Guilty plea set in $7.5M ex-Heat player fraud

MIAMI - A man previously convicted of real estate fraud has agreed to plead guilty to a multi-million dollar investment scam involving three former Miami Heat players and the team itself.

Court records show Haider Zafar will plead guilty to five counts of wire fraud, each of which carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence.

Prosecutors say Zafar defrauded players Mike Miller, James Jones and Rashard Lewis in 2013 by promising to invest their combined $7.5 million in various business opportunities.

Instead, prosecutors say Zafar kept the money and used some of it to buy a $1 million, three-season Heat ticket package.

Zafar pleaded guilty in February in Ohio federal court in an unrelated $10 million land-buying swindle. He will formally plead guilty in the Florida case after it is transferred to Ohio.