Police in metro Atlanta arrested a man and accused him of running a fake college recruiting scheme that scammed Georgia athletes and former students out of thousands of dollars.
Malcolm Walker, 39, has been charged with theft by deception in three Georgia counties in connection with his alleged activities, including his arrest last week in Gainesville.
Police spokesman Lt. Kevin Holbrook said his department has also received inquiries from other suspected victims across the Southeast “who fell prey to Walker.”
“Malcolm used hope and a future to prey upon our youth, using the goodwill of their parents and guardians,” Holbrook said.
The alleged Gainesville scheme was uncovered Dec. 18 when police received a fraud report from one of the suspected victims, Phyllip Becoats, who stated he sent more than $1,000 in CashApp transactions to Walker for services that were never rendered.
Becoats is a youth coach and mentor for Gainesville High School senior B.J. Bailey, so he asked Walker in September to make a highlight video to get the athlete noticed, he said. Walker has tens of thousands of followers on social media, where he was seen in posts with University of Colorado head football coach Deion Sanders and University of Michigan staff members, Becoats said.
Becoats said Walker told him that some of the coaches at Colorado were interested in Bailey and they wanted him to come for a visit. Walker then said he needed the money immediately to pay for Bailey’s flight, hotel room and other expenses, so they sent it, but by the time the trip came around Walker canceled it before cutting off contact, according to Becoats.
“I just was fed up, and I said, ‘Send me my money back,’” Becoats told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday. “And he just started giving me the runaround. And I went to Gainesville police and filed a report.”
According to police, Walker had said he could get the victim in front of recruiting personnel while promising the money would support the travel costs and entry to games. During the alleged scheme, Walker said he had a son who played for Buford High School and was accepted to Colorado on a scholarship, Holbrook said. Walker promised he could do the same thing for Bailey, police said.
After a “diligent investigator” took over the case, Holbrook said warrants were obtained for theft by deception. Walker was then arrested by Gwinnett police last week after officers responded to an unrelated domestic call and learned he had an outstanding warrant from Hall County, Gwinnett police spokesperson Ryan Winderweedle said.
“It feels good that he’s not going to be able to do it to anybody else because it’s out there now, and nobody else will be able to fall for that,“ Becoats said. ”Because he’s preying on single mothers and people that don’t have any idea about the recruiting process."
Bailey’s mother, Telandra Clark, said her son has been playing football since he was 10 years old. She said they remain saddened that “we had to find a demon like that” but told Bailey afterward it wasn’t the end. The defensive end is set to play next season for Maryville College in Tennessee.
“Even though he tried to take away, we still were blessed with something even better,” she told the AJC.
According to Hall County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Derreck Booth, a warrant service unit picked up Walker at the Gwinnett jail and took him to the Hall jail, where he was booked March 3.
Walker made bond there, but was released to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office a day later after that agency placed a hold on him, Booth said. The Jackson sheriff’s office said he was booked on a failure to appear charge related to an insurance issue.
On March 6, he was then booked into the Houston County Jail on another theft by deception charge and bonded out the same day, according to the sheriff’s office.
In that incident, Houston resident Curtis Harris said he was contacted by Walker via Facebook messenger, saying he had a recruitment opportunity for his son and other high school athletes who Harris helped train and coach, according to a police report obtained Wednesday.
The report stated that Walker told Harris he could make payments for hotel reservations and football game and plane tickets, and that Walker would set up the arrangements on his end. Walker eventually canceled several planned trips to the University of Colorado, which he said would hold onto the funds, police said. But the university stated it did not receive any money and that it wasn’t notified about the visits, according to the report.
In the report, an employee of the university, Alex Roussos, said the school was familiar with Walker due to the recruitment of his son. According to the report, Roussos, the Associate AD/Administration/Chief of Staff, told police that “Walker was trying to scam people into paying him to set up these visits.”
Harris said he was forced to refund money to other athletes and parents out of his own pocket and that Walker still hadn’t refunded him for the $3,672 in payments made.
On a voice messenger conversation obtained by the sheriff’s office, Walker “acknowledged that he owed Harris in excess of $3,600 for a trip that never took place” and that ”Walker continually made promises to refund Harris' funds," according to the report.
Walker did not respond to a request for comment about the accusations, and the AJC could not locate his attorney.
“A review of Walker’s history and CashApp records noted that Walker had a history of accepting payments and not fulfilling services associated with these payments,” the report stated. “Walker was determined to not have any association with the University of Colorado recruitment program as he alleged.”
During its investigation, the Houston sheriff’s office was notified about yet another theft by deception charge against Walker in Gwinnett, in which he was accused of obtaining funds via CashApp in late 2022 that totaled more than $12,000 from two people who believed the money was for “alumni fraternity dues,” according to that report.
The alleged victims originally contacted Glynn County police before Gwinnett police were assigned the case in November 2023. That report stated the funds were kept by Walker and not paid to the fraternity.
Savannah-based attorney Lakeisha Hamilton Wright told the AJC that Walker had also reached out about recruiting visits for her son, who plays baseball and football at Effingham County High School. Those proposed visits also involved the University of Colorado, but Walker never followed through, she said, causing her to share her experience on Facebook Live last month.
Those efforts led to more than 50 people saying they were scammed by Walker in multiple states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, North Carolina, Indiana, Texas, Virginia and Florida, she said. Hamilton also said she spoke with Harris at one point about his experience. She said Walker eventually paid her $975 after she went public, but at that point “it became personal.”
“There are people that lost thousands of dollars, and I am working to compile a database of all the victims because I intend to present something to the U.S. Attorney’s Office to try and have him prosecuted federally,” she told the AJC.
Holbrook said other law enforcement agencies have been following up with Gainesville police about potential cases in their jurisdictions. He encouraged other possible victims to “contact their local law enforcement agency to make a report.”
“Many times, cases of this nature are difficult to investigate. Many agencies don’t have the time or resources to put forward, so the case grows stale,” Holbrook said. “The investigator put forth a great deal of time and effort in following the leads and evidence trail. These are white-collar cases, ones in which technology, accounting and forensics come together.”
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