Eddie Murphy and his wife Nicole react while giving an interview at the premiere of "Showtime," on March 11, 2002 in Los Angeles, California. "Showtime" opens in the United States on March 15, 2002. (Reuters)
The second shoe has fallen on jailed con man Troy Stratos — who dropped it on himself with a surprise guilty plea to fleecing the ex-wife of Eddie Murphy out of $10 million.
Nicole Murphy, who divorced the comedy icon in 2005, entrusted much of her settlement money to childhood friend Stratos.
Murphy’s friend of 34 years promised he would invest the divorce proceeds overseas — where it would earn a high rate of return — and then cover her expenses under the false premise that she was fully invested.
But a federal suit in Sacramento, Calif., where Murphy and Stratos grew up, alleged that the swindler diverted to himself millions of dollars of Murphy’s money that was intended for overseas investment — and that he covered Murphy’s expenses with her own funds.
The trial set for Sept. 12 was expected to put several of Murphy’s celebrity friends on the stand, including former New York Giant and TV personality Michael Strahan. Murphy was Strahan’s fiancée for five years before they broke up over prenup negotiations in 2014.
Stratos’ change of plea on Wednesday came 15 months after a federal jury found the hustler guilty of defrauding a Philadelphia investor group out of $11.25 million.
The group thought it was buying pre-IPO Facebook shares from Carlos Slim, with Stratos, under the name of “Ken Davis,” serving as the Mexican billionaire’s agent. But investors never received the shares, and funds wired for their purchase wound up being misspent by Stratos.
Stratos is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 17 for both the Facebook trial and Wednesday’s guilty plea.
He still faces a federal suit that accuses him of inducing the Venable law firm to participate in the Facebook fraud, and a state claim that alleges he conspired with Bank of America to rip off Murphy.
This article originally appeared in the New York Post's Page Six.
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