It's not fraud. The only law that would be close as far as prosecution goes would be a California state law about creating false online identities. But that would be dicey, at best...since I think we're just talking about a twitter account.
There's no obvious legal recourse here, really...though I'm sure a book deal and all that jazz is on the way which is probably why Ronaiah has lawyer'd up with Rodney King's old attorney and is not saying a word to anyone. All this stuff still only just came out last week. They're probably just planning their best course of action so that they can get the most $$$ out of all this.
Either way it's looking more and more like what I was saying all along is true...this has nothing to do with Manti Te'o's viability on the football field or as a draft prospect. The thousand phone calls and voicemails certainly give the impression he wasn't even embellishing when he talked about during the Heisman run-up what a "deep" relationship the two had. Clearly they did. And clearly whoever's voice that was on the other end sure does sound like a girl.
It's bizarre and delicisous for the little drama queens that eat this stuff up (which means, pretty much everyone), but it has nothing to do with football. As a scout said recently if he's a 2nd round pick it's not because of this fake girlfriend business, it's because he's a slow inside linebacker.
Although I'd disagree with that scout's take that Te'o is "slow".
