Oakland man charged with pocketing $50,000 check from Steph and Ayesha Curry meant for local boxing club

OAKLAND — Federal prosecutors claim a 38-year-old man allegedly pocketed a $50,000 check that Steph and Ayesha Curry wrote for an East Oakland boxing club, all to get Amazon items, a vacation rental property and an SUV.

U.S. attorneys have charged Howard Solomon, of Oakland, with several counts of mail fraud and tax evasion in an alleged scheme to siphon money from the East Oakland Boxing Association, a nonprofit he led for several years, according to a news release announcing the charges.

If convicted, Solomon could face up to 20 years in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.

Prosecutors say Solomon was working as the club’s executive director in 2017 and, at some point, began moving money from the organization into his own bank accounts. Among the checks he allegedly stole was a $50,000 donation that the Currys made in 2019 on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, as part of the program’s “Ellen’s Greatest Night of Giveaways” segment, according to the U.S Attorney’s Office.

Solomon allegedly used the money from the boxing club for a host of personal expenses, including a vacation rental property, a Ford Explorer and items from Amazon, the attorney’s office said.

Solomon also is accused of filing false tax returns from 2018 to 2021 — the year he left the nonprofit — to hide the embezzled money, the agency said.

The charges were filed Feb. 26.