Real estate developer and former NFL football player Chris Harrison was sentenced to six years in federal prison and three years of supervised for his coordination of a scheme that embezzled funds intended for the development and construction of two real estate projects.
Harrison, who pleaded guilty last fall to one count of wire fraud, was principal of Maryland-based C.A. Harrison Cos. According to the charges brought against him, Harrison secured loans from Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust for nearly $14.5 million for the Model Tobacco Project in Richmond, Virginia, and $7.7 million for the Whitaker Park Project in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. 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.
However, Harrison was accused of skimming loan proceeds by creating a straw demolition company and then creating forged and falsified documentation purporting to show the phony company worked on the projects. Harrison forged the signature of a separate individual, who Harrison falsely represented was the “president” of the phony company in his submittals to the bank. He also doctored and inflated invoices in the name of a separate construction vendor for Model Tobacco, inducing the bank to disburse inflated loan amounts.
In total, Harrison submitted over a dozen falsified invoices and lien waivers in draw requests for $3.6 million in loan proceeds to Harrison to satisfy purported expenditures. Harrison used some of the money he stole for the following personal purchases and expenses.
Harrison first gained prominence at the University of Virginia, where he was an offensive lineman on the football team. He played with the Detroit Lions from 1996 to 1998 and was with the Baltimore Ravens in 1999.
