Two men, including one accused of posing as a San Francisco 49ers player, are under arrest for allegedly defrauding dozens of women out of more than $1.3 million in a scheme that lasted over four years.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Oregon said in an announcement that Daejon Labrayae Love, 35, and Taylor Jamie Chan, 18, targeted victims via dating apps and social media beginning in February 2022 and lasting through their arrest on Monday. They are each facing one count of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, all felonies. Investigators said they have identified 26 victims of the plot.

According to an affidavit filed last week, Love and Chan conspired to create fake financial documents that appeared to show they had earned millions of dollars via investments they never made. Love would allegedly find women online and attempt to convince them to send money to him or Chan, who he claimed was his financial advisor. Love allegedly told the women that Chan had a secret investment algorithm that had made him more than $30 million.

A core part of the scheme, investigators said, was that Love presented himself to victims as an active 49ers wide receiver to project the image that he was wealthy. Court documents show screenshots of Instagram posts Love allegedly made in which he donned 49ers equipment while pretending to train, at one point faking a contract signing for a video. In other cases, Love stole posts from actual NFL players and posted them as his own.

“Some victims became suspicious of Love and searched for Love’s information through the Internet,” the affidavit said. “Due to Love’s false social media representations, search engines and artificial intelligence occasionally stated that Love was a bona fide 49ers player. In January 2026, investigators entered Love’s first and last name in search engines and found that results did, in fact, sometimes depict Love as a player for the 49ers.”

Both the NFL and the 49ers told authorities Love had no connection to them. Attorneys for Love and Chan were not immediately available to comment when contacted Friday.

The affidavit said Love used a variety of aliases to conceal his true identity, at times posing as Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love or claiming the two were related. His other alleged aliases included Jon Love and Avril Lyto Love. He also told some women he was a real estate investor from a wealthy Swiss family.

“Love spent over $1,160 at Green Gridiron, a website specializing in custom football helmets. Love purchased from Prop Money Inc., a company which sells realistic fake money for movies. Love also made purchases from Useviral.com and Buzzoid, companies that sell followers, likes, and views for social media accounts,” the affidavit said. “Investigators believe these purchases were made to enhance Love’s online appearance and alleged social standing in furtherance of the scheme.”

Daejon Love is accused of pretending he was related to Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love, though the two share no relationship. (John Fisher / Getty Images)

In many cases, Love allegedly developed romantic relationships with the women while telling them he wanted to invest with them so they could build lives together. He would then use apps such as Fake Bank Account Pro, which allow users to create fake bank accounts. Privately, he mocked them with Chan, who was 14 when the scheme began, and complained about having to maintain those relationships.

One victim, identified in the documents as A.T., said she dated Love for nearly a year before realizing she was being scammed. The affidavit said she lost more than $87,000 to Love and Chan via fake investments and vehicle leases she paid for, among other things. Another, identified as G.H., said Love threatened her with physical violence when she refused to send him her savings.

When other targets said they didn’t have enough money for Love’s supposed investments, he allegedly pressured them to take out personal loans that he left them unable to pay. Love would then block the victims and keep the stolen money. Authorities said they found no evidence Love had any legitimate source of income.

FBI agents arrested Love and Chan at the Boise Airport in Idaho while they were allegedly on their way to meet with new targets. The bureau is requesting anyone else potentially impacted by the scheme to come forward, as it “believes there are many more victims.”

Pioneering Canadian French-language sports broadcaster Jacques Doucet, known as the “Voice of the Expos,” died Thursday. He was 86.

“We join the MLB community and our colleagues at TVASports in extending our sincere condolences to the family and friends of Jacques Doucet,” wrote the Toronto Blue Jays in a statement. “The ‘Voice of Baseball’ in Quebec and a Canadian Baseball Hall of Famer — his impact on the game and the Montreal Expos will be remembered forever.”

The French Canadian was born in Montreal in 1940 and went from journalist to radio broadcaster, serving as the play-by-play announcer for the Montreal Expos (now the Washington Nationals) for 33 seasons, calling more than 5,000 games, including two perfect games (Dennis Martinez, July 28, 1991; David Cone, July 18, 1999), as well as World Series games from 1982 through 1995.

We join the MLB community and our colleagues at @TVASports in extending our sincere condolences to the family and friends of Jacques Doucet.

The ‘Voice of Baseball’ in Quebec and a Canadian Baseball Hall of Famer – his impact on the game and the Montreal Expos will be remembered… pic.twitter.com/vPzqzIJVI3

— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) August 28, 2026

In doing so, he broadened interest in baseball within Canada’s French-speaking audience. Doucet is also credited with helping coin many of baseball’s terms and phrases that did not exist in French. For instance, a shoestring catch became “vol au sol,” the type of lyrical mastery that led many to consider him the French equivalent of the late Vin Scully, a pioneering voice in his own right and the backdrop of Los Angeles Dodgers games for many generations.

“Everywhere I went, people said, ‘Jacques, we miss you,’” a 70-year-old Doucet told The New York Times in 2010. “It was part of my life for 33 years. To me it could be Little League or semipro or Major League Baseball; once the game starts, it’s all the same to me. I still jump out of my seat when I see a fine double play.”

Long after the Expos left Montreal for Washington, Doucet continued to call games, his deep voice providing the sounds for independent league games, his place in history solidified, his passion for an adopted sport unwavering.

“My teacher and mentor left us today,” broadcaster Denis Casavant, a colleague of Doucet, wrote online. “Thank you, Jacques, for your generosity and kindness, and especially for the influence you had on my career as a play-by-play announcer. My condolences to his partner Corrie and the entire family.”

