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Burgdorf pleads guilty in $10M fraud Posted: Friday May 02, 2003 1:11 PMBIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) -- Former University of Alabama quarterback Brian Burgdorf pleaded guilty Friday in a $10 million securities scam, admitting to a fraud whose victims included Florida State coach Bobby Bowden. Burgdorf, 29, pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring to sell unregistered securities. He appeared three days after Bowden's oldest son, Steve Bowden, pleaded guilty in the scheme. Prosecutor Adolph Dean described Burgdorf and Steve Bowden as sales representatives for the Millennium Fund, which was promoted as a tax-free, guaranteed investment for "the privileged few." Burgdorf, a backup on the 1992 national championship squad and a captain for the 1995 team, earned commissions from promoting the fund in 1997 and 1998, Dean said. U.S. District Judge Karon Bowdre set sentencing for July 30, when Burgdorf could get a term ranging from probation to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Another man, William Earl Amos of Annapolis, Md., previously pleaded guilty, and charges are pending against two other men. The prosecutor said 14 people in Alabama, Florida and Tennessee invested about $10 million in the fund, which began in 1996 and included a network of accounts and corporations, according to court documents. Bobby Bowden invested $1.6 million, prosecutors said, and a son-in-law of the coach, John Madden, put in $1.5 million. Former Alabama athletic booster Logan Young of Memphis, Tenn., lost $1 million, they said. Young was disassociated from the university last year after being implicated in a recruiting scandal that resulted in Alabama being placed on probation. Young denied any wrongdoing. The federal charge represented only one of the legal problems Burgdorf has encountered since his playing days in Tuscaloosa. A native of Cedartown, Ga., Burgdorf already is on probation on state charges of writing bad checks in Alabama, and he was arrested in 1998 on drug charges. That case was dropped after Burgdorf agreed to seek drug counseling. Last year, a Baldwin County prosecutor said Burgdorf was considered a witness in the death of a friend who accidentally overdosed on drugs after a night of partying on the Alabama coast. No charges were filed. Defense lawyer Ron Marlow has said many of Burgdorf's problems stemmed from an apparent addiction to prescription drugs including Oxycontin, a powerful painkiller he received for a case of shingles, a nerve disorder. |
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