Eighteen former NBA players have been accused of defrauding the league’s Health and Welfare Benefit Plan out of almost $4 million, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York announced Thursday.
Among the players are Sebastian Telfair, Glen “Big Baby” Davis, Tony Allen, Ruben Patterson, Shannon Brown, Will Bynum, Christopher Douglas-Roberts, Terrence Williams, Alan Anderson, Tony Wroten, Jamario Moon, and more.
*LIVE EVENT* There will be a press conference today at noon to announce an indictment against 19 defendants, including 18 former NBA players for defrauding the NBA’s Health and Welfare Benefit Plan out of approximately $4,000,000. livestreamed on Facebook @USAOSDNY pic.twitter.com/TFrp6ayn5g
— US Attorney SDNY (@SDNYnews) October 7, 2021
The U.S. Attorney’s Office has scheduled a noon EST Thursday news conference at a Manhattan courthouse to discuss the indictment, which alleges that the 18 former players — and 19 people total, with Tony Allen’s wife Desiree also charged — were involved in a scheme that drained over $3.9 million from the NBA’s Health and Welfare Benefit Plan through false claims.
The scheme — where the accused players were reimbursed for medical procedures that never took place — was carried out from 2017 to 2020, the indictment states. Each player has been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare and wire fraud.
According to the indictment, obtained by Rolling Stone, Terrence Williams — a six-year NBA vet who was selected in the first round by the New Jersey Nets in TKTK — “orchestrated” the scheme by offering to submit “fraudulent invoices” to chiropractors, dentists and doctors on behalf of the players; the players in turn provided Williams with a “kickback” when the claims for the falsified medical procedures were reimbursed by the NBA’s benefits program.
This story is developing…