A woman who admitted to stealing millions of dollars from Dennis Rodman, Ricky Williams and other professional athletes has been released early from the 10-year prison sentence she had been handed in 2018.
Peggy Ann Fulford, 65, served part of the punishment at a low-security federal prison in Aliceville, Alabama, which is about 45 miles west of Tuscaloosa. The US bureau of prisons then released her on 27 April to a halfway home program in Orlando, Florida, which is administered by the government, an agency spokesperson said in a statement on Monday.
Fulford’s status indicates she is living either at a group halfway house or is confined at a private residence, the spokesperson said. Generally, federal halfway house residents are required to gain employment and might be allowed to drive or use a cellphone for work. They can also get four-hour recreational weekend passes.
Neither Fulford – who scammed her victims while pretending to be a financial adviser – nor her attorney could immediately be contacted for additional details, such as the amount of credit she may have received for demonstrating good behavior while incarcerated.
Her release date from the halfway home program was listed Monday as 24 April 2026, according to the prisons bureau website.
As the Covid-19 pandemic began in 2020, Fulford asked for a compassionate release, citing her age, a desire to care for her enfeebled father and claims that she had achieved rehabilitation after finishing educational classes and doing full-time laundry work while in prison, court records show.
Fulford became the subject of numerous documentaries – including on CNBC’s American Greed and BET’s American Gangster: Trap Queens – after she pleaded guilty to bilking four retired pro ballplayers and a doctor.
As prosecutors tell it, Fulford duped NBA champion Rodman, NFL all-pro Williams, basketball player Travis Best and footballer Lex Hilliard into believing that she had studied law and business at Harvard before scoring a fortune on Wall Street through lucrative hospital deals and striking hospital deals and real-estate investments in the Bahamas.
Fulford – who has been married five times and lost one of her husbands to a 1985 plane crash – made those claims despite previous media coverage in her home town of New Orleans reporting that she had received a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Georgia Tech.
Ultimately, Fulford promised to pay her marks’ bills, file their taxes and make retirement investments on their behalf at no charge, portraying herself as an independently wealthy woman who just wanted to shield close friends from losing their money.
However, in reality, prosecutors said she raided a number of bank accounts to which she had gained access between 2001 and 2014 and spent the athletes’ money buying cars, jewelry, airline tickets and land for herself.
Authorities arrested her in late 2016. In November 2018, she pleaded guilty to one federal charge of interstate transportation of stolen property and received the maximum sentence available: 10 years behind bars. She was also ordered to pay more than $5.7m in restitution to her victims.
She also pleaded guilty to a Louisiana state charge of stealing $174,000 that she got from a physician who believed they would buy as well as redevelop a historic, vacant New Orleans schoolhouse that was never actually up for sale. And she was ordered to simultaneously serve three years in prison for that scheme while completing her punishment for the scam aimed at Rodman, Williams, Best and Hilliard.
In 2021, Fulford filed court papers which complained that her decision to accept responsibility by pleading guilty should have translated into a lighter sentence. She also argued that she was denied her constitutional right to competent legal representation.
Fulford elaborated by writing that her lawyer led her to believe that her prospects of fighting the case against her were weak, so she should plead guilty because she was unlikely to get more than three years in prison. Furthermore, she suggested it was unfair that an ex-husband should have been a co-defendant but managed to avoid charges.
The Houston-based federal judge who sentenced Fulford, Keith P Ellison, ruled against her arguments, records show.
Fulford’s admitted behavior has drawn immense media interest. She granted an interview from prison to the BET documentary in which she accused her father of subjecting her to childhood physical abuse prior to her legal problems.
Fulford said she kept that abuse a secret to protect her and her mother from being beaten.
That documentary included a scene in which she spoke to Williams from prison by video conference.
During the conversation, a teary-eyed and sniffling Fulford told Williams: “I’m so sorry. I never meant to disappoint you … And I did. I failed you. And that’s … what’s really hurting me – more than anything.
“I hope that in your heart you can forgive me.”
Williams replied that he’s supposed to be angry at and bitter with her. But he said he just doesn’t feel that way about her. “Maybe I’m delusional … but you brought a lot to my life, and I wanted to be on the Peggy train,” he said. “I didn’t realize the ticket would be so expensive. But when you invest in creating a bond with someone, you take the good and the bad.”
Williams absolved Fulford after his ex-wife, Kristin, appeared at her sentencing hearing in federal court and testified that Fulford had taken “all” of the money Williams earned in 11 NFL seasons.
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