Ex-college basketball player Kerr Kriisa admits demanding $9,000 from victim in fraud scheme

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (AP) — Former college basketball player Kerr Kriisa admitted Thursday to demanding $9,000 from a victim as part of a fraud scheme.

Kriisa pleaded guilty to one federal count of wire fraud as part of a plea agreement, U.S. Attorney Matthew L. Harvey announced in a news release.

Last February, Kriisa posed as a made-up person named “Irene” and emailed a person asking for money in order to avoid litigation and publicity concerning a financial dispute, according to the plea agreement.

“Financial fraud is not a game, and those who choose to deceive and exploit others will be held accountable,” Harvey, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia, said in a statement.

Kriisa, a 6-foot-3 guard from Estonia, faces up to two years in prison. Sentencing was set for Dec. 22.

Kriisa's attorney, federal public defender Richard Walker, declined to comment on the plea agreement.

Kriisa led the Pac-12 in assists during two seasons at Arizona, where he began his college career in 2020. Kriisa was suspended for the first nine games of his lone season at West Virginia after admitting he received impermissible benefits while at Arizona. He transferred to Kentucky in 2024 but was limited to nine games with a foot injury. He spent his final year of eligibility at Cincinnati, where he started 12 games before suffering a separated shoulder.

The 25-year-old Kriisa was indicted in June on five counts of wire fraud in what prosecutors alleged was a $2.2 million scheme dating back to at least 2022. The indictment alleged Kriisa repeatedly sought payments from two victims. At times, he instructed one of them to transfer money to the other under false pretenses. He also had signed an agreement in April 2025 promising to repay one of the victims $100,000 by February 2026 but never did, prosecutors said.

From 2022 through June 2 of this year, Kriisa 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 said.

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