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MrDollarBills wrote:This is Nets related since multiple former Nets were just arrested by the FBI this morning:
Fraud at the federal level carries a max of five years for each count if i'm not mistaken.
Prokorov wrote:MrDollarBills wrote:This is Nets related since multiple former Nets were just arrested by the FBI this morning:
Fraud at the federal level carries a max of five years for each count if i'm not mistaken.
interested to hear more details. "4 million" sounds like alot but in NBA terms thats like pocket change. how far does 4 million go in medical benefits fraud if like a massage probably cost the nba 25k a pop or something,
is it overusing health benefits or like, using health savings to buy a new jet?
The 18 former players named in the indictment include alleged scheme ringleader Terrence Williams, selected 11th overall in the 2009 NBA draft by the then-New Jersey Nets, six-time NBA All-Defensive Team member Tony Allen, former Lakers Guard Shannon Brown and Ronald Glen Davis, who played for the Boston Celtics, Orlando Magic and Los Angeles Clippers over the course of his career.
Allen's wife, Desiree Allen, is the only woman charged in the indictment.
Those indicted face charges of conspiracy to commit health care and wire fraud as well as aggravated identity theft. By late morning, 16 of them were in custody after arrests in a dozen locations nationwide. The FBI said "this remains an ongoing investigation," though it was not clear if more arrests were expected.
According to the grand jury indictment, the defendants allegedly engaged in a widespread scheme from at least 2017 up to around 2020 to defraud the NBA Players' Health and Welfare Benefit Plan by submitting fake reimbursement claims for medical and dental services that were never actually rendered.
In some cases, the players who submitted the alleged false claims weren't even in the United States at the times they allegedly received the treatments. They allegedly filed fake invoices saying they had to pay for the phantom procedures out of pocket.
Those allegedly fraudulent claims totaled about $3.9 million, from which the defendants got about $2.5 million in fraudulent proceeds, the indictment alleges.
Williams allegedly orchestrated the years-long scheme and recruited other NBA health plan participants to assist by offering them fake invoices to support their claims. He allegedly received at least $230,000 in kickback payments from 10 other players in return for providing the alleged false documentation.
The 34-year-old Williams also allegedly helped three co-defendants -- Davis, Charles Watson Jr. and Antoine Wright -- obtain fake letters of medical necessity to justify some of the services on which the false invoices were based.
Williams also allegedly impersonated an individual who processed plan claims at one point in furtherance of his alleged scheme.
Among the false reimbursement claims described in the indictment is a $19,000 claim that Williams filed for chiropractic services he allegedly never had and for which he received $7,672.55 in reimbursement. Williams also allegedly obtained a template for a fake invoice designed to appear as if it had been issued by the office.
Fake chiropractic treatment invoices were allegedly also created for Davis, Watson Jr. and Wright and emailed to Williams. The template had the date, invoice number, services and a charge of $15,000 filled in but left the "bill to" box, where the name of the patient would ordinarily be found, blank, according to the indictment.
Williams is accused of emailing those fake invoices to the other defendants named in the indictment. He and defendant Alan Anderson, who briefly played for the Nets from 2013 to 2015, allegedly helped get fake letters of medical necessity for Davis, Watson Jr. and Wright in furtherance of the fraud scheme as well.
According to the court documents, several of the fake invoices and medical necessity forms stood out because, “they are not on letterhead, they contain unusual formatting, they have grammatical errors” and were sent on the same dates from different offices.
In another example, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss told a news conference, defendant Gregory Smith submitted paperwork for a root canal in Beverly Hills, when he was in fact playing basketball in Taiwan at that time. Others submitted false root canal paperwork as well, she added.
Some of the players were told to repay the money they received from the NBA’s health plan once it was determined that the claims were false. Some did, while others didn’t, according to court documents.
