PHOENIX — Former NFL player Cameron Colvin had another court hearing on Thursday as he faces multiple counts of wire fraud and transactional money laundering.
Colvin appeared before a judge in federal court, but there was no movement in the case as he works to retain a private attorney instead of a public defender.
A federal indictment accuses Colvin of defrauding people out of more than $1.2 million with his company, CamCo Commercial Inc., after he allegedly made false promises regarding business ventures that never happened.
The indictment alleges, “Colvin leveraged romantic relationships with certain women in order to obtain short-term business loans from those women with the promise of repayment.” However, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Colvin never returned any of the funds and “used them for personal expenses.”
Court records allege that Colvin portrayed himself as a "successful self-made businessman" and "billionaire philanthropist.”
The ABC15 Investigators have reported exclusively on past employees and business partners who allege Colvin owes them money.
Colvin was arrested in Arizona by the FBI in October. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
He played for the University of Oregon and touted how he became an NFL player with the San Francisco 49ers. ABC15 found that he signed as an undrafted free agent but never played during a regular season.
According to court records, Colvin lives in Surprise but was previously living in Scottsdale with offices in Scottsdale, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom.
Colvin's website shows more than a dozen different business ventures, including CamCo Ventures, CamCo Restaurants, CamCo Aviation, CamCo Crypto, and more. His website says that Colvin is the chairman and CEO of CamCo that was founded in 2014 and has a global reach.
The ABC15 Investigators previously reported Colvin received publicity after he pledged to donate $200 million to Goodwill of Central and Northern Arizona. A news release from Goodwill in 2020 said that the first installment of $10 million would go to Goodwill and follow in increments for the next 20 years.
A spokesperson for Goodwill recently told ABC15 that they never received any money from Colvin, referring ABC15 to a past statement.
Court documents allege Colvin never honored the Goodwill pledge because "he had no money to pledge."
“I truly feel the FBI being involved is the turning point that we needed,” said a woman who spoke to ABC15 and asked to remain anonymous.
She said she met Colvin on a dating app and eventually loaned him more than $25,000.
In 2020, she filed a civil lawsuit against Colvin and a judge ruled that he owed her that money plus another $70,000.
“I think coming forward, the power in numbers is really what’s going to help this case and what's going to help finally stop him from doing this to a lot of people,” she added.
ABC15 found Colvin outside federal court and asked him to comment on the fraud allegations.
However, he did not respond to any questions.
Federal records say Colvin had only a few employees at a Scottsdale office that he failed to pay on time.
ABC15 interviewed one of those former employees in 2023.
“It did hurt a lot while still working for him, still waiting on paychecks, to see him posting about going on a private jet to Las Vegas, and driving all these nice cars and going to meetings with all these very wealthy people to start these major projects,” said Tyler Johnson.
An attorney representing Johnson tells ABC15 his client has still not received his money.
