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Glen ‘Big Baby’ Davis and Tony Allen among 18 ex-NBA players charged in $4m health care fraud scheme

Glen Davis and Tony Allen, shown defending Kobe Bryant during Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals, are among the former NBA players alleged to have defrauded the NBA's health and welfare benefit plan with fraudulent claims.Davis, Jim Globe Staff

NEW YORK — Eighteen former NBA players, including members of the 2008 champion Celtics Tony Allen and Glen ‘Big Baby’ Davis, were charged Thursday with pocketing about $2.5 million illegally by defrauding the league’s health and welfare benefit plan in a scam that authorities said involved claiming fictitious medical and dental expenses.

“The defendants’ playbook involved fraud and deception,” US Attorney Audrey Strauss told a news conference after FBI agents across the country arrested 15 ex-players and Allen’s wife, Desiree Allen, in a three-year conspiracy that authorities say started in 2017.

According to an indictment returned in Manhattan federal court, the ex-players teamed up to defraud the supplemental coverage plan by submitting fraudulent claims to get reimbursed for medical and dental procedures that never happened.

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Strauss said prosecutors have travel records, email, and GPS data that proves the ex-players were sometimes far from the medical and dental offices at the times when they were supposedly getting treated.

In one instance, she said, an ex-player was playing basketball in Taiwan when he was supposedly getting $48,000 worth of root canals and crowns on eight teeth at a Beverly Hills, Calif., dental office in December 2018.

The indictment said the scheme was carried out from at least 2017 to 2020, when the plan — funded primarily by NBA teams — received false claims totaling about $3.9 million. Of that, the defendants received about $2.5 million in fraudulent proceeds.

Strauss said each defendant made false claims for reimbursements that ranged from $65,000 to $420,000. Arrests occurred in Washington state, California, New York, Alabama, Illinois, Florida, Nevada, Georgia, and Tennessee. All were charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, which carries the potential penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

Williams was also charged with aggravated identity theft, which carries a potential penalty of up to two years in prison, for trying to frighten a co-defendant into paying a kickback by impersonating a health plan employee.

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In a statement, the NBA called the allegations “particularly disheartening” because the benefit plans provided by the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association are critically important to support players’ health and well-being throughout their careers and post-retirement lives.

“We will cooperate fully with the US Attorney Office in this matter,” the statement added.

Terrence Williams, who began his career as a first-round NBA draft pick in 2009, made a cameo with the Celtics in 2013.AP/Associated Press

Michael J. Driscoll, the head of New York’s FBI office, said the case demonstrated the FBI’s continued focus on uncovering fraud scams that cost the health care industry tens of billions of dollars a year.

Strauss said the conspiracy was led by Terrence Williams, who began his career as a first-round NBA draft pick in 2009 and made a cameo with the Celtics in 2013. The indictment said he submitted $19,000 in fraudulent claims to the plan in November 2017 for chiropractic care. The claims led to a $7,672 payout for Williams.

The indictment said he then recruited other former NBA players to defraud the plan, and offered to provide fraudulent invoices from a chiropractor and dentist in Southern California and a wellness office in Washington state. According to CNBC, Williams allegedly assisted three of the indicted — Davis, Charles Watson Jr., and Antoine Wright — obtain fabricated letters of medical necessity to justify some services on which the false invoices were based.

At least 10 of the ex-players paid kickbacks totaling about $230,000 to Williams, according to the court papers. A lawyer who has represented Williams in the past declined to comment.

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What was then the New Jersey Nets picked Williams as No. 11 in the 2009 draft. He went on to play with four franchises — the Nets, Houston, Sacramento, and the Celtics — over four seasons as a role player, averaging 7.1 points per game. He was waived by Boston two days after his 26th birthday in 2013.

Glen Davis (right) played in the BIG3 this past summer.Ronald Martinez/Getty

Tony Allen, a six-time All-Defensive team selection, was not in custody as of Thursday afternoon. The Memphis Grizzlies announced weeks ago that they plan to retire Allen’s number at a Jan. 28 game versus the Utah Jazz.

For the most part, though, the ex-players charged had journeyman careers playing for several different teams and never reached anywhere close to the enormous stardom or salary that top players command. Still, the 18 combined to make $343 million in their on-court NBA careers, not counting outside income, endorsements, or what any may have made playing overseas.

Another former player charged in the scheme was Sebastian Telfair, a one-time high school star in New York who was highly touted when he turned pro, though his NBA career with eight franchises — including a single season with the Celtics in 2006-07 — never brought the stardom some had expected.

Telfair’s finances qualified him for a court-appointed attorney at an appearance in Manhattan before a magistrate judge, who set bail at $250,000, although Telfair was freed on his signature alone.

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His lawyer, Deborah Colson, declined comment. Telfair, in running clothing and green sneakers, did not respond to requests for comment outside the courtroom, where Colson had entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.

Milt Palacio, with the Celtics from 2000-02, was placed on administrative leave from his role as an assistant coach with the Portland Trail Blazers, the team said Thursday. The Blazers declined further comment “pending the outcome of the legal process.”

Those charged also included NBA champions Shannon Brown, who won two titles with the Los Angeles Lakers, and Melvin Ely, who won one with San Antonio in 2007.

The remaining charged were Alan Anderson, William Bynum, Christopher Douglas-Roberts, Jamario Moon, Darius Miles, Ruben Patterson, Eddie Robinson, Gregory Smith, and Anthony Wroten. Of that group, only Wroten, Patterson, and Miles (the No. 3 pick in the 2000 draft) averaged double figures for their NBA career.

The charges came just weeks after former NFL players Clinton Portis, Tamarick Vanover, and Robert McCune pleaded guilty for their roles in a nationwide health care fraud scheme.