
A self-described sports entrepreneur who stole hundreds of thousands of dollars after promising to bring a professional sports team to Hartford was spared prison Thursday after a rebuke for failing to make a single payment toward his court-ordered restitution.
James C. Duckett Jr. bilked the city and a private architectural firm out of about $1 million after persuading them he was a rich, ex-professional football player and sports business consultant who could rebuild Dillon Stadium south of downtown and buy a professional soccer franchise to play there.
At a City Hall meeting in 2015, Duckett said he already was building an enclosed stadium at the Foxwoods Casino and he and his company had enough money to start a franchise and build a new soccer pitch in Hartford. All he needed, he said, was for the city to deliver him a “flat piece of land.” At that point, Hartford initiated a land-lease agreement with Duckett for the land on which the stadium would be built.
“The city was completely unaware that Duckett did not, in fact, play in the NFL, that Foxwoods had declined to do any projects with Duckett and that Duckett had no access to any significant financial resources,” federal prosecutors said later, after Duckett had been convicted of about a dozen fraud, conspiracy and finance crimes. “Instead, Duckett was in the process of being evicted from the house he rented in Somers, had no money in his bank accounts and had several pending civil suits against him for unpaid utilities and the like.”
An investigation revealed that Duckett had been diverting payments for stadium work to personal expenses, such as what federal prosecutors called “$119,990 payment for the purchase of a luxury Land Rover.”
Duckett was sentenced to three years in prison, but given early release early in August after persuading a judge he was at risk from a COVID-19 infection because he suffered from diabetes and was being treated for chronic leukemia.
The terms of release required Duckett to get a job and make a $500 monthly restitution payment toward the $405,573.37 he stole from the city and $320,308.54 he stole from the architects. He told his probation officer, upon release, that he expected his “household income” to grow over two years to from $100,000 to $250,000 due to a “new business.” And he also reported having a financial interest in various “gems” and “ruby stones” in a safety deposit box, owned by several people associated with his business, known formerly as Black Diamond Consulting Group.
There was no mention of gems Thursday at a hearing in federal court in Bridgeport to determine whether Duckett had violated the terms of probation and should be returned to prison. But he reported through his public defender that his is earning less that he anticipated, about $900 a month.
U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill spared Duckett a return to prison and ordered him to pay 10 percent of his income in the future toward restitution and ordered him to make a good faith payment of $200 immediately.
Duckett agreed.
Source: Hartford Courant