18 former NBA players charged in alleged $4 million health care fraud scheme
More than a dozen former NBA players have been charged in New York federal court in an alleged multi-million-dollar health insurance fraud scheme to rip off the league's benefit plan, according to an indictment unsealed in the Southern District on Thursday.
The 18 former players named in the indictment include alleged scheme ringleader Terrence Williams, selected 11th overall in the 2009 NBA draft by the then-New Jersey Nets, six-time NBA All-Defensive Team member Tony Allen, former Lakers Guard Shannon Brown and Ronald Glen Davis, who played for the Boston Celtics, Orlando Magic and Los Angeles Clippers over the course of his career.
Allen's wife, Desiree Allen, is the only woman charged in the indictment.
According to Dienst, who reviewed the grand jury indictment, the three-year scheme allegedly involved the former players submitting fake reimbursement claims for exams and procedures that were never done. The indictment alleges that they took in around $2.5 million from a total of nearly $4 million in fake claims.
Terrence Williams, the 11th overall pick in the 2009 draft, was allegedly the ringleader and is accused of having impersonated an insurance plan employee as part of the scheme.
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 $23,000 in return for providing the alleged false documentation.
The 34-year-old Williams also allegedly helped three co-defendants — Ronald Glen 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.
The claims were submitted for medical and dental services, but chiropractic care was reportedly a major part of the alleged scheme. One example included in the indictment was a $19,000 claim Williams allegedly submitted for chiropractic care, for which he was reimbursed more than $7,000. Dienst reported that Williams was allegedly able to get his hands on a fake template for invoices that looked like they had been issued by an actual chiropractic or medical practice.
Williams also allegedly emailed those fake invoices to his co-defendants and helped several of them obtain fake letters to justify the medical necessity of several of the procedures they had submitted for reimbursement.