Boston Celtics’ former player Glen’ Big Baby’ Davis, Houston Rocket’s Gregory Smith, and a bevvy of other NBA stars were recently caught red handed in a lucrative health insurance scheme. A federal court in New York found evidence of wire fraud and illegitimate paperwork of fictious reimbursement used to scam the NBA’s Players’ Health and Welfare Benefit out of millions.
At the heart of this three-year-long scheme is Terrence Williams. According to an indictment that was released on Thursday, Willams turned in about $19,000 worth of false claims for chiropractic care back in 2017 and pocketed more than $7k.
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Since then, players joined in on the scheme, with William crafting fake invoices for them and doping the NBA out of millions. Within the three year scheme, the former Rockets player received over $230,000 in kickbacks.
Willams is also facing a charge of aggravated identity theft. Allegedly, he’d pretend to be a plan administrator and call his fellow players in crime when he hadn’t received money from them.
Officials were able to obtain travel records and GPS information that corroborated these false claims. Players were in different locations than the doctor’s offices that the money was intended for. South District attorney Aubrey Strauss provided a particular example in a statement that regarded Houston Rocket’s player Gregory Smith.
“He was playing professional basketball in Taiwan that week,” Strauss tells reports, “and did not receive root canals in Beverly Hills as represented in the claim form he submitted.”
So far, a vast majority of the players involved with the scheme have been put into custody. Arrests of these former players took place in nine separate states across the country. Their fraud charges could land them up to twenty years behind bars.
“The benefit plans provided by the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association to our players are critically important to support their health and well-being throughout their playing careers and over the course of their lives,” the league said in a statement regarding the indictment, “which makes these allegations particularly disheartening.”
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Sources: Forbes, Houston Chronicle, NBC News
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