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Audrey Strauss, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York: “Today, we announced charges against 19 individuals for conspiring to defraud a health care plan that provides benefits to active and former National Basketball Association players. The FBI arrested 16 defendants this morning in 12 districts across the country.”
“These 19 defendants, including 18 former professional basketball players, are all charged with participating in a conspiracy to defraud the NBA Health Benefits Plan.”
“The defendants charged today defrauded the plan when they falsely made claims for reimbursement of medical and dental services that they had not received.”
“As alleged in the indictment, the leader of the conspiracy was former NBA player Terrence Williams. And here’s how it worked. First, Williams obtained fraudulent medical and dental invoices. Second, he sent those invoices to his coconspirators, other former NBA players. Third, the co-conspirators submitted the fraudulent claims to the plan. Fourth, unaware that the claims were fraudulent the plan paid most of defendant’s claims and fifth, in many cases, the defendants paid kickbacks to Williams.”
“Each defendant fraudulently sought reimbursement ranging from approximately $65,000 to as much as $420,000.”
“In exchange for Williams providing them fraudulent invoices to support their false claims, many of the co-conspirators paid Williams kickbacks. Williams received approximately $230,000 in kickback payments from other defendants.”
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