Glen Davis, Sebastian Telfair among 18 former NBA players charged with healthcare fraud
Federal authorities Thursday charged 18 former NBA players, including Glen “Big Baby” Davis and Sebastian Telfair, with defrauding the league’s health-care plan out of nearly $4 million, according to an indictment unsealed in federal court in New York.
From 2017 through 2020, the indictment states, the players submitted phony invoices to the NBA’s health benefit plan for reimbursements for services they never actually received from a chiropractor’s office, two dental offices and a “wellness office” that specialized in “sexual health, anti-aging, and general well-being.”
Terrence Williams, the scheme’s alleged ringleader, was a 2009 draft lottery pick who spent four years in the NBA before an extended career overseas. Prosecutors say Williams, 34, circulated the false invoices to the others in exchange for kickbacks. The charges, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, include conspiracy to commit health-care fraud and wire fraud.
Advertisement
Among the players Williams recruited, prosecutors said: Telfair, 36, a former player for the Portland Trail Blazers, Minnesota Timberwolves and six other teams from 2004 to 2013; and Davis, 35, a former player with the Boston Celtics, Orlando Magic and Los Angeles Clippers. As a college player, Davis led LSU to the Final Four in 2006.
Also among those charged were Darius Miles, 39, the No. 3 pick in the 2000 NBA draft by the Clippers, as well as Tony Allen, 39, a former player for the Celtics, Memphis Grizzlies and New Orleans Pelicans from 2004 to 2018. Desiree Allen, Tony Allen’s wife, also was charged Thursday.
Milt Palacio, 43, who played six seasons in the NBA from 1999 to 2006 before joining the Portland Trail Blazers as an assistant coach in August, was charged as well. The Blazers said Thursday that Palacio had been placed on administrative leave, “pending further notice.”
Working with two unnamed co-conspirators, Williams created fake invoices and fabricated doctor’s letters he circulated to the other former players, according to the indictment, but several red flags in the documents later drew the attention of administrators of the health-care plan, as well as federal law enforcement. Some of the doctor’s letters contained grammatical errors and misspelled patient names.
Advertisement
Some of the players in the scheme were even more careless, according to the indictment, and submitted invoices for treatment they claimed they received when they were out of the state or even out of the country. Davis submitted an invoice for dental work he claimed he received in Beverly Hills, Calif., in October 2018, according to the indictment, when he was actually on a flight bound for Paris. Greg Smith, a former player for the Houston Rockets, invoiced the NBA plan for $48,000 for dental work he claimed he received at the same California office in December 2018, the indictment states, when he was actually overseas, playing professional basketball in Taiwan.
“The defendants’ playbook included fraud and deception,” Audrey Strauss, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said at a news conference Thursday. “The players will have to answer for their flagrant violations of the law.”
Sixteen of the eighteen players had been arrested by noon Thursday, Strauss said, with authorities seeking to detain the remaining three accused.
Advertisement
The scheme detailed by prosecutors Thursday resembles one involving former NFL players accused in 2019 of defrauding that league’s health-care plan. That case resulted in the arrests of 10 former players, including former Washington Football Team running back Clinton Portis, who pleaded guilty in September.
The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association expanded health benefits for retired players as part of their 2016 collective bargaining agreement negotiations. The initiative was a top bargaining priority for the union, which sought to extend coverage for retired players beyond their typical pension given the high health-care costs associated with being a former athlete.
“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, which makes these allegations particularly disheartening,” the NBA said in a statement Thursday. “We will cooperate fully with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in this matter.”
Advertisement
Former NBPA president Chris Paul hailed the health-care program as a way for current players to give back to their predecessors.
“All the players in our league today recognize that we’re only in this position because of the hard work and dedication of the men who came before us,” Paul said in a July 2016 statement, which touted the plan as “the first of its kind” in American sports. “It’s important that we take care of our entire extended NBA family.”
The indictments come during a transition period for the union, which recently elected Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum as its president and Tamika Tremaglio as its executive director. In a brief statement Thursday, the union said only that it was “aware” of the indictment and would “continue to monitor the matter.”
Shayna Jacobs in New York contributed to this report, which is developing and will be updated.
Sign up for our weekly NBA newsletter to get the best basketball coverage in your inbox
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZMCxu9GtqmhqYGd%2BcH2PaGdwZ5ehsq95w5qtoqtdqLKjrdKtoJqmXamyrbLAoqlmppKWeqe%2BwK6baA%3D%3D