You may remember Patrick Willis as the intimidating force on the San Francisco 49ers defense from a couple of years ago. But he may end up being remembered for a completely different reason.
Retiring from the NFL and hoping to make an impact in Silicon Valley, Willis thought he was making an investment into a legitimate tech company and ended up putting his money into a vast pit.
Willis filed a lawsuit accusing Eren Niazi of fraud and breach of fiduciary duty. The suit seeks more than $2 million in disputed real estate and yet-to-be-determined monetary damages. A second, previously unreported lawsuit was filed by Willis farther south in the Superior Court of San Benito County. The lawsuit raises the same allegations and seeks at least $1 million in disputed real estate damages. Those are just the property damages. A source told Inc.’s Salvador Rodriguez that the total amount sought could be up to $14 million.
Niazi was known in Silicon Valley for having friendships with Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs before his untimely death. While that looks impressive from the outside, it didn’t tell the full story about him.
After Willis walked away from football, he joined Open Source Storage, a company run by Niazi. They met while living in the same complex. Making quick friends while Willis was still playing in the NFL, the transition from football player to businessman was hopefully going to be an easy one.
Willis came in as an investor of the company, a board member and its new executive vice president for partnerships. In his role, Willis was in charge of interviewing job candidates, Mashable reported.
Employees at the company enjoyed Willis’ presence at the company, but became increasingly weary of Niazi’s relationship with him. Some even said that Niazi used him as “sort of a pet” and liked having him around since he was a celebrity.
As people began to leave the company due to inactivity and general apathy, Willis began digging around on Niazi before finding out that this wasn’t the first time that he had taken advantage of people. Multiple people have gone to the FBI with findings on the Silicon Valley playboy making the initial investments seem even more foolish.
While Willis seems to be okay after finding out about his business partner’s misleadings, it is just another in a long line of cautionary tales surrounding football players after retirement.
