Former Jamaica basketball senior representative and former US Collegiate star Rumeal James Robinson was last week sentenced to six-and-half years in prison for financial fraud.

Robinson, who helped the University of Michigan to the 1989 NCAA Division One title, beating Seton Hall in over time in the final played in the Seattle Kingdome, was found guilty in September last year to 11 charges, including bank bribery, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and making a false statement to a financial institution, reports carried in several American newspapers and websites, reported.

The Mandeville-born and Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA raised Robinson who was a lottery pick by the Atlanta Hawks, selected 10th in the 1990 draft, played for six teams, including the New Jersey Nets, Portland Trailblazers and the Los Angeles Lakers in six plus seasons in the NBA.

He also played in the Continental Basketball Association and had one season in Europe playing for KK Zadar in the 2001-2002 season.

He is also accused of selling the house owned by Helen Ford — the Boston woman who took him off the streets at age 10 and raised him — without her knowledge. She subsequently lost her home as a result in April last year.

Robinson, who made two free throws with three seconds to go in over time for Michigan in a tumultuous season, was catapulted into cult hero status and parlayed it into an early draft pick.

According to an article on the Sports Illustrated website carried on Saturday, prosecutors say Robinson schemed between 2004-05 to borrow more than US$700,000 from a bank in Ankeny, Iowa, with the help of a loan officer. They say he claimed the money was for a business, but that he actually bought a condominium, cars, furniture and invested in an energy company.

Robinson, who had relocated to South Florida, was also ordered to pay nearly US$1.2 million in restitution.

He could have been sentenced to up to 30 years in prison and fined US$1 million on each count according to the NewsOne website.

The site also reported the 6′ 2″ Robinson had the help of Brian Williams, a loan officer at the bank who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud before Robinson’s trial began.

Williams is said to have signed off on an initial US$377,000 loan to Robinson for his business, Megaladon Development Inc, which was supposedly pursuing a development deal in Jamaica. Instead, Robinson bought a condo, plasma TVs and designer furniture, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said Robinson put the condo in the name of his girlfriend, listing her as his company’s marketing director though she actually worked in a strip club.

The Miami New Times website reported that in 2007, Robinson who made over US$5 million while playing in the NBA, was broke and living in small motels, far from the exclusive neighbourhoods he used to frequent.

According to a story carried in the Cambridge Chronicle in October 2009, in 2003 Robinson tricked his adoptive mother into thinking she was signing a mortgage on her home of over 30 years, that he would help pay.

The article said Robinson had told her of a real estate opportunity in Jamaica and asked for her support to build a luxury vacation resort.

A well known person, whose charitable work had seen her win many community awards, Ford is reported to have said she never heard anything from the bank for years and had no idea the mortgage was not being paid by Robinson.

The Cambridge paper said: “In December 2007, she received a notice from Cambridge District Court telling her that she had to vacate her home by February 2008. Apparently Robinson had deeded the property to numerous other business associates, and in 2006, one of those individuals defaulted on a loan which forced the bank to take ownership.”

Ford was able to extend her stay for an additional year, but as of April she has been living in a two-bedroom apartment in Somerville. The grandchildren, who were living with her, have been displaced to the homes of other family members.