Former University of Cincinnati basketball player Ruben Patterson is among 18 former NBA players charged in a scheme to defraud a league healthcare plan out of nearly $4 million.
Most of the former players, including the 46-year-old Patterson, had been arrested as of noon Thursday, officials said.
The 18 former players and one other man are accused of defrauding the NBA’s Health and Welfare Benefit Plan, which provides medical coverage that supplements health insurance for current and former players as well as their families.
The charges were announced Thursday by federal prosecutors in New York.
The alleged leader of the scheme was former University of Louisville player Terrence Williams, who was drafted in 2009 and played four seasons for multiple NBA teams.
Williams provided the others with false invoices for medical and dental procedures they never received, U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said at a news conference. Williams, she said, also impersonated a plan manager to "frighten" one of the former players after he failed to pay a kickback.
Strauss said the false claims totaled $3.9 million, and the plan paid out $2.5 million to the defendants. Williams received about $230,000 in kickbacks from the others, she said.
The alleged scheme lasted about there years, from 2017 to 2020. All face charges of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud. Williams also is charged with identity theft.
Strauss said one of the defendants, former Houston Rockets player Greg Smith, submitted $48,000 in invoices for root canals and sedation at a dentist's office in Beverly Hills, California. Smith at the time was playing professionally in Taiwan, she said.
Patterson was convicted in Butler County in 2019 for owing more than $100,000 in child support for his daughter. He is currently on probation in that case.
Patterson played for the Los Angeles Lakers, Portland Trail Blazers and other teams over a decade-long NBA career. He earned approximately $36 million.
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