Alleged scammer targeting ex-NFL players found dead in pool
HARRISON TWP., N.J. -- An investigation is underway in New Jersey into the death of the alleged mastermind behind a million-dollar scheme targeting former NFL players and other athletes.Authorities are investigating the death of Mohamed Coulibaly, the alleged scammer accused of targeting multiple former NFL players with a fake e-commerce scheme.According to police, the 24-year-old's body was found Friday in the swimming pool of a home in Harrison Township, New Jersey, as officers were making a welfare check after family members called in concerns about his well-being.The discovery comes just weeks after a Barron's investigation named Coulibaly as the organizer of a purported scam that sought to swindle professional athletes by selling them stakes in bogus web stores."The athletes and other investors would buy into these e-commerce shops that seemed to be doing really good business based on the sales logs that they were able to review. But we were able to determine that those transactions were manually input by somebody with access to the backend of these stores. And the purpose of this was to, to make these athletes think that they had these successful investments in these shops," said Jacob Adelman, with Barron's magazine.Three former NFL players said they collectively lost more than $1 million in investments made with Coulibaly."Weeks and then months went by, and Muhammad always had a different excuse for why he wasn't paying them. And finally, they realized they were potentially being scammed," Adelman said.Former New York Giants linebacker Tae Crowder says he became a victim after connecting with Coulibaly through a friend."We was just, every day, talking about different investments and different things we could possibly get into. I saw him hanging out with a bunch of different guys that I know, which you know made me feel comfortable," Crowder said.Crowder invested all of his savings - totaling $500,000 - in one of Coulibaly's web stores."I would log into the store all the time and just see, like, how it would work and what was going on. I feel like the more I told him about that, like, as many times I kept logging in, the number started going up," Crowder added.But his promised payout never came."I don't want anybody else to get involved in anything like this, and whoever has got involved, I just want to come together and make it right," Crowder said.Earlier this year, Coulibaly denied to Barron's that he was behind any kind of scam, saying that their reporting was, "Based on a misunderstanding of the technology and that his investors hadn't received returns from their deals because he himself hadn't received expected funds from a planned acquisition of his venture."So far, no criminal charges have been filed connected to the alleged scheme, but Coulibaly's accusers are now hoping they can get some long-awaited resolution.Copyright © 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.
