Underwater
He was a coach and a mentor. A trusted advisor. A mover in the college hoops scene. But when financial scams caught up with David Salinas, he had nowhere to go but down. The basis for a March 2014 episode in the CNBC documentary series American Greed.
ESPN THE MAGAZINE / NOV 2012
“No one knows where he is." That was the word that spread through his network of clients, in a panicky game of telephone, during the second week of July 2011.
His employees couldn't find him. He hadn't been to his office for days. There was talk he'd gone to unwind at the vacation house he owned in Galveston, Texas. There was also speculation, among the more anxious or the better informed, that he'd split Houston for somewhere in South America. Ominously, someone recalled seeing dark, unmarked cars parked in the lot outside the office of his investment firm on Friday, July 15. Men in suits were hauling out boxes. As the news got around, clients barraged his cellphone with calls and messages. Some were demanding their money; the run on the bank had begun.
It happened to be the febrile height of college basketball's recruiting season, and at a sports venue north of Houston called the Gym, a summer league tournament had just tipped off. The place was a hive of activity. Along with dozens of other coaches from across the country, Billy Gillispie, then at Texas Tech, had come to scope the talent. Surrounded by people who knew him well (he got his start as a coach in Texas high schools), Gillispie received a call on his cellphone. The blood drained from his face as he listened. "He looked like a zombie," a witness later recalled….