Marketing rep says he was ‘conned,’ didn’t give Zion’s father $400,000 as alleged

A Canadian marketing representative said he was conned out of $100,000 by someone posing as a member of former Duke basketball star Zion Williamson’s inner circle.

Last week, in a court filing by Gina Ford, who is suing Williamson for $100 million for allegedly breaking a marketing agreement with her company, an affidavit was included that Ford’s lawyers said showed that Williamson’s stepfather, Lee Anderson, asked for and received $400,000 in 2018 from marketing rep Slavko Duric in exchange for a percentage of Williamson’s future earnings.

Now, Duric is claiming that, although he did pay someone $100,000, it was not Anderson.

In an interview with Sports Illustrated on Monday, Duric said he was contacted by someone claiming to be an intermediary between himself, the Williamson family and their close friend James “Chubby” Wells. Duric said the person — who Duric did not identify — offered him a percentage of Williamson’s future earnings if he paid the family $100,000.

“I tried to do something I would characterize as outside the lines,” Duric said to SI. “I was allegedly involved early. I was at the front of the line through a person who said he knew the family. Somebody who said he was [Williamson’s stepdad] Lee Anderson spoke with me. Someone who said they were Chubby Wells spoke with me a dozen times.”

Court filings show that Duric raised about $400,000 for the endeavor. Duric told SI he sent the money after receiving copies of a marketing agreement and a South Carolina driver’s license from who he, at the time, believed was Williamson. According to the court documents, the copy of the driver’s license that Duric received had several errors on it, including having the figures for Williamson’s height and weight reversed and having the wrong hometown listed.

Duric told SI he never met anyone associated with Williamson in person, and after making the payment, the phone numbers of people he had been communicating with were cut off.

“I’ve been the victim of a con job by somebody acting like they were in the inner circle [with Williamson],” Duric told SI. “I have never spoken to Zion Williamson, and anybody who purported themselves as being a member of Zion’s inner circle was an impostor.”

Williamson’s attorney, Jeffrey Klein, in a statement to The News & Observer last week, denied the validity of the documents Duric received, which were included in the affidavit submitted by Ford’s attorneys.

“Neither Mr. Williamson nor his family know these individuals nor had any dealings with them,” Klein said in an email.

This story was originally published July 14, 2020 at 5:48 PM.