Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Emmitt Smith has been accused of cheating an investor in a Texas solar energy project out of $2.5 million.
A lawsuit filed Monday in Delaware’s Chancery Court claims the NFL’s all-time leading rusher and his business partners used the money loaned by a Native American group to instead pay back a different company they owed money to — “essentially, like a Ponzi scheme,” the suit claims.
Kituwah LLC, the investment and economic development arm of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, claims it has “not recovered a penny” of reimbursement from the 2023 loan since it became due on Feb. 1, 2024.
Kituwah said it has been fed a “steady stream of lies” from Smith, partner David Mosley and their commercial real estate company, 4 13 Solutions Inc., since it invested in the planned Project Exodus solar farm.
According to the lawsuit, Kituwah provided the loan based on “false projections and data” and had been promised repayment “in a matter of months.”
The suit alleges that Smith’s group used the funds to pay Wilson Holdings, which is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit is seeking at least $2.5 million plus interest, expenses and additional damages to be determined at trial, as well as attorneys’ fees. The suit claims fraudulent inducement, breach of fiduciary duty and breach of contract.
Attempts by Front Office Sports to reach Smith and the other defendants for comment were not successful.
Smith, 57, who won three Super Bowl championships with the Dallas Cowboys, retired following the 2004 season with a record 18,355 career rushing yards. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2010.