NEW YORK (Reuters) – Eighteen former National Basketball Association players were charged on Thursday with defrauding the league’s health and welfare benefit plan out of approximately $3.9 million.
According to an indictment filed with the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the players submitted false reimbursement claims for medical and dental services that were never performed, and received $2.5 million in fraudulent proceeds.
The ringleader, Terrence Williams, recruited players by offering false invoices in exchange for kickbacks, which totaled at least $230,000, and helped three defendants procure bogus “letters of medical necessity,” the indictment said.
Williams played for the New Jersey Nets and three other teams from 2009 to 2013.
Other defendants include Alan Anderson, Tony Allen and his wife Desiree, Shannon Brown, Will Bynum, Glen Davis, Chris Douglas-Roberts, Melvin Ely, Jamario Moon, Darius Miles, Milt Palacio, Ruben Patterson, Eddie Robinson, Greg Smith, Sebastian Telfair, C.J. Watson, Antoine Wright and Tony Wroten.
Lawyers for the defendants could not immediately be identified. The NBA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Dan Grebler)
