Arthur Kaliyev has been accused of theft to pay off gambling debts by his model ex-girlfriend, according to a report in the New York Post.
In an exclusive story on the Post’s website by hockey writer Mollie Walker on Monday afternoon, Lauren Mochen told the newspaper that the Ottawa Senators forward owes her and others around the National Hockey League thousands of dollars.
She told the newspaper that she filed a report with the police in her hometown in Michigan and is considering pressing charges against Kaliyev.
No charges have been laid, and none of these allegations have been proven in court. A Senators spokesperson said Monday that the club was deferring “all comment to the league.”
Kaliyev played for Steve Staios, the club’s president of hockey operations and general manager, along with owner Michael Andlauer, when they were with the Ontario Hockey League’s Hamilton Bulldogs, and was signed as an unrestricted free agent in the summer.
The Senators signed Kaliyev to a one-year, two-way contract that pays him $775,000 U.S. or $425,000 if he’s with the club’s American Hockey League affiliate in Belleville. The 24-year-old has two goals and six points in seven games with Belleville this season, and has also suited up for two games with Ottawa.
Mochen first raised these claims with several posts on TikTok last month, but told her version of the story to the Post in what appeared to be a series of interviews. She also had emails and text messages, which she claimed backed up her story.
Staios was asked about the accusations by Mochen after the initial TikTok videos appeared on the first day of the club’s camp on Sept. 17.
“We’re aware of it, and it’s being monitored, but there’s nothing to it from what we’ve been told,” Staios said. “I don’t really have more to say on it other than that.”
Mochen said in the report that she first started to notice the issues during the summer of 2023. She said that it was after Kaliyev gave Mochen three cheques for various amounts that added up to $7,500.
According to Mochen, those cheques were written to pay her back for the money that Kaliyev had “accidentally” taken from her PayPal account.
She said when she arrived in Miami for a vacation with Kaliyev and checked her bank account, it was in overdraft by $7,000.
“The bank calls me and says, ‘You cashed three fraudulent checks. Who did these come from? Why did you do it?’” Mochen told the Post.
“And right away, I panicked and was like, ‘No, no, no, I don’t know what’s going on.’ And I was like, ‘Can you guys double-check? There’s just no way this is happening.’
“The bank was like, ‘No, you need to pay the difference. Your account is negative, and once you do, we’re going to close your accounts. You can’t have an account with us anymore.’”
That’s when, according to Mochen, Kaliyev told her his bank account was frozen, and he would repay her.
The report in the Post said that was only part of what Mochen said she lost during her three-year relationship with Kaliyev.
Mochen claimed to Walker that Kaliyev scammed her out of more than $50,000 “to fund what she described as a rampant gambling addiction that has gone unaddressed by figures around the league.”
Kaliyev spent part of last season with the Los Angeles Kings and was picked up by the New York Rangers on waivers in January.
“I funded like his entire life the (2023-24) season,” Mochen said. “Anything he needed, I was paying for.
“It was unfortunate, but he (told me his family was) taking his payroll, they’re such scary people. But then, randomly, just show up in new Gucci shoes.
“He did some strange things. If the TV was on, and it wasn’t a sporting game, the TV had to be off. He refused to watch anything besides sports.
“He behaved as if he had bets placed on every single game that was on my TV. He would sit there checking his phone, checking and flipping back and forth between games.”
Postmedia reached out to Kaliyev’s Toronto-based agent, Ian Pulver, of the Will Sports Group, on Monday to see if he would offer a comment.
He didn’t give much insight to the Post on Kaliyev.
“I respect the confidentiality of my relationships with my players,” Pulver said. “I have no comment on anything that has to do with any private or personal matter with my client.”
The league also said in a statement to Walker that it had investigated the matter after the series of TikTok videos in September and found no wrongdoing by Kaliyev.
“No substantiation that anything Kaliyev was doing was in violation of our rules or applicable law,” the league said.
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