Former NBA player Terence Williams was sentenced to ten years in federal prison for defrauding the NBA health care system. The former first-round draft pick needed capital after running through his NBA salary and savings and linked with a medical professional to file fraudulent claims.
“You were yet another player who frittered away substantial earnings from the period of time when you were playing basketball professionally,” sentencing Judge Valerie E. Caproni said to Williams. “You should have had enough money to be set for life, but you don’t.”
Williams was charged with leading an expansive scheme to defraud the National Basketball Association’s health and welfare benefit plan out of more than $5 million, per the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York.
Forget The PPP … Health Care Scheming
Previously, Williams pled guilty to conspiracy to commit health care and wire fraud and aggravated identity theft and since spring 2022 had been jailed in Brooklyn for allegedly threatening witnesses.
“Williams led a wide-ranging scheme to steal millions of dollars from the NBA Players’ Health and Welfare Benefit Plan,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a release. “Williams recruited medical professionals and others to expand his criminal conspiracy and maximize his ill-gotten gains.
“Williams not only lined his pockets through fraud and deceit, but he also stole the identities of others and threatened a witness to further his criminal endeavors. For his brazen criminal acts, Williams now faces years in prison.”
According to the indictment, the charges were pretty damning.
From 2017 to 2021, Williams used the NBA Players’ Health and Welfare Benefit Plan, which provides benefits to eligible active and former players of the NBA and their family members; he defrauded the Plan by submitting fraudulent claims for reimbursement of medical and dental services not performed.
About a dozen people helped orchestrate the scheme with Williams. Defendants submitted false claims totaling approximately $5 million, but Williams is the alleged ringleader and recruiter.
Teamwork Made The Fraudulent Dream Work
Williams’s co-defendants included a dentist and doctor in California and doctors in Washington State who are alleged to have provided fraudulent invoices to Williams. He was receiving kickback payments of at least $300,000 from other non-medical professionals that replicated invoices made by medical offices.
When verification was necessary for the claims, Williams allegedly fraudulently created and distributed letters of medical necessity for three of his co-conspirators. He is also accused of impersonating others, like pretending to be employees of the Plan’s administrative manager.
In addition to the prison term, the 36-year-old, based in Seattle, Washington, was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to forfeit $653,672.55 and pay $2,500,000 in restitution.