ST. LOUIS — A former professional basketball player whose reality star ex-girlfriend was sentenced to prison for various frauds pleaded guilty Wednesday to his own federal charge.
Lorenzo Gordon, 41, of Chesterfield, Missouri, pleaded guilty to a single count of theft of government money and admitted to receiving nearly $237,000 in pandemic business loans between May 2020 and April 2021 after writing false statements on applications.
“He was looking forward to today so he could have the opportunity to take responsibility for his actions,” said his lawyer, Jason Korner.
Gordon played basketball for Illinois State University then played professionally in France, Germany, Turkey and Israel, according to his online bio. In 2014, his then-girlfriend Brittish “Cierrah” Williams, appeared on the VH1 reality TV show “Basketball Wives.”
In 2021, Williams was charged with a litany of frauds, including tax fraud, bank fraud, insurance fraud and pandemic-related fraud. She pleaded guilty to 15 counts last year and admitted to submitting fake bills for insurance payouts, lying to the IRS and on pandemic loan applications and opening bank accounts and lines of credit with other people’s social security numbers.
She was sentenced in October to federal prison and is currently incarcerated at a low-security prison in Minnesota. Her estimated release date is April 2027, according to the Bureau of Prisons website.
After Williams was sentenced, federal prosecutors charged Gordon with multiple counts of fraud in his own case.
Prosecutors accused him of applying for a federal business relief loan for his company, Logo Fitness, on June 19, 2020. He claimed in the application he made gross revenues of nearly $96,500 prior to the pandemic when, in fact, Logo Fitness was established in 2020, according to court documents.
They said he then lied on another application days later, claiming a business called Elite 50 Basketball Training had made more than $234,600 the previous year when it had also been established in 2020.
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