Eighteen former NBA players face charges in New York federal court over allegations that they defrauded the NBA’s health and welfare benefit plan, according to a report from Jonathan Dienst and Tom Winter of NBC. The players each face a count of conspiracy to commit health care and wire fraud.
As Dienst and Winter outline, the indictment alleges that these players engaged in a scheme from 2017-20 to defraud the NBA’s benefit plan by submitting false claims for dental and medical expenses that were never incurred. According to the indictment, the fraudulent claims totaled about $3.9MM, and the defendants received approximately $2.5MM in proceeds.
While none of the players who have been charged were household names, many won titles and/or had long NBA careers, and most will likely be recognizable to Hoops Rumors readers. They are as follows:
- Tony Allen
- Alan Anderson
- Shannon Brown
- Will Bynum
- Glen Davis
- Chris Douglas-Roberts
- Melvin Ely
- Darius Miles
- Jamario Moon
- Milt Palacio
- Ruben Patterson
- Eddie Robinson
- Greg Smith
- Sebastian Telfair
- C.J. Watson
- Terrence Williams
- Antoine Wright
- Tony Wroten
Williams was named in the indictment as the one who orchestrated the scheme, according to Dienst and Winter, who say the former lottery pick is accused of having recruited other participants by offering them fake invoices. He allegedly received payments totaling $230K in exchange for those fake documents, per NBC’s report.
Allen’s wife, Desiree Allen, was also charged in the indictment. As John Hollinger of The Athletic tweets, the Grizzlies had been planning to retire Allen’s number in January — they may decide to postpone their ceremony honoring the six-time All-Defensive swingman.
Pretty shocking
Tony Allen went from lock down defender to locked up defender real quick
Seabass! Say it ain’t so!
This sounds like The Big 3 entire roster.
2.5M is quite a lot for the man in the street, even after dividing it by 18. But for an NBA player that’s peanuts. It must have been just for the fun of it.
I think it’s more likely they had blown through their NBA earnings and needed cash.
No, the 18 players are just boring ‘garden variety’ dirty thieves.
@Otogar… this 18 individuals were absolute bums as players, no use between all of them, most of them no one, even their own mother, has heard ever of them…
Can’t imagine any of them made much $$$ hence why jumped into a life of crime… they weren’t NBA players, just bums if you ask me!
Still better than you’ll ever be bud
Without looking anything up, I am guessing Will Bynum made the most of all of them, Anyone care to check to see if I am correct?
I was wromg by a lot in more ways than one. Is it Miles?
E-Rob should not even get any damn funds, considering how little he played when he was actually active lol.
Wow and Tony Wroten more recently drafted, guess he didn’t manage his $$ wisely
Recently? He was drafted in 2012
The next Knuckleheads podcast should be an awkward one.
If you ain’t defraudin’, you ain’t detryin’.
Surprise surprise rich people working the systems it’s how the rich get richer and the poor get poorer
Working the system? This is criminal activity!!!
Ya but their rich and famous so they’ll just get a slap on the wrist
It wasn’t criminal until they got caught. It sounds like a fairly complicated scheme with possible gray areas. Difficult to judge when lines are crossed. Fake invoices is definitely a terrible idea
•Criminic• then not criminal? I suspect they knew where they were going. The scheme may have sold as “everyone’s doing it” and “you deserve it”… but the sums got large… it would be hard to know when to stop making claims… a certain percentage will get greedy.
The list of 18 probably could have been larger, but a line was drawn. I hope the word “arbitrary” does not get them all off. A word for scoundrels.
Most if not all of these guys earned more than most will earn over a lifetime. I know they don’t actually keep the amount that is reported in salary but stealing from your past coworkers healthcare plan is pretty low and indicative of how poorly most of them have managed their money. Most of the players mentioned were in the league 5-10 years ago and they have a long time until retirement or social security.
Did you have the skills to be a financial planner for $50 million when you were 18? These guys didn’t either.
Maybe they didn’t have the skills, but they had the money to hire one!
