18 ex-NBA players charged in $4M health care fraud scheme
Source: AP
NEW YORK (AP) Eighteen former NBA players have been charged with defrauding the leagues health and welfare benefit plan out of about $4 million, according to an indictment Thursday in New York.
Federal prosecutors planned a news conference to describe the case that was brought in Manhattan federal court. By late morning, 16 of the defendants were in custody, authorities said.
According to the indictment, the ex-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 individuals 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. A request for comment to the league wasnt immediately returned.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/nba-sports-business-basketball-indictments-a785d565968ec3e50600baf67d9b64e3
Breaking... just found some other sources with more info -
Oct. 7, 2021, 10:56 AM EDT / Updated Oct. 7, 2021, 11:41 AM EDT
By Jonathan Dienst, Tom Winter and David K. Li
Eighteen former NBA players were arrested and charged Thursday with defrauding the NBAs Health and Welfare Benefit Plan out of $4 million, officials said.
The defendants include Terrence Williams, Alan Anderson, Anthony Allen, Desiree Allen, Shannon Brown, William Bynum, Ronald Glen "Big Baby" Davis, Christopher Douglas-Roberts, Melvin Ely, Jamario Moon, Darius Miles, Milton Palacio, Ruben Patterson, Eddie Robinson, Gregory Smith, Sebastian Telfair, Charles Watson Jr., Antoine Wright, and Anthony Wroten.
Those charged face a count of conspiracy to commit health care and wire fraud.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/18-former-nba-players-arrested-federal-authorities-alleged-health-care-n1281022
Original article -
This story is developing and will be updated.
NEW YORK Federal prosecutors have charged 18 former NBA players with defrauding the leagues Health and Welfare Benefit Plan of nearly $4 million by submitting false medical and dental claims for reimbursement, according to an indictment made public Thursday.
Among the players charged were former Boston Celtics forward Glen Big Baby Davis, former Portland Trail Blazers guard Sebastian Telfair, and Terrence Williams, an alleged orchestrator of the scheme, who played for several teams before ending his NBA career in 2013.
According to prosecutors, the stolen funds were drawn from a health reimbursement account that NBA teams contributed to and is generally accessible to current and former players with at least three years tenure.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/10/07/glen-davis-sebastian-telfair-nba-fraud/
Budi
(15,325 posts)They could fund a charity that buys dental work for kids & teens in any community in the US.
This is the path the chose instead.
hibbing
(10,107 posts)They have the strongest union and their salaries are enormous.
Peace
Stuart G
(38,439 posts)various types of accounts that are available...(illegally) are only surpassed ........
.....by those very smart people who like to catch those that steal and think they can .......get away with it...
Now, of course the thieves do not know about these other people (in the sentence above this one)...but those who
like to ...catch the thieves....are in most cases ..A LOT SMARTER THAN THE THIEVES.!!!!..........
and most important:.........The thieves ...do not know....yes...do NOT know that they are very likely to
be caught by smarter and more dedicated people...............................................
.........................Stupid is still stupid......................................................................................
and the people who catch the thieves..........like to do....guess what?............CATCH THIEVES!!!!!!
....The thieve ...catchers...like doing what they do....as much as the thieves like to spend the money that they steal...
And the thieves haven't got a clue about this......................................................................................
.....................................Not a clue....according to STU..................................................
stillcool
(32,626 posts)hardly seems worth it, but then they are 'former' players. That many people involved sounds weird too.
Stuart G
(38,439 posts)......no idea at all about....."THIEVE CATCHERS..."....please see post 2 above!!!
Champp
(2,114 posts)Steelrolled
(2,022 posts)berniesandersmittens
(11,345 posts)Slammer
(714 posts)Can we get a step closer to retiring the phrase "sports heroes"?
Because being good at playing a game doesn't make you a hero.