(Photo: Michael Quirk/iStock)

A former lawyer with Turner Broadcasting System who allegedly promised investors he would run a fantasy football lottery league through the Georgia Lottery “gambled on getting away with the scheme,” U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak said Tuesday.

“But he lost.”

Timothy Cobb, 53, of Atlanta was arraigned Tuesday before a U.S. magistrate judge in Atlanta on federal wire and tax fraud charges stemming from promises he made to investors to start a fantasy football league. Instead, according to federal prosecutors, Cobb used $500,000 he collected from investors to develop the fantasy business through his firm Skyboxx Sports to indulge instead on trips to Barbados and Mexico City and to dine at restaurants in Atlanta, Miami Beach and New York, prosecutors said.

He also used investors' funds for personal expenses, prosecutors said. But apparently not to pay his annual bar dues. According to the State Bar of Georgia's website, Cobb's membership was terminated for nonpayment of dues.

Cobb allegedly filed false federal income tax returns that hid that he bolstered his own income with investor funds, prosecutors said.

“Cobb is no longer engaging in fantasy but reality,” said Thomas J. Holloman, special agent in charge of the Internal Revenue Service's criminal investigation division in Atlanta. “Today's indictment represents the government's effort to throw a penalty flag against Cobb's illegal activity to defraud investors in his startup of a fantasy league football lottery.”

Cobb could not be located for comment. The case had not been entered on the public court docket late Tuesday.