Shantee Orr, one of eight former NFL players who, along with an athletic trainer, are charged with taking part in a $632,000 scheme to defraud an NFL player trust fund by submitting false claims for medical benefits, has pleaded guilty, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced Wednesday.
The scheme was investigated by the fraud unit of the Texas Department of Insurance in cooperation with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.
“When former players cheat the system, they are stealing from their former teammates,” Ogg said. “We thank the Texas Department of Insurance for their partnership in uncovering this scam.”
Orr, 40, a former linebacker who played with the Houston Texans from 2003-07, pleaded guilty Wednesday to the third-degree felony charge of securing the execution of a document, namely checks, by deception. He received $129,194. Of that total, he has repaid $97,929 in restitution to the NFL trust account and received five years’ probation.
In the scheme, the remaining $31,265 Orr received went to Louis Ray, an athletic trainer and owner of Rehab Express, a Galleria-area rehabilitation facility. Ray faces first-degree felony charges, accused of creating fraudulent invoices claiming to perform treatments on the players from March 7, 2016, to November 2018.
The cases are being prosecuted by Rick Watson, a special assistant district attorney assigned by the Texas Department of Insurance to support the Harris County District Attorney’s Office Financial Crimes Division.
“It’s important to go after insurance fraud at all levels,” Watson said. “When we do, it helps protect the integrity of the system for everyone.”
Harris County DA
