.He was replaced by Mark Richt who lasted 15 long years, with results that were not much better, particularly once JD's recruits aged out.
Like usual, you have no idea what you're talking about. Richt, with or without Donnan's recruits, vastly performed better.
Donnad had one top 10 finish in his five seasons.
Richt had three top 10 finishes in his first four seasons.
Donnan had one top 10 finish in his five seasons.
Richt had seven top 10 finishes in his 15 seasons.
Donnan had no SEC championships in his five seasons.
Richt had two SEC championships in his first five seasons.
Donnan had no SEC East Championships in his five seasons.
Richt had five SEC East Championships in his 15 seasons.
And that doesn't begin to describe the issues Donnan had with the most prominent boosters and legendary figures in Georgia Athletics.
JD got defrauded in some kind of Ponzi scheme
You're clueless. Donnan was as guilty as Crabtree was. Crabtree even testified against him and admitted that Donnan was aware of everything. Donnan avoided both federal and bankruptcy court trials by using his "aww, shucks" persona and playing dumb, even though his co-conspirator testified otherwise. Donnan had taken nearly $10 million from the company, which not surprisingly considering the lack of ethics, was a west virginia company with their biggest warehouse being in Huntington.
however the stores were a fraud, selling merchandise below cost to make it look prosperous.
No, that's not how it was a "fraud." They weren't selling merchandise below cost. There is nothing fraudulent about that. They were wholesale liquidators: The company would buy returned/damaged/older goods that were either perfectly fine or refurbished, bought at a huge discount, and then would sell those. It's no different than what TJX Companies, Inc. and others do.
The issue (one of a few) came when they couldn't sell inventory fast enough in order to get investors a return, so they started using money from investors to pay other investors, which is a textbook definition of "ponzi scheme." Donnan ran around telling investors that the goods they bought at a discount already had contracts in place to be purchased by other companies, so it was a no-risk investment, which of course, wasn't true.
He, and his family, including Todd Donnan, all filed for bankruptcy, but he later settled. I have no idea what his financial situation is now.
Yeah, in an attempt to not lose everything they bought with the ponzi scheme funds. They didn't file for bankruptcy because they lost so much money to the ponzi scheme. They filed to avoid litigation from other investors and to avoid having to give up the millions that they profited from the fraud.
Todd only invested $50k yet received more than $600k back from the scheme. Jim and his wife bought Todd and his wife a million-dollar house from money made from the scheme. Jim got paid a percentage of all the money invested that he recruited from his contacts.
