EX-YANKEE CATCHER JORGE POSADA GETS BEAT FOR $11 MILLION IN FRAUDULENT INVESTMENT SCAM

JORGE POSADA

Jorge Posada’s epic financial losses could become a cautionary tale for Latin American baseball players.

The Yankees great is suing his money managers in Florida, claiming the Cuban-American duo bilked him out of $11 million, according to a Vice Sports report.

Juan Carlos Collar and Anthony Fernandez controlled Jorge and wife Laura Posada’s finances since 1999 — first for Merrill Lynch, then for their own company, Quantum Family Office Group.

The troubling details of the alleged scam centered around a shady real estate deal in 2005. Sunset Trails LLC, which was managed by Collar and Fernandez, purchased land in Florida for $13.5 million, a day after it was purchased by Southern Acres for $8.4 million.

Quantum put $3 million from Posada into Sunset Trails, but he had no stake directly in the purchased land, which was supposed to be used for “developing an elite equestrian-themed community for the wealthy.” It is currently being rented by a farmer.

“I’ve never heard of anything like that. It’s jaw-dropping,” Posada attorney Barry Lax told Vice Sports.

According to the complaint, Collar and Fernandez would often approach Posada on the road for blind signoff on their financial frauds.

“They would go to Jorge and they would have a stack of documents to sign, and they would just say ‘Sign here,'” Lax said.

“And Jorge would sign it. He completely trusted these guys with all of their finances. All of their money. Whatever the Posadas made went directly into their accounts with these guys. That’s the kind of trust they had. The Posadas never in any way used other money managers, other investments. Everything was through these guys.”

Posada, a Puerto Rico native and a four-time World Series winner as a member of the Yankees’ esteemed Core Four, made upwards of $117 million in salary during his playing days, according to Baseball-Reference.com.

Former Yankees pitcher Jose Contreras reportedly also was ensnared in the alleged scheme, and claims the shady pair lost nearly $2.4 million of the right-hander’s money.

“Collar and Fernandez told Contreras that Sunset Trails was a good deal, that he would make lots of money from it, and that he could bring his children there to ride horses at any time,” it says in Contreras’ complaint, according to Vice Sports.

In 2010, the Posadas hired an independent accountant who discovered the improprieties. That began the path to the lawsuit that will soon be heard in a Florida courtroom as Posada tries to recoup the money he lost.