HOUSTON – Former Houston Texans linebacker Shantee Orr has pleaded guilty after being charged with taking part in a medical reimbursement scam, according to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.
Orr is one of eight former NFL players, along with an athletic trainer, who allegedly took part in a $632,000 scheme to defraud an NFL player trust fund by submitting false claims for medical benefits.
Recommended Videos
“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, is 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, according to Harris County’s news release on the case.
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 is quoted as saying in the Harris County DA’s news release. “When we do, it helps protect the integrity of the system for everyone.”