Lonzo Ball has cut ties with a co-founder of Big Baller Brand over concerns that the longtime family friend has a criminal past and also has been accused of stealing $1.5 million from Ball’s personal and business accounts.
Ball told ESPN that he believes that Alan Foster, a friend of Lonzo’s father for almost a decade who owns 16.3 percent of Big Baller Brand, used his access to my business and personal finances to enrich himself.
According to documents and emails, questions about Foster's business decisions and communication were first raised last fall to Lonzo and LaVar by Lonzo's financial adviser. That adviser, Humble Lukanga of Life Line Financial Group, alleged in an October email that Lonzo's personal taxes and Big Baller's taxes could not be completed on time due to an inability to account for the whereabouts of $1.5 million. Here are some of the statements from the report from Ramona Shelburne:
Ball told ESPN that he believes that Alan Foster, a friend of Lonzo’s father for almost a decade who owns 16.3 percent of Big Baller Brand, had “used his access to my business and personal finances to enrich himself. As a result, I have decided to sever all ties with Alan, effective immediately.”
In an October email sent to Lonzo and his father under the subject line “Urgent – $1.5 million Dollars Missing,” Lukanga wrote that he had been unsuccessful in having Foster “track down where $1.5 MILLION DOLLARS IN CASH HAS [gone].” Lukanga wrote that he had repeatedly asked Foster about transactions totaling that amount, but Foster “won’t show any invoices or documentation of these expenses. He won’t even give me the number to the vendors he says he paid. I’VE NEVER SEEN A COMPANY OPERATE BY WITHDRAWING MILLIONS IN CASH … Only you and Alan can withdraw cash and I know you didn’t take out $1.5 million dollars … SO WHERE IS THE MONEY???”
Foster met the Ball family not long after being released from prison for his role in the 2002 financial scheme. Foster was already facing the financial crimes charges when he was found guilty in Los Angeles County on a 1999 citation for carrying a concealed handgun without a license.
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