Robinson was born in Mandeville, Jamaica, in the west-central portion of the island. His mother moved to the Boston area while he was a toddler, leaving him in his grandparents' care. Shortly after he turned 10 years old, his grandparents sent him to the United States in hopes of reuniting him with his mother. However, his mother made it clear that she didn't want him, and he was reduced to sleeping in apartment halls and Harvard College dorm stairways.[1][2]
Early in the 1977–78 school year, he was taken in by Helen and Lou Ford, a respected local couple. They adopted him in 1978. He blossomed into a star guard at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, leading them to a state championship in 1986.[2]
In the NBA, Robinson's play was very inconsistent. His last season as a regular player was 1992–93, his first year in New Jersey; after that year, he never played in more than 54 games a season.
Robinson made some $5 million in the NBA, but spent it on a lavish lifestyle. He went through money so irresponsibly, he neglected to pay his bills. He was forced into bankruptcy in 1998.[2]
Post-playing career, criminal activity and conviction
61⁄2 years in federal prison, $1.2 million in restitution, five years' supervised release
After his playing career was over, Robinson moved to Miami and attempted to become a property developer in his native Jamaica. He planned to build a 25,000 acre resort in his hometown called Harmony Cove. As part of his bid to attract investors, he persuaded his adoptive mother to take out a second mortgage on her house and lend it to Robinson as seed money. He promised to cover all the payments, and promised to give her $500,000 once the project was finished.[2][1][6]
However, his high living in the 1990s had all but destroyed his credit, and he was unable to find a bank willing to lend him any money. Through a friend, he was referred to Community State Bank in Ankeny, Iowa. The bank's senior loan officer, Brian Williams, approved a $377,000 bridge loan to Robinson's company, Megaladon Development—ostensibly to help with advertising and business plans. Robinson paid $100,000 of the loan back to Williams as a bribe to move the approval process forward.[1][7][6]
Over the next year and a half, Robinson received $1.2 million in loans from Community State Bank, all approved by Williams. However, he never paid the bank a single penny, and barely five percent of the money went toward developing Harmony Cove. The rest of it was used to buy expensive clothes, meals, motorcycles, jewelry, and other items.[1][6]
The fraud was uncovered when Williams tried to hide the bad loans by rolling the interest and penalties into the principal for a new loan. One of Williams' subordinates was alarmed enough to alert bank officials. Community State Bank fired Williams and sued Megaladon for nonpayment. In August 2006, Community State Bank won $535,000 in damages. During the proceedings, it emerged that Robinson hadn't paid taxes since his playing days. During depositions to ascertain his net worth, Robinson admitted he had no net worth, and lived on roughly $20 at a time. His only possessions were a change of pants.[1][6]
Soon after the arrest, his adoptive mother Helen Ford came forward and accused Robinson of swindling her out of her home. Unknown to Ford, Robinson had arranged to sell Ford's house to one of his business partners, Miami foreclosure specialist Rick Preston, for $250,000. Preston later sold the house to another business partner, Jorge Rodriguez, for $600,000. In turn, Rodriguez sold it to Stephen Hodge, the brother of Robinson's girlfriend at the time, for $1 million. The money was ostensibly intended to help build Harmony Cove, but was wasted on lavish spending and paying other debts. While Robinson initially tried to keep up the payments, the mortgage went unserviced for so long that a bank foreclosed on her house in 2007. In 2009, Ford was forced to move out of her home. By this time, Robinson had lost possession of his expensive condo in Aventura, and was living in a squalid, budget motel in North Miami Beach. Ford eventually got her home back in 2013.[2][6]
On September 8, 2010, Robinson was convicted on 11 counts of bank bribery, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution.[8] On January 7, 2011, federal judge Ronald E. Longstaff sentenced Robinson to 61⁄2 years (78 months) in prison.[9][4][10] He was also ordered to pay $1,184,615 in restitution to Community State Bank and St. Paul Mercury Insurance.[11] Robinson appealed his sentence in September 2011, claiming judge Longstaff had denied him a chance to change lawyers and had improperly taken his allocution statement into account at sentencing. A panel of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the sentence in December.[12]
In March, 2012, a federal judge ruled that US$369,000 of Robinson's pension fund could be seized to help cover restitution owed due to his sham business deal.[9]
Robinson served his sentence at various federal prisons in South Carolina, Louisiana and Florida. He was released on September 19, 2016, on five years' supervised release.[11]
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