Ex-NFL players say they lost $1M in alleged fake Shopify store scheme: report

A 24-year-old Philadelphia entrepreneur allegedly persuaded former NFL players to invest more than $1 million in Shopify stores the dashboards of which appeared to show fabricated sales, according to a report.Philadelphia Eagles stars Nakobe Dean and Jalen Carter, rapper YG and US men’s soccer national team defender Mark McKenzie were among the people listed as clients in a pitch deck reviewed by Barron’s.It was unclear whether these athletes knew they had been included, the publication said.An agent for Dean declined to comment, while representatives for Carter, Terrell Edmunds, McKenzie and YG did not respond to messages.None of the athletes have been accused of wrongdoing.Mohamed Coulibaly offered athletes the opportunity to own ready-made e-commerce sites in exchange for investments of at least $50,000, guaranteeing the return of their principal after six months, plus 80% of any profits from the sites, according to contracts reviewed by Barron’s.The outlet found evidence suggesting many orders were manually entered into Shopify dashboards, creating the appearance of successful online stores despite little customer traffic.One site, Dailyprodtrend, recorded a $5,000 order from a purported customer in Luxembourg for 100 desktop humidifiers and 120 USB-powered cup warmers.The person living at the shipping address listed on the order told Barron’s he had never made the purchase.“Who needs 100 humidifiers and 120 cup warmers?” he said.Dailyprodtrend logged more than 360 orders between March 2025 and February of this year, according to Barron’s.The site received just 90 visitors during that period.

Each transaction was manually entered and marked paid minutes later, the report said.Emails to multiple listed customers bounced back as undeliverable, according to Barron’s.Three former NFL players told Barron’s they collectively lost more than $1 million through separate investments tied to Coulibaly.They were not named in the article.

One of those pla...