Doucet is a member of the Quebec Baseball Hall of Fame, the Expos Hall of Fame and the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. However, despite being nominated multiple times, including as recently as 2011, for the Ford C. Frick Award, the Baseball Hall of Fame’s highest honor for broadcasters, Doucet never received it.

“My only regret is that I never had the opportunity to broadcast a World Series game involving the Expos,” Doucet wrote in an article published by the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).

CHICAGO — Perhaps it’s too early to suggest the Cubs are in full-blown crisis mode with their bullpen. But after Friday’s 10-8 loss to the Cincinnati Reds, the Cubs are 2-5 in their last seven, with the bullpen featuring prominently in many of those losses.

David Peterson had worked a strong five innings for the Cubs Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field, exiting with Chicago up 3-2. Almost immediately upon his departure, things fell apart. Trent Thornton allowed a game-tying home run and then quickly saw things unravel after an RBI single and a three-run home run flipped what had been a 3-0 lead into a 7-3 deficit.

“He made some bad pitches and they hit him,” manager Craig Counsell said. “Trent’s been really, really good for a good stretch, but he made some bad pitches today.”

Thornton has done a great job for the Cubs this season after being added in the spring as a minor-league free agent. Even after Friday’s awful outings, the veteran has a 3.32 ERA in 43 1/3 innings and has helped fill a critical role as injuries piled up early in the year.

But his strikeout rate has been a concern. Despite some recent positive trends in that area (in 10 scoreless August innings before Friday, Thornton struck out 26.3 percent of the batters he faced), he has a 14.5 percent strikeout rate on the season. Of relievers with at least 40 innings pitched, only four have a worse strikeout rate. Two (Miles Mikolas and Zack Littell) have been designated for assignment. The other two (Tim Hill and Tyler Rogers) are elite ground-ball pitchers.

Thornton deserves credit for what he’s given the team this season, but relying on him in the bridge innings of a one-run game may not be the best solution. But other than perhaps going with Colin Rea — who hasn’t pitched since last Friday — for multiple innings, there may not have been a better option. Not right now, at least.

With the trade deadline passed, the club is largely focused on pitchers already in their organization.

What are the Cubs’ options?

• The first step will be getting the current bullpen arms right. Jacob Webb has been brilliant all season long, but he’s blown consecutive save opportunities. With a month left in the season, Webb is one appearance and 7 1/3 innings short of matching career highs in both categories.

Counsell said there were “no plans to give him a break” when asked if he needed to stop leaning on him so heavily.

“We’re gonna need Jacob to be good to accomplish our goals,” Counsell said. “You’re always monitoring workload. It’s a daily thing of monitoring these guys and what they’re doing. I think Jacob’s in a good spot.”

The data doesn’t suggest he’s off, but others stepping up would certainly help give him some much-needed off days.

• Two guys who could do that are Daniel Palencia and Ryan Zeferjahns. There isn’t a tremendous amount of concern with Palencia at the moment. He gave up a solo homer on Friday, but struck out two and looks close to his top form. He’s shaking off the rust (Friday was just his third appearance after a two-month stint on the injured list), and there is confidence he’ll soon be the imposing reliever they saw last season.

Zeferjahn is a different story. The pitching coaches worked with him in the bullpen before Friday’s loss. Though seven of the 11 hits he’s allowed since joining the Cubs have come on his four-seam fastball, the Cubs aren’t particularly worried about that pitch.

Their focus with Zeferjahn is two-fold. The first is getting his gyro slider and sweeper to be a bit crisper. He’s slightly off with his mechanics and he’s not getting to the front of the ball in quite the same way as he does when at his best.

The next step is correcting Zeferjahn’s pitch usage. They’ve seen him be too much of a two-pitch pitcher, leaning on his four-seamer and sweeper. Those are the pitches he will use most, but they want to see at least 30 percent usage between his sinker and gyro slider. After that, it’s about correcting sequencing.

• Friday didn’t offer any more clarity on Ben Brown’s status. Brown felt “symptoms” after throwing two innings during Tuesday’s controlled scrimmage at the organization’s Arizona complex, putting his availability the rest of this season into question.

“Obviously the fact that we’re gathering opinions from doctors means there’s a setback,” manager Craig Counsell said. “But no path forward from that has been determined at all.”

According to a team source who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the club’s plans, the Cubs are looking at their major-league roster with the assumption that Brown won’t be able to help. That’s a departure from how they looked at things before Tuesday. Their focus with him is on his future and making sure his neck injury won’t be a recurring problem.

• Brown not being an option stings. But other talented pitchers could impact the bullpen with more swing-and-miss. After throwing a bullpen on Tuesday, Edward Cabrera had a live BP session in Arizona on Friday. The next step would be a rehab outing. After it was determined that his blister issues tend to be exacerbated after longer outings, the Cubs believe they can use him as a reliever the rest of this season.

“We’re gonna do some shorter stints with him,” Counsell said.

The question there becomes how quickly he bounces back after each appearance. The Cubs have a plethora of long relievers between Rea, Aaron Civale and Javier Assad (currently working as a starter at Triple A). They need another bat-missing option who can work multiple times a week. Can Cabrera be that guy?

• Shelby Miller isn’t too far away from helping the team. After pitching three times last week and feeling good, his next hurdle is pitching back-to-back games. He’s expected to try and clear that by pitching for Triple-A Iowa on Friday and Saturday. The Cubs would then like to see Miller work more than one inning. That would be one of the final steps before the Cubs consider him a legitimate option for the big-league bullpen. The next 10 or so days will be critical.

• Lefty Justin Steele isn’t on the verge of returning, but he continues to check off boxes. If he returns to the big leagues this season, the question will be how often he can be used. If he’s sharp, the Cubs know how good he can be as a reliever since they saw him dominate in the role in 2021 before he converted to starting full-time.