Former Alabama player Luther Davis pleads guilty in $20 million scheme impersonating Michael Penix Jr., others

Former Alabama defensive lineman Luther Davis, a member of the Crimson Tide’s 2009 national championship team, pleaded guilty to orchestrating an alleged scheme to defraud lenders by impersonating various NFL players, according to WSFA-TV. The alleged scheme involved Davis and a partner obtaining “at least thirteen fraudulent loans totaling more than $19,845,0000” by using disguises to trick lenders during virtual loan closings, according to court documents reviewed by The Guardian.

Davis and partner CJ Evins are reportedly expected to plead guilty to the scheme while waiving their constitutional right to indictment by a grand jury, according to a criminal information (CI) document recently filed by the U.S. attorney for the North District of Georgia. While the filing doesn’t list all 13 fraudulent loans, there are three totaling $11.6 million that also include the initials of the current NFL players Davis allegedly impersonated.

According to The Guardian, Davis and Evins impersonated Green Bay Packers safety and fellow Alabama alum Xavier McKinney to secure a $4.35 million loan from Aliya Sports, a fund that lends to athletes, and brokered by Sure Sports. The pair also reportedly impersonated former Cleveland Browns tight end David Njoku for a $4.025 million loan, as well as Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. for a $3.3 million loan through All Pro Capital Funding, also brokered by Sure Sports, per documents obtained by The Guardian.

“Beginning no later than in or around May 2023 and continuing through in or about October 2024, the defendant, Luther Davis, and CJ Evins, executed a scheme to fraudulently obtain millions of dollars in loans from multiple lenders, including, but not limited to, Aliya Sports and All Pro Capital Funding, by impersonating professional football players and falsely claiming those players were seeking multi-million dollar Loans,” U.S. federal prosecutors allege, per The Guardian.

The scheme allegedly perpetrated by Davis and Evins involved multiple levels of fraud, including registering companies with names or initials closely related to the impersonated NFL players with the Georgia Secretary of State’s office. The pair then allegedly opened bank accounts for these fraudulent companies and created fake email accounts for the players. That led to Davis and Evins allegedly obtaining fake identification documents, including driver’s licenses, before contacting loan brokers and using fabricated financial statements for the fake companies they said were operated by the NFL players.

The final fraud involved Davis appearing for virtual loan closings disguised as the athletes they were impersonating, often involving wigs or a durag in the case of Penix Jr., who is known for wearing durags during NFL games. All three of the aforementioned fraud cases occurred in 2024, per The Guardian.

“Unbeknownst to the broker and the lender, none of the players who were supposedly receiving the loans attended any of these closings,” the filing read, per The Guardian. “Rather, defendant Davis dressed in disguise and impersonated the players, providing fake identification documents to convince the notary.”

Davis and Ervin are charged with aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which can carry a potential sentence of up to 20 years in jail. According to the Northern District of Georgia’s court docket reviewed by The Guardian, Davis and Evins have both notified the court “the defendant intends to enter a plea of guilty” in their case, which currently includes a plea hearing scheduled for April 27.

Davis, who originally flipped his recruitment from LSU to Alabama in 2007, played in Tuscaloosa from 2007-10 and was a key defensive reserve who appeared in all 14 games for Nick Saban’s first national championship team in 2009. Davis would later be identified as part of a bagman scheme to allegedly provide improper benefits to multiple SEC football players, including former Alabama offensive lineman D.J. Fluker, as reported by Yahoo! Sports in 2013.