Yahoo: Lawsuit alleges Liddell was duped in real estate scam

[Clark Kent]

01-15-2010 12:50 PM:

Chuck Liddell joined in a lawsuit in California against Kelly Gearhart, a land developer, and the title company who facilitated the sale. The lawsuit alleges that Liddell paid $1.5 million to purchase three lots of land, but never received the titles for those lots.

According to the suit, around August 2007 Liddell entered into an agreement to buy three lots for $500,000 each and U2 LLC spent $1 million on two lots there intended for commercial property. Hutkin claims in the court document that his clients were told they’d receive title, but first had to pay the money to Gearhart to finalize a tract map to create the lots.

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The lawsuit goes on to say that the money Liddell and U2 (a real estate company) invested wasn't used to develop land; instead, it was used in a Ponzi scheme.

"The Iceman" is hardly the first athlete to end up on the wrong side of an investment scheme. Hall-of-Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax was one of the 13,000 victims of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. Michael Vick lost $2 million to con woman out of Nebraska.

While he waits for the lawsuit to come to court, Liddell will have plenty to keep him busy as he coaches the upcoming season of "The Ultimate Fighter," facing off against Tito Ortiz. The show debuts Mar. 31, and Ortiz and Liddell are slated to face each other after the season airs, though the date has not been set.



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Yahoo! Sports.
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