Also named in the indictment: Brooklyn-born Sebastian Telfair, who played for a half-dozen NBA teams including the Cleveland Cavaliers, Clippers, Celtics and Minnesota Timberwolves and Darius Miles, drafted third overall by the Clippers in the 2000 NBA draft and a first-team NBA All-Rookie player.
Prosecutors are seeking "any and all property, real or personal, that constitutes or is derived, directly or indirectly" from the alleged fraud in restitution. If any of that property can't be acquired for whatever reason, the U.S. government says it will seek forfeiture of any other property of the defendants up to the same value.
Stone wrote:This is a bad day for the NBA. The last thing we need is another scandal. These days with almost every kid with a cellphone you can bet this will be a topic at many dinner tables tonight.
This kind of reminds me of the Super Storm Sandy scams that people were pulling. They told FEMA it was primary residence but it was a second home and they were not eligible for any insurance money.
MrDollarBills wrote:I'm not surprised that T-Will was dumb enough to try and pull off this scam. He's going to do some serious jail time over this.
On October 6, 2015, Williams signed with the upcoming AmeriLeague to play on the following season. However, the league folded after it was discovered the founder was a con artist.
gigantes wrote:MrDollarBills wrote:I'm not surprised that T-Will was dumb enough to try and pull off this scam. He's going to do some serious jail time over this.
I'm looking at his post-NBA career and it's downright puzzling.
An endless switching of teams, and then at only 28yo, his career is over. Pretty strange for a lottery pick with a strong college career and "freakish athleticism" (Rick Pitino). No major injuries listed, either.
His last stop is kinda surreal, too:On October 6, 2015, Williams signed with the upcoming AmeriLeague to play on the following season. However, the league folded after it was discovered the founder was a con artist.
I guess the obvious theory is that he kept having behind the scenes incidents until his reputation was tanked. What a sad waste.
MrDollarBills wrote:gigantes wrote:MrDollarBills wrote:I'm not surprised that T-Will was dumb enough to try and pull off this scam. He's going to do some serious jail time over this.
I'm looking at his post-NBA career and it's downright puzzling.
An endless switching of teams, and then at only 28yo, his career is over. Pretty strange for a lottery pick with a strong college career and "freakish athleticism" (Rick Pitino). No major injuries listed, either.
His last stop is kinda surreal, too:On October 6, 2015, Williams signed with the upcoming AmeriLeague to play on the following season. However, the league folded after it was discovered the founder was a con artist.
I guess the obvious theory is that he kept having behind the scenes incidents until his reputation was tanked. What a sad waste.
T-Will was regarded as a headcase during his time here, so it was no shock that he got bounced around once the league gave up on him.
None of this is surprising. Some of the names that got in bed with him to commit fraud are, but him? Not surprising. He's an idiot.
gigantes wrote:Man, Ben Simmons seems like such a self-righteous twat, but Daryl Morey concurrently sounds like he's running some real delusions in his own head.
I guess the biggest factor here is that Simmons owes four more years on his contract, suggesting that Morey probably feels like he has a luxury of time to wait for the perfect deal. Whole situation's weird as hell, though. Like, not even Unibrow or PG went scorched earth so early in their contracts.
That also sort of circles back to the "Kyrie" situation. Like, despite everyone saying the right thing upfront, what's the actual damage being done in cases like this? How much is the player's (and team's) rep being whittled away, how understanding / annoyed are his teammates really, and what is the real damage to the team's title hopes?
The difference is, I'm thinking-- the Sixers need Simmon's talent (or some value back) way more than the Nets need Kyrie's.
Prokorov wrote:no, the difference is there is an enormous rift between simmons, his teammates, and the organization that is so bad and toxic that it is repairable. and with kyrie, his team and teammates support him fully.
Prokorov wrote:Jaylen Brown from the Celtics has COVID and its rumored he is also unvaccinated. when asked if he is vaccinated, he said "i think its a personal choice for each person if they want to [get the shot] or not" and left it at that.
Getting popcorn ready reading the celtics board when they destroyed Kyrie the last month for the same thing.
