Former NCAA men’s basketball player Kerr Kriisa was indicted for wire fraud amounting to at least $2.2 million, the U.S. District Court in West Virginia announced Monday.
Kriisa, 25, was arrested Friday in Lexington, Ky., and remained in custody at the Fayette County Detention Center as of Monday morning, according to public information officer Matt LeMonds. Kriisa played for Arizona, West Virginia, Kentucky and Cincinnati during his six-year college career that ended last season. He is accused of carrying out the scheme at each school along the way.
The indictment, filed June 2 and unsealed Monday, said Kriisa posed as other people, both real and fictional, to request money, including posing as his mother and requesting money from a victim for alleged cancer treatments, and requesting money to help save a family farm. The filing said that Kriisa also falsely claimed he never received a payment from a victim in order to request a replacement payment.
“Financial fraud schemes erode trust and cause real harm to victims who believed they were helping someone in need,” said U.S. Attorney Matthew L. Harvey in a statement. “Our office will continue to pursue individuals who exploit others through deception. We are committed to holding them accountable for their actions.”
The indictment said Kriisa would falsely tell victims he would repay them hundreds of thousands of dollars, and said that Kriisa used wire transfers to transmit money.
“As part of the scheme, Kerr Kriisa falsely represented that he and his family faced imminent danger if a victim of his fraudulent scheme did not send him money to pay a debt,” the indictment said.
Federal prosecutors will seek to have Kriisa forfeit the approximately $2.2 million, according to the indictment.
Originally from Estonia, Kriisa began his college career at Arizona, where he spent three seasons from 2020-23. He then spent one season each at West Virginia (2023-24), Kentucky (2024-25) and Cincinnati (2025-26). The indictment said Kriisa was engaging in the alleged fraud from August 2022 through February 2026.
Kriisa exhausted his collegiate eligibility after last season at Cincinnati. He averaged 8.8 points over 127 career games. Before the indictment, Kriisa was slated to play for La Familia, Kentucky’s alumni team, in The Basketball Tournament beginning on July 18.
“We’re aware of the allegations regarding Kerr Kriisa. Kerr will not be competing with La Familia during the TBT Tournament. We will have no further comment,” the team said in a statement on Saturday.
A lawyer for Kriisa was not identified in court documents.