So you expect them to hire someone to handle their money without having the skills to monitor those people? That is a perfect prescription for embezzlement.
I’ve said it once, twice, or a hundred times… a professional athlete is just a human being like anybody else, who just happens to be better at a particular sport than most people in the world. That skill – nor the money – doesn’t change what they are inside. Urban Meyer sticking his fingers between the young lady’s buttcheeks is a perfect example. What guy hasn’t done that at least once? Sure, we expect our sports figures to be as good a person as they are an athlete, but for the majority of them, that’s not realistic. And, we shouldn’t expect that. Some fight in the bars, some smack their wives, do/sell drugs, some go to drug/alcohol rehab, some get re-imbursed 20k for a flu shot (evidently), some kill people…. all things “regular” people do. Nothing to do with money earned.
That doesn’t make it ok… it just is what it is.
I’ve never stuck my finger between a young ladies buttcheeks at a bar, never had a fight at a bar, never smacked a woman around, never sold or bought illegal drugs or gone to rehab and never filed a false insurance claim. I guess I’m not a regular human being?
Oh, but you’ve killed someone??? (since you didn’t mention that one!)
I knew there’d be that one that would twist that to there own context…
But, if you can do this online thing, you know what my point was. Thanks for getting it!
@sdguy that’s not the point but congrats
@sdbaseballguy… I am with you bro!
I have never ever done any of those things (or killed anyone, neither) can’t see how any normal person would do that… sounds the stuff of psychos & fruit cakes if you ask me, right?
There you go again. Going to work, paying your bills, obeying the law, being honest and not being a burden to your fellow Americans.
Unfortunately, this happens all the time. So much insurance fraud everywhere falsely claiming injuries, etc… People wrongly assume it’s not a big deal especially if you do it once in awhile. Hope Allen and his wife gets locked up and learn a lesson.
clinton portis says what’s the big deal.
So many of these guys are so undereducated that it is not a shock they never learned how to manage millions of dollars. Darius Miles earned $66 million in his quite frankly mediocre NBA career and now has a net worth of around 100 thousand. And yes he has a high school diploma, but does anyone really think he learned all he should have in high school? Star high school athletes are skated by all the time and some can barely read by the time they graduate. And yet some people remain surprised when they don’t possess the necessary skills to successfully manage money over a lifetime. People are not born with the ability to manage money, you need to learn it. And hiring someone to do it only invite thievery if you don’t know how to do it yourself.
Hiring the wrong person invites thievery. There are lots of honest financial planners out there – and I believe that the league helps young players with this….
Apparently that help is not working out so well.
It’s really not that hard to graduate high school. You can show up half the time and never do your homework and still get a diploma and be successful. You can even say screw it and not graduate and still be successful. You can also go to college and get a useless degree that never does anything for you. You sound kinda salty and get-off-my-lawn-y.
Yeah I am old, it doesn’t bother me. It doesn’t change my point.
My freshman year in college in my English 102 class, I wrote a term paper about the need for the NBA to require at least 3 years of college. I got an A by the way. I wasn’t old then, but my belief remains the same.
I appreciate the anecdote haha.
I graduated high school in the top 5 percent of my class. There was no financial planning course at all. High school doeant teach life skills it sells you the idea you need to pay a bunch of money to go to college.
Yes I know that. That is why these guys need to go to college for free while they can.
Hope, along with being sent to prison, the players have to pay back the month.
Many of these guys made some serious coin in their playing days. Crazy that you can go from making tens of millions to hustling to steal tens of thousands.
Right? Shannon Brown made almost 20 mil in 9 yrs and has 2 rings.
I looked at the list and no names surprised me if I recognized them. I had to look up Williams and he turns out to be ringleader. They have a look of talent but not performance… should have done more. A lot of teasers. The Cavs tried Miles and Moon. Four Michiganers.
Tony Allen did over-exceed, but was not paid very well, no more than $6m.
Tony Allen better hope his defense is as good as was back in the day..
Frank Abegnale Juniors