FBI: Ex-Browns player Reggie Rucker criminally charged

CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) - The FBI is throwing a flag on former Cleveland Browns receiver, Reggie Rucker.

Rucker, 68, has been charged with using charitable donations to pay gambling debts and personal expenses, including mortgage payments, meals and entertainment.

The Warrensville resident worked with groups like Amer-I-Can and the Peacemakers Alliance. He's been charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of making false statements to law enforcement.

"Reggie Rucker misused his celebrity and position in the community to dupe some of our most important local foundations and generous citizens," said Acting U.S. Attorney Carole Rendon. "He stole from the very violence interrupters he so publically claimed to support. In one breath he begged generous donors to save Amer-I-Can and the Peacemakers Alliance, and in the next he stole that money to support his lifestyle and his gambling junkets in Cleveland, Florida, and Las Vegas, using the charity's account as his own ATM."

According to the charges, from 2011 through Feb. 11, 2015 Rucker wrote checks to himself, made withdrawals from the Amer-I-Can bank account and paid off gambling debts, totaling thousands of dollars.

Rucker is expected in court next week to answer to the charges.

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