{"id":868146,"date":"2026-04-17T05:10:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T05:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/868146\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T05:10:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T05:10:30","slug":"feds-say-former-alabama-player-disguised-himself-as-falcons-qb-michael-penix-jr-in-wild-20m-fraud-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/868146\/","title":{"rendered":"Feds say former Alabama player disguised himself as Falcons QB Michael Penix Jr. in wild $20M fraud scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ATLANTA \u2014 Federal prosecutors said a former college football player is accused of posing as several NFL stars &#8212; including Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. &#8212; in an alleged scheme to steal millions of dollars.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/48504890\/report-penix-njoku-mckinney-targets-ex-bama-de-fraud\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">reporting from ESPN<\/a>, authorities said Luther Davis, a former Alabama Crimson Tide player, used disguises, fake identification and fabricated documents to impersonate professional athletes in order to secure fraudulent loans.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors allege Davis targeted multiple players, including Penix, Cleveland Browns tight end David Njoku and Green Bay Packers safety Xavier McKinney, who graduated from Roswell High School. Federal officials said Davis and an alleged accomplice obtained nearly $20 million in fraudulent loans between 2023 and 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Court documents state that in July 2024, Davis allegedly impersonated Penix by wearing a disguise and presenting a fake Florida driver\u2019s license using a photo found online. Authorities said the players did not authorize any of the loans, and the money was wired to accounts controlled by the suspects.<\/p>\n<p>Records show Davis is expected to plead guilty at a hearing scheduled for April 27 in Atlanta.<\/p>\n<p>11Alive has reached out to the Atlanta Falcons for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA \u2014 Federal prosecutors said a former college football player is accused of posing as several NFL stars&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":868147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2074],"tags":[223,254,2554,224,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-868146","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-falcons","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-falcons","10":"tag-atlantafalcons","11":"tag-falcons","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116418327937112258","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/868147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}