The Maurice Clarett story is getting weirder and weirder everyday. ESPN is reporting that Slo Mo has been bankrolled by a member of an Israeli crime organization since he left Ohio State. Clarett was introduced to Hai Waknine of the Israeli crime organization The Jerusalem Group (Sounds more like an investment firm to us.) by a “rapper friend”. Waknine provided Clarett with cash, a BMW, bodyguards, drivers and beachfront lodging in Malibu in exchange for 60% of his rookie contract. Since Clarett was cut by the Broncos, quick math tells us that 60% of $0 = $0.
Clarett’s lawyer is offering up this tie as the reason that Clarett was arrested with all those guns. Mango claims that a threatening postcard sent to his office might have come from Waknine.
I believe he owes [Waknine] money, and I think [Waknine] is probably not the only one” he owes, Mango said. “Whether it’s someone all the way on that coast or more on this side of the country; it’s no one that I’d want to owe money to. … A call came to our office [about Waknine], kind of giving us a rumored story. It’s been kind of tossed around by us, and quite frankly, Youngstown has quite a reputation — if you don’t know it already — for the Italian side of that ballgame. And everyone here thought, ‘Well, you wonder with money changing hands …’ Having heard the things we’ve heard, this is a little more concerning.
Maurice Clarett really is an idiot. How exactly do you get tied up with Israeli mobsters? Why can’t he just do what most on-the-brink athletes do and get a cushy job or a “loan” from a college booster. Those guys might end up getting you kicked off your team but they would never send a threatening postcard.
Links:
[ESPN]: Lawyer: Clarett has ties to alleged Israeli mobster
