A former director of men’s basketball at the University of Kentucky has been charged by a grand jury of defrauding more than $1.2 million from professional athletes who used his companies for various financial services.
Leon A. Smith, 44, of Lexington was indicted last week on federal charges of money laundering, aggravated identity theft and “devising a scheme to defraud and obtain money and property from clients by means of false pretenses.”
One of Smith’s clients was former UK basketball player Josh Harrellson, who claims in a Fayette County civil lawsuit that Smith defrauded him of about $180,000.