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Law360 (April 27, 2021, 5:44 PM EDT ) An 82-year-old former New York Giants player serving a 20-year sentence for running a fake investment scheme was charged Monday with dealing cocaine from his Manhattan apartment while out on home confinement under a pandemic-era leniency program.
Clyde "Peter" Hall, who played for the Giants in the 1960s, was arrested Saturday and charged with possession with intent to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in New York federal court. According to the complaint, an unnamed source working with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration arranged to buy 11 kilograms of cocaine from Hall during phone calls recorded by law enforcement.
Prosecutors say the purported drug deal took place on April 24 outside of Hall's Manhattan apartment. Law enforcement intervened and seized a bag containing a "condensed chunky white substance," which field-tested positive for cocaine, and then found six packages of cocaine weighing 7 kilograms in Hall's apartment, according to the complaint.
Hall pled guilty to bilking investors of millions of dollars and was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2010, and ordered to pay $4.3 million in forfeiture and $1.9 million in restitution. He had been incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville, New York, but the U.S. Bureau of Prisons transferred him to home confinement in June under a new leniency policy contained in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, a representative from the BOP told Law360 Tuesday.
Hall admitted in 2009 to posing as a representative for two business trusts and inducing victims to hand over millions of dollars in advance fees, according to a 2010 government press release. While he claimed to trade the funds in high-yield investment programs or use them as collateral for loans, Hall instead spent the money on personal and family expenses, prosecutors said.
Hall and his wife, Anne Torselius Hall, also both pled guilty to bankruptcy fraud as part of the 2009 case. According to prosecutors, they filed a series of fraudulent bankruptcy petitions in 2004 to avoid eviction after refusing to pay rent on a three-floor brownstone apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The Halls then moved to a new apartment and spent $78,000 on renovations and rent, despite still owing more than $81,000 to their previous landlord, prosecutors said.
Court records show that Clyde Hall appealed his 20-year fraud sentence in November 2010, arguing that the government had been too harsh in seeking sentencing enhancements. The Second Circuit upheld the sentence in January 2012.
Anne Torselius Hall was sentenced to four years of probation and ordered to pay $81,200 in restitution.
A representative for prosecutors declined to comment Tuesday. Hall could not be reached for comment.
The government is represented by Ni Qian of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.
Counsel information for Hall was not immediately available.
The case is U.S. v. Clyde Hall, case number 21-mag-4473, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
--Editing by Regan Estes.
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