Former NBA player Kermit Washington sentenced for charity fraud

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Former NBA player Kermit Washington has been sentenced to six years in federal prison for spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in charity donations on vacations, shopping sprees and plastic surgery for his girlfriend.

The U.S. attorney's office says Washington, 66, also was ordered Monday to pay nearly $970,000 in restitution. Washington, ofLas Vegas, pleaded guilty in November in federal court in Kansas City, Missouri, to making a false statement in a tax return and aggravated identity theft.

Washington played for five NBA teams in the 1970s and 1980s and is best known for throwing a punch that fractured Houston Rockets player Rudy Tomjanovich's face and left him unconscious during a 1977 game. Washington was playing for the Los Angeles Lakers at the time.