“The defendants’ playbook involved fraud and deception.' 18 former NBA players busted in multimillion-dollar health care fraud scheme
, Terrence Williams — a six-year NBA vet who was selected in the first round by the New Jersey Nets in 2009 — “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.
“Williams was the scheme’s lynchpin. He provided the other former players with false invoices for medical and dental procedures that they never received,” United States Attorney Audrey Strauss said at a press conference Thursday. “The defendants’ playbook involved fraud and deception… they will have to answer for their flagrant violations of the law.”
Strauss provided an overview of the scheme: “First, Williams obtained fraudulent medical and dental invoices. Second, he sent those invoices to his co-conspirators, other former NBA players. Third, the co-conspirators submitted the fraudulent invoices to the plan. Fourth, unaware that the plan was fraudulent, the plan paid most of the defendants’ claims. Fifth, in many cases, the players paid kickbacks to Williams.
In all, $3.9 million in false claims were filed, with the players receiving $2.5 million in reimbursements from the fraudulent claims; Williams’ kickback was $230,000, Strauss added. “When one defendant failed to pay Williams his kickback, Williams attempted to frighten the player into re-engaging with Williams by impersonating an employee from the plan’s administrative manager in claiming that there was an issue with the player’s invoice that might require him to pay back the claim.
Strauss also mentioned the case against former Houston Rockets player Greg Smith, who claimed he received $48,000 worth of dental work at a Beverly Hills dentist office on December 20th, 2018; the Attorney’s Office quickly discovered — via box scores — that Smith spent that day playing basketball in Taiwan.
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