Former college basketball player Kerr Kriisa lied and posed as other people as part of a scheme through which he fraudulently obtained nearly $2.2 million from two victims, according to a federal indictment.
A federal grand jury in West Virginia indicted Kriisa last month, and the case was unsealed Monday following his arrest by federal agents on Saturday in Kentucky. A 6-foot-3 guard from Estonia, Kriisa began his college career in 2020 at Arizona, where he became a fan favorite for his feistiness and long-range shooting.
Kriisa, 25, is expected to appear in federal court in West Virginia this week on five counts of wire fraud, U.S. Attorney Matthew Harvey said.
“Financial fraud schemes erode trust and cause real harm to victims who believed they were helping someone in need,” Harvey said in a news release.
Kriisa led the Pac-12 in assists during his two full seasons at Arizona before transferring to West Virginia. Kriisa was suspended the first nine games of his lone season at West Virginia after admitting he received impermissible benefits while at Arizona.
Kriisa transferred to Kentucky in 2024, but was limited to nine games due to a foot injury. He transferred to Cincinnati for his final year of eligibility and started 12 games before suffering a separated shoulder in February.
From 2022 through June 2 of this year, he posed as other people, including his own mother, and falsely claimed that he and his family urgently needed money to deal with an emergency, the indictment says.
The indictment alleges that, in August 2022, Kriisa falsely told one victim that he had gotten a loan to repay her and then a few months falsely told her he planned to sell his organs to get money to repay her. Between 2022 and 2024, he contacted the same victim, posing as his own mother, and asked for money to pay for cancer treatments for his mother and to save the family’s farm, the indictment says.
In April 2025, he signed a written agreement falsely promising to repay that victim $100,000 by February 2026.
From November 2025 through early February of this year, Kriisa repeatedly asked a second victim for money, sometimes posing as a made-up person named “Irene.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.