Federal agents arrested former college basketball guard Kerr Kriisa in Lexington, Ky., on allegations that he took part in a $2.2 million fraud scheme, according to a Saturday report from Kentucky Sports Radio.
Kriisa is now headed to West Virginia, where authorities say he faces five wire fraud charges. The 25-year-old from Tartu, Estonia, played for West Virginia in the 2023-24 season after earlier stops at Arizona, Kentucky and Cincinnati.
The government says the case stretches across a four-year span beginning in 2022 and ending in ’26, with Kriisa accused of scheming “to defraud and obtain money by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, reputations and promises.” Among the false claims he is alleged to have used were a need to sell his organs, his mother’s cancer diagnosis and the insolvency of his family’s farm.
Authorities also say he used the name “Irene” in some communications, which allegedly took place over a four-day window from Feb. 1 to 4, 2026. Cincinnati played West Virginia on Feb. 5 in Cincinnati.
“Financial fraud schemes erode trust and cause real harm to victims who believed they were helping someone in need,” U.S. Attorney Matthew L.
Harvey said in a government press release. “Our office will continue to pursue individuals who exploit others through deception.
We are committed to holding them accountable for their actions.”
The release also said that “Kriisa allegedly signed a written agreement promising to repay one victim $100,000 by February 2026” in April 2025, and that this agreement was fraudulent as well. The government is seeking a monetary judgment of $2.2 million, along with forfeiture of any assets “traceable to the alleged offenses.”
Kriisa had been set to play for Tartu Ülikool, his hometown team in the Estonian and Latvian league this season. He was also scheduled to suit up for La Familia, Kentucky’s alumni team in The Basketball Tournament, but La Familia said in a social-media post early Sunday morning that would no longer happen as Kriisa prepares to appear in court.
On the court, Kriisa spent his first three college seasons at Arizona, playing for Sean Miller in 2021 and Tommy Lloyd in ’22 and 2023. He helped Arizona earn No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the NCAA tournament in ’22 and ’23, and in the latter season he led the Pac-12 in assists per game.
He then moved to West Virginia for the ’24 season, where he averaged a career-best 11 points per game but served a nine-game suspension for accepting “impermissible benefits.” A Jones fracture cut short his 2025 season at Kentucky, and he finished his college career at Cincinnati in ’26, averaging 5.8 points and three assists in 19 games.
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