Former NBA player Kermit Washington was arraigned Thursday in Kansas City on fraud charges related to an African charity he founded.

Defense attorney Robin Fowler entered a not guilty plea for Washington, who was arrested last month in California after a federal grand jury in Kansas City indicted him on charges related to his Project Contact Africa charity.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges of interfering with internal revenue laws, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, obstruction of justice and aggravated identity theft.

It is alleged that Washington referred professional athletes to Ron Mix, a former professional football player and an attorney licensed in the state of California, whose practice focused on the filing of workers’ compensation claims on behalf of former professional athletes;In exchange for the referrals, Mix made payments to PCA and claimed those amounts as charitable deductions on his personal tax returns. Upon receipt of these payments, Washington diverted the funds for his own personal benefit.

“The federal indictment alleges this former NBA player used his celebrity status to exploit the good intentions of those who donated to a charity he founded, called Project Contact Africa,” said U.S. Attorney Dickinson. According to the indictment, Washington profited by diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations that was supposed to benefit a clinic in Africa for needy families and children, but instead bankrolled his own personal spending.

It is further alleged that Washington conspired with others to defraud eBay and PayPal, customers and donors of PCA by allowing the co-conspirators to use PCA’s name, tax-exempt status and IRS Employee Identification Number (EIN) with eBay and PayPal so the co-conspirators could avoid substantial listing and registration fees incurred in operating online, for-profit businesses.  Moreover, customers who made purchases falsely believed that 100 percent of the proceeds from the co-conspirators’ online eBay sales benefited PCA.  In exchange for allowing the co-conspirators to use PCA’s tax-exempt status, Washington received payments from the co-conspirators.

Washington was arrested in Los Angeles and had his initial appearance in U.S. District Court in the Central District of California. Washington was ordered to surrender his passport and released on bond and must wear a location monitoring device. Washington’s next appeared on June 16 before U.S. Magistrate Judge John T. Maughmer in the Western District of Missouri where he entered his not guilty plea.

If convicted, Washington faces a statutory maximum sentence of three years in prison on the charge of corrupt interference with the internal revenue laws, 20 years in prison on the charge of conspiring to commit wire fraud, 20 years in prison on the charge of obstruction and a mandatory sentence of two years in prison for the charge of aggravated identity theft, which will be in addition to any other term of imprisonment he receives.  He also faces supervised release, a maximum fine of $250,000 on each count and restitution.