On Thursday, charges were laid against 18 former players for the NBA in the US Southern District of New York. The charges relate to fraudulent reimbursement claims submitted to the NBA Health and Welfare Benefit Plan.
All of the 18 mentioned above have been charged with conspiracy to commit healthcare and wire fraud. An unnamed spouse of an ex-player has also been charged, bringing the total number of people charged in this case to 19. Sixteen of these people were apprehended by authorities and arrested on Thursday
According to the Daily Wire, "the former players include Terrence Williams, who has been described as the 'lynch-pin' of the operation, as well as Milt Palacio, Sebastian Telfair, Antoine Wright, Darius Miles, Ruben Patterson, Eddie Robinson, Gregory Smith, Glen 'Big Baby' Davis, Jamario Moon, Alan Anderson, Tony Allen, Shannon Brown, William Bynum, Melvin Ely, Christopher Douglas-Roberts, and Tony Wroten."
"The defendants’ playbook involved fraud and deception. Thanks to the hard work of our law enforcement partners, their alleged scheme has been disrupted, and they will have to answer for their flagrant violations of law," commented Audrey Strauss, the US Attorney in charge of the case.
Strauss explained that Williams allegedly made up fraudulent invoices for health-related claims and passed them on to his co-conspirators. They would then claim the money, probably in most cases kicking some of the money back to Williams.
However, it appears that they were very sloppy in their scheme to defraud the NBA. Evidence reveals many irregularities in the claims that caught the Department of Justice's eye. They noted in a statement:
"In many instances, the defendants were not even located in the vicinity of the service providers on the dates the invoices stated they received medical or dental services."
"In particular, GPS location information and/or documents, such as flight records, show that the defendants were in locations other than the vicinity of the medical or dental offices falsely claimed as the providers of services."
The NBA has been more and more strapped for cash recently and has decided to stop pushing social justice messages during the games themselves amid plummeting ratings.
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