that it’s my fault that whatever dreams we may have wanted to come through, sometimes fail," he wrote.
He did not mention anything about refunding people’s money in the post.
The Source: Information for this story was provided by the Gainesville Police Department, posts by Malcolm Walker on social media, and interviews conducted by FOX 5 reporter Eric Mock.