New Orleans Saints Jeremy Shockey Sues Former Saints Teammate

Duped By Houser The NFL Madoff

Recently released New Orleans Saints defensive end Charles Grant and current Saints tight end Jeremy Shockey have filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against their former teammate, Kevin Houser, alleging Houser duped them and other current and former Saints players and coaches into investing more than a million dollars in a film tax credit scam.

Houser is the former special teams long-snapper who was the longest tenured Saints player when he was cut by the team before the 2009 season as news of the tax credit fiasco emerged. Grant and Shockey say Houser, who was a licensed securities broker, convinced them they were buying state tax credits for Louisiana Film Studios, but later it turned out LFS had never applied for the state tax credits.

In all, nearly two dozen former or current Saints players and coaches, including quarterback Drew Brees, Coach Sean Payton and Saints legend Archie Manning, invested $1.7 million to buy what they thought were tax credits for the film studio project in Elmwood. Grant and Shockey’s lawsuit is labeled a class action on behalf of the rest of the investors.

Grant and Shockey allege that Houser actually kept a portion of their money as a commission or finder’s fee. Also, they say that Houser kept secret the fact that the film studio owed hundreds of thousands of dollars to 47 Construction LLC, a company co-owned by Houser and his wife.

Houser’s attorney, Jimmy Castex, said his client and was a victim of the scam by the film studio’s former CEO, Wayne Read. A federal bankruptcy judge ordered the film studio’s assets liquidated last month.

Houser played for the team from 2000 to 2008, exclusively snapping the ball on punts and placekicks.