TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — We are learning more about the Federal wire fraud charges against former U of A basketball star Kerr Kriisa. Information just posted in the court case suggests the charges against Kriisa are just part of a case that is still growing.
Kerr Kriisa played two years for the U of A, transferred to play for West Virginia University and later University of Kentucky.
Now Federal prosecutors say he played a more dangerous game—more than two million dollars in wire fraud over almost four years.
A federal indictment in Kentucky, with the case transferred to West Virginia, says he used emails and text messages to impersonate a variety of people including his own mother to try to get money—and lots of it.
The charges claim he told one victim he and his family would be in danger if he didn’t get money to pay off a debt. Investigators say he offered to sell his organs to repay her.
The allegations say over a period of two years he posed as his mother, urging that same victim to give money for his mother’s cancer treatments.
Charges say at one point he asked for money to save his family farm.
The indictment says at least eight times, he posed as someone named Irene to try to extract money from victims.
Documents freshly filed in the case suggest an investigation that runs deeper than charges against one basketball player.
Prosecutors convinced the judge to seal all documents in the case and require all attorneys involved to handle them under unusually tight security. The request to seal mentions 15 thousand individual documents totaling more than 50 thousand pages.
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Craig Smith is a reporter for KGUN 9. With more than 40 years of reporting in cities like Tampa, Houston and Austin, Craig has covered more than 40 Space Shuttle launches and covered historic hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan, Andrew and Hugo. Share your story ideas and important issues with Craig by emailing craig.smith@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.
