A former American footballer who played with the New York Giants in the 1960s has pleaded guilty to charges arising out of a scheme that used bogus letters of credit (L/Cs) and other concocted bank instruments in an investment scam.

In order to defraud investors of millions of dollars, Clyde Hall claimed the bank instruments would provide investors with the collateral they needed to gain access to high yield investment programmes.

Advance fee

Hall told his victims that in exchange for an advance fee, he could obtain for them L/Cs, bank guarantees or other bank instruments worth hundreds of millions of US dollars.

The former footballer claimed these bank instruments could be used as collateral for loans or to fund trading in high yield investment programmes that would generate phenomenal returns.

Fake documents

Hall told his victims that advance fees would be held in an escrow account and would be refunded if he did not deliver the bank instruments he promised.

The investors would see no genuine bank instruments from Hall and his co-conspirators, although some were shown fake documents.

When Hall's apartment was searched at the time of his arrest, dozens of fake L/Cs and bank guarantees were found on paper bearing the logos of banks such as ABN-AMRO, Citibank and JPMorgan Chase.

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