Former NBA players charged in $4M health care fraud scheme

Eighteen former NBA players have been arrested on charges alleging they defrauded the league's health and welfare benefit plan out of about $4 million, according to an indictment Thursday.

The former players included Jamario Moon, Glen Davis and Sebastian Telfair.

Federal prosecutors planned a news conference for noon ET Thursday to describe the case that was brought in Manhattan federal court. It wasn't immediately clear whether all those charged had been arrested.

According to the indictment, the former players engaged in a widespread scheme to defraud the plan by submitting false and fraudulent claims to get reimbursed for medical and dental expenses that were never actually incurred.

The 18 players were among 19 people charged in the indictment. It said that the scheme was carried out from at least 2017 to 2020, when the plan received false claims totaling about $3.9 million. Of that, the defendants received about $2.5 million in fraudulent proceeds.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/32354861/former-nba-players-charged-4m-health-care-fraud-scheme



pretty much all scrubs

 

Terrence Williams allegedly orchestrated the years-long scheme and recruited other NBA health plan participants to assist by offering them fake invoices to support their allegedly false health plan claims. He is accused of receiving kickback payments totaling at least $230,000 in return for providing the alleged false documentation.

Allen's wife, Desiree Allen, is the only woman charged in the indictment.

Those indicted face charges of conspiracy to commit health care and wire fraud as well as aggravated identity theft.

Just how desperate were these dudes? Made millions and are willing to scheme and fraud for these amounts? Did Big Baby squander his fortune on snacks? Miles has a successful podcast. Tony Allen broke already?

 

nah, c’mon…these dummies didn’t even try

add on an extra charge: stupidity in the 1st degree

 

According to the grand jury indictment, the defendants allegedly engaged in a widespread scheme from at least 2017 up to around 2020 to defraud the NBA Players' Health and Welfare Benefit Plan by submitting fake reimbursement claims for medical and dental services that were never actually rendered.

In some cases, the players who submitted the alleged false claims weren't even in the United States at the times they allegedly received the treatments. They allegedly filed fake invoices saying they had to pay for the phantom procedures out of pocket.

Those allegedly fraudulent claims totaled about $3.9 million, from which the defendants got about $2.5 million in fraudulent proceeds, the indictment alleges.

Williams allegedly orchestrated the years-long scheme and recruited other NBA health plan participants to assist by offering them fake invoices to support their claims. He allegedly received at least $230,000 in kickback payments from 10 other players in return for providing the alleged false documentation.

The 34-year-old Williams also allegedly helped three co-defendants -- Davis, Charles Watson Jr. and Antoine Wright -- obtain fake letters of medical necessity to justify some of the services on which the false invoices were based.

Williams also allegedly impersonated an individual who processed plan claims at one point in furtherance of his alleged scheme.

Among the false reimbursement claims described in the indictment is a $19,000 claim that Williams filed for chiropractic services he allegedly never had and for which he received $7,672.55 in reimbursement. Williams also allegedly obtained a template for a fake invoice designed to appear as if it had been issued by the office.

Fake chiropractic treatment invoices were allegedly also created for Davis, Watson Jr. and Wright and emailed to Williams. The template had the date, invoice number, services and a charge of $15,000 filled in but left the "bill to" box, where the name of the patient would ordinarily be found, blank, according to the indictment.

Williams is accused of emailing those fake invoices to the other defendants named in the indictment. He and defendant Alan Anderson, who briefly played for the Nets from 2013 to 2015, allegedly helped get fake letters of medical necessity for Davis, Watson Jr. and Wright in furtherance of the fraud scheme as well.

According to the court documents, several of the fake invoices and medical necessity forms stood out because, “they are not on letterhead, they contain unusual formatting, they have grammatical errors” and were sent on the same dates from different offices.

In another example, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss told a news conference, defendant Gregory Smith submitted paperwork for a root canal in Beverly Hills, when he was in fact playing basketball in Taiwan at that time. Others submitted false root canal paperwork as well, she added.

Some of the players were told to repay the money they received from the NBA’s health plan once it was determined that the claims were false. Some did, while others didn’t, according to court documents.

Also named in the indictment: Brooklyn-born Sebastian Telfair, who played for a half-dozen NBA teams including the Cleveland Cavaliers, Clippers, Celtics and Minnesota Timberwolves and Darius Miles, drafted third overall by the Clippers in the 2000 NBA draft and a first-team NBA All-Rookie player.

Prosecutors are seeking "any and all property, real or personal, that constitutes or is derived, directly or indirectly" from the alleged fraud in restitution. If any of that property can't be acquired for whatever reason, the U.S. government says it will seek forfeiture of any other property of the defendants up to the same value.