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Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Emmitt Smith and his commercial real estate firm have been accused of cheating a Native American investor out of $2.5 million as part of an alleged solar project scheme, according to a lawsuit filed in Delaware.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in Chancery Court, claims Smith, the NFL’s all-time leading rusher and a three-time Super Bowl champion with the Dallas Cowboys, his business partner, David Mosley, and their commercial real estate company, 4 13 Solutions Inc., convinced Kituwah LLC to invest $2.5 million to fund a Texas solar project named Project Exodus.
Kituwah, the tribally owned investment and economic development arm of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, is now seeking the return of the $2.5 million loan “with appropriate interest.”
According to the filing, Smith and Mosley used the loan to repay Darrel Wilson and his company, Wilson Holdings of North America, “with whom they had partnered on other ventures.” Kituwah alleges the arrangement functioned “like a Ponzi scheme,” claiming the funds were secretly earmarked to “improperly pay” Wilson Holdings.
“Allegedly, the payment to Wilson Holdings was compensation for prior unsuccessful loans and investments that it made with 4 13 Solutions,” the lawsuit reads. “Although the parties had entered into a contract to pay Wilson Holdings if Project Exodus had obtained permanent financing, that condition never came to pass. Smith and Mosley, through 4 13 Solutions, nonetheless misdirected Kituwah’s funds to pay Wilson Holdings, all the while representing to Kituwah that they had used the loan proceeds for their proper purpose.”
Wilson Holdings is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
Kituwah alleges that in early 2023, Smith and Mosley provided assurances that the investment would be repaid in a matter of months once the project got off the ground.
The lawsuit further alleges that, in that process, Smith and Mosley falsely claimed other parties were interested in investing and proposed revenue splits, and in one instance, Mosley noted on a shared document that “100% of the project’s revenue would go to Kituwah.”
According to the complaint, the loan remained unpaid by the Feb. 1, 2024, deadline, and the promised progress on the project never materialized. 4 13 Solutions did not respond to multiple notices that the loan was overdue and “simply ignored Kituwah’s repayment demands,” the lawsuit reads.
Kituwah says that it “has not recovered a penny” from the $2.5 million loan.
4 13 Solutions could not be reached for comment.
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