Former NFL player, UVA alum accused of embezzling real estate loan proceeds

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- A former NFL player and University of Virginia (UVA) alum is accused of embezzling commercial real estate loan proceeds and using them for his own gain. On Tuesday, Oct. 15, 52-year-old Christopher Harrison of Washington was hit with several charges following accusations that he took loan proceeds intended for two commercial real estate projects and spent them fraudulently, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Harrison, a former guard for the Detroit Lions, is also a real estate developer. Court documents state that Harrison allegedly took out two loans from Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust (CRBT): a $14,492,057 loan for a Model Tobacco Project in Richmond and a $7,706,675 loan for a Whitaker Park Project in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. These two loans together exceed $22 million. "Under the terms of the loan agreements, Harrison was prohibited from using loan proceeds to pay himself or affiliated entities any construction, management, development or contractor fees or from using the loan proceeds for personal expenditures," the DOJ said. UVA Basketball Coach Tony Bennett to retire Harrison is accused of skimming some of those loan proceeds -- rather than spending them on the intended projects -- in various ways. Harrison allegedly created a "straw demolition company" called Virginia Demolition, LLC, which reportedly "had no employees, demolition equipment or office space." Harrison is accused of then forging and falsifying documentation claiming that Virginia Demolition performed actual work. According to the DOJ, some of said documents "[included] work that predated Harrison's creation of the Virginia Demolition, LLC entity." Court documents claim that Harrison also repeatedly forged the signature of a person he said was the "President" for Virginia Demolition, LLC, when they were not. He is said to have done this on several documents submitted to CRBT. Elderly woman fighting for life after Petersburg house catches fire with her inside In addition, Harrison is accused of "having doctored and inflated" invoices in the name of another construction vendor for Model Tobacco, which reportedly caused CRBT to give out inflated loan amounts. "In total, Harrison allegedly submitted over a dozen falsified invoices and lien waivers in draw requests to induce CRBT to disburse over $3.6 million in loan proceeds to Harrison to satisfy purported expenditures," the DOJ said. While the DOJ did not provide a specific dollar amount of loan proceeds Harrison is accused of spending for his own benefit, it did clarify that it was only some of the total proceeds. Court documents allege that Harrison fraudulently spent the loan proceeds in the following ways: "Numerous" purchases at luxury and fashion stores, including a total of over $60,000 spent at Lenkersdorfer Fine Jewelers on Rolex watches Personal expenses like his home mortgage, landscaping at his home, tuition for his child and tutoring for his child Expenses for the Petersburg Ramada Inn, another construction project of his According to the DOJ, the Petersburg Ramada Inn was a "shuttered building" in Petersburg. It claims Harrison purchased the property in 2018, then sold it back to the City of Petersburg in the summer of 2022. VSP Sergeant recalls life-changing crash ahead of National Move Over Awareness Day "Harrison allegedly used fraud proceeds to pay legal fees to a law firm for Harrison’s litigation against the City of Petersburg pertaining to the project," the DOJ said in regard to that third accusation. On Tuesday, Harrison was indicted by a grand jury on the following charges: Wire fraud and mail fraud Engaging in monetary transactions with criminally derived property Aggravated identity theft The first two charges combined carry a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. The third has a mandatory minimum of two years. However, actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than their maximum penalties.