MORGANTOWN — Former WVU men’s basketball player Kerr Kriisa appeared in a Kentucky federal courtroom Tuesday in what was his first appearance on five counts of wire fraud which allegedly totaled around $2.2 million.
Kriisa, who was in shackles during the appearance, was ordered to be released from a Lexington, Ky. jail under the conditions that he not violate state or federal law, turn over his passport and have no contact with victims or witnesses.
Kriisa’s initial appearance in the Kentucky court was to address administrative technicalities with transferring the case to West Virginia and to make sure Kriisa understood his rights. He did not enter a plea.
The bulk of the case will be heard in a federal courtroom in Clarksburg, where a federal grand jury indicted him in June. Kriisa’s first appearance there is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on July 16.
Until then, Kriisa will remain in Kentucky, where he was arrested by federal agents on July 3 while preparing to play for the University of Kentucky’s alumni team in the upcoming The Basketball Tournament.
According to the unsealed indictment, Kriisa is alleged by the Department of Justice to have defrauded two victims of $2.2 million in a scheme dating from 2022 to June 2026.
According to Matthew Harvery, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia, both victims are West Virginia residents.
“What we’re saying in this indictment is the allegations are essentially he weaponized people’s compassion and took advantage of them,” Harvey said during an appearance on MetroNews Talkline. “What I mean by weaponized compassion, he played on the goodness that these two individuals had by creating a series of false emergencies, fictional third parties, he claims that his family was in imminent danger, his mother had cancer, he was going to sell his organs to pay back loans and other financial crises that were becoming of his family.”
Kriisa played at WVU during the 2023-24 season, before transferring to Kentucky the following season. He finished his college career this past season at Cincinnati. At WVU, he was suspended by the NCAA for the first nine games of the 2023-24 season due to having received impermissible benefits. Those benefits are not related to the federal case.
The indictment states federal prosecutors will seek to make Kriisa forfeit about $2.2 million in proceeds gained from the scheme.
He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison if convicted.
