As many as 18 former NBA players — and counting were arrested and federally charged for allegedly defrauding $4,000,000 from the NBA’s Health and Welfare Benefit Plan.
According to reports, the FBI arrested Darius Miles, Tony Allen, Glen Davis, Sebastian Telfair, Terrence Williams, Alan Anderson, Anthony Allen, Shannon Brown, Will Bynum, Christopher Douglas-Roberts, Melvin Ely, Jamario Moon, Milton Palacio, Ruben Patterson, Eddie Robinson, Gregory Smith, Charles Watson Jr., Antoine Wright, and Tony Wroten.
Now, further investigation revealed that it was former New Jersey Nets player Terrence Williams the one who orchestrated the whole scheme, even scamming form of the players he reached out to.
“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 allegedly used fake invoices to claim the payments but wasn’t careful enough with details:
“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.
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.”
This is terrible news for the NBA in a moment when players continue to push for more rights and health care. As for the punishment Williams and/or the others implicated could face, that’s yet to be revealed.
