A former Bills player — who once scammed a convicted scammer — has been charged with a new case of insurance fraud.
According to KTSP, former Buffalo offensive lineman Brent Griffith has been charged with one count of felony insurance fraud after claiming someone stole his 1990 AFC Championship ring.
Griffith claimed someone stole the ring on a Sun Country Airlines flight in 2013, and then made a $5,000 insurance claim. But he was later shown wearing the ring in a Facebook photo.
Griffith’s charges stemmed from his ex-wife calling the insurance company to rat him out, saying he lied about the ring being stolen and that he continued to wear it. The insurance check was made out to both Griffith and his ex-wife, but she said she never signed the check and he cashed it without her knowledge. The complaint pointed to a July 2015 Facebook post which shows him wearing the ring.
In March, investigators searched his home but did not find the ring. He’s due in court July 11, and his lawyer issued a statement saying he was innocent.
Griffith was a seventh-round pick of the Bills out of Minnesota-Duluth, and he spent just the one year with the Bills. He returned to Minnesota and eventually worked as a police officer in Eden Prarie, and as a security guard for the Vikings. During that time, he was charged with fraudulently obtaining credit cards in the name of then-Vikings running back Michael Bennett.
That’s sort of funny, in part because Bennett was just sentenced to five years for burglary and identity theft, after stealing documents of his girlfriend’s parents to obtain $225,000 in loans.
Griffith was also accused in the theft of nearly 1,500 game tickets, and when authorities searched his work locker, they found personal information from several players.
Besides, who really wants to wear a ring for losing a Super Bowl?