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A Georgia businessman was convicted Friday of defrauding former NBA stars Dwight Howard and Chandler Parsons of $8 million after a trial in Manhattan federal court.

The jury returned its verdict against Calvin Darden Jr. eight years after Darden was sentenced to a year in prison for impersonating his successful father in a failed attempt to buy Maxim magazine. In that case, Darden received leniency by cooperating with prosecutors against other defendants in the case.

This time, however, Darden rejected two offers from the government to plead guilty and went to trial.

Howard – an eight-time All-Star, three-time Defensive Player of the Year and one of the NBA’s most dominant centers at the height of his 18-year professional career – testified during the trial that he was cheated out of $7 million. He played for seven franchises, most notably the Orlando Magic – who took him No. 1 overall in the 2004 draft – and the Los Angeles Lakers, where he won his only NBA title during the pandemic-affected 2019-20 season won.

During his testimony, Howard said Darden tricked him into giving him $7 million by convincing him it was an investment to buy a women’s basketball franchise. When a prosecutor asked him if he would get anything in return for his $7 million, Howard testified that he was “slapped in the face.”

Prosecutors said Darden teamed up with a sports agent to get Parsons to send $1 million that would support the development of James Wiseman, who is currently playing in the NBA.

After Darden’s conviction on all counts, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Meade requested that Darden be immediately jailed, saying he had not learned his lesson since the 2016 case, when he cooperated and received leniency before sentencing.

He also said Darden has been convicted three times of multimillion-dollar fraud and that prosecutors expect he could face between 11 and 14 years in prison when he is sentenced early next year.

Meade said the government planned to seize all of Darden’s assets, including his Atlanta home, as well as luxury cars, art and jewelry purchased with money made from the fraud.

Judge Vernon S. Broderick said Darden could remain free on bail after his lawyer insisted he was no longer in danger of committing further fraud – and needed by his family, including his prominent father, who was ill become.

Darden’s father, Cal Darden, is a former senior vice president of operations at Atlanta-based United Parcel Service Inc. who served on the boards of several large companies.

During closing arguments Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Thompson said the evidence that Darden Jr. “committed these crimes is overwhelming.”

Thompson said Darden Jr. lied about how he would spend the money he received from the basketball players and then moved the money around multiple accounts to try to launder it.

Prosecutors said Darden Jr. spent at least $6.1 million of the $7 million he got from Howard, including $500,000 on two cars; $110,000 for a piano; $765,000 for a down payment on a $3.7 million home; $90,000 on luxury watches and another half a million dollars on home improvements, in addition to the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on art.

Thompson said he also, like the previous scam eight years ago, posed as his father to “take advantage of his father’s good name.”

However, defense attorney Xavier Donaldson argued that his client never impersonated his father to the athletes and accused prosecutors of trying to get the jury to use “assumptions, speculation and inappropriate conclusions” to reach one to reach a guilty verdict.