Last week, KFOR filed a follow-up report about a pair of civil fraud lawsuits filed against an OKC man named Matt Veazey. He’s accused of swindling investors in some sort of low-level Ponzi-type scheme:
An Oklahoma City man is facing lawsuits that allege he pocketed over $1 million with a fraudulent investment scheme…
Both lawsuits allege the victims gave Veazey money to put into his investment company, MVZ Holdings LLC. The allegations continue by claiming that instead of investing the funds, Veazey used the money to pay for what court documents refer to as Veazey and his wife’s “lavish lifestyle.”
“New cars, house in Gaillardia, $20,000 to $50,000 a month in credit card spending, and they’re with no other means of income other than the money that my client and potentially others historically have been defrauded from,” Lewis said.
Question – why would any alleged con man looking to live a lavish lifestyle pick Gaillardia? That has to be the worst rich part of OKC. I guess they have their own Braum’s and a golf course, but outside of that it’s just an overpriced land of characterless McMansions. Yuck.
Anyway, whenever I read a news report like this, I do what I almost always do in these situations – I actually read the lawsuits.
Based on my non-lawyer-trained eye, the plaintiffs seem to have a pretty strong case.
Veazey’s alleged operation had all the hallmarks of exactly that – a scheme. In one involving an easy-to-dupe victim named David Crooch, Veazey allegedly pretended to be friends with Sam Bradford, Matt Ryan, and other people to give himself a little credibility.
After reading through the lawsuit, I then did what I always do next – Google the person.
After some searching around, I found this 2007 Q&A and pic of Veazey from when he made the preseason All-City team as quarterback for PC North. If I did the math correctly, that means he backed up some QB named Sam Bradford during the early part of his high school career.
Basically, according to lawsuits, Sam Bradford’s backup high school quarterback is allegedly roaming around town pretending like they’re investment buddies.
This is what Matt looks like today:
Question – if you’re going to engage in shady business deals that read like textbook scams, can you at least try to make yourself look a little less like a con man? Did he go to the dentist and ask for subway tile look?
Unfortunately for Matt, the lawsuits that accuse him of defrauding people out of millions aren’t the only thing he’s dealing with. His wife filed for divorce back in January:
Normally, I’d feel bad for a guy who lost his wife along with his business, but based on some accusations in the lawsuit, it may have something to do with the liquidation and protection of certain assets:
For what it’s worth – and in court it’s worth a lot – Veazey is denying the claims against him. This is what his attorney told KFOR:
Our client strongly denies any wrongdoing. The allegations are based on a misunderstanding of what actually occurred, and when people see the full record of what actually happened, they’ll understand that this situation is very different from how it has been portrayed.
Our client believed he was communicating with a legitimate investment professional connected to his former employer. He had no idea he was being misled and did not believe anything improper was occurring.
Yep, it looks like he’s going to blame someone else. Who knows. Maybe he’s being conned too by a person who backed up Baker Mayfield in high school. It can happen!
Anyway, if you’re bored, you can watch the full KFOR report over there. And always remember – if an investment being pitched by a famous QB’s backup high school quarterback sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.
