Former Bears and Redskins defensive lineman Chris Zorich is preparing to plead guilty to four misdemeanor counts of not filing federal income tax returns from 2006 to 2009, a span when he made more than $1 million, including some income from a charity he founded which continued taking donations even after it stopped doing any charitable work.
Although Zorich could face up to four years in prison, Zorich’s attorney, Matthias Lydon, said he is hoping the judge will not put his client in jail.
“He’s been looking forward to the day he could start putting this behind him,” Lydon told the Associated Press.
These federal charges are not Zorich’s only legal troubles. He has also been the subject of a state investigation in Illinois regarding allegations of improper activities by the Chris Zorich Foundation, which stopped doing any charitable work in 2008 but continued soliciting donations into 2010. In 2010 Zorich admitted that he couldn’t account for his charity’s money. According to the Chicago Tribune, Zorich was also paying $3,000 to himself from the charity’s funds every month for rent because the charity was using his home as its office.