18 Former NBA Players Arrested and Charged with Defrauding League in Multi-Million-Dollar Scheme

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Eighteen former NBA players have reportedly been arrested and charged with defrauding the league’s health and welfare benefit plan.

According to Thursday’s indictment, the players submitted false and fraudulent claims to get reimbursed for medical expenses that were never sustained. The widespread scheme reportedly requested repayment of up to nearly $4 million. About $2.5 million of the false claims were actually received.

BREAKING: 18 former NBA players have been arrested and charged federally for defrauding the NBA’s Health and Welfare Benefit Plan out of approximately $4,000,000, law enforcement officials say.

Reported by @jonathan4ny
and me.

— Tom Winter (@Tom_Winter) October 7, 2021

19 people were charged in the indictment, with 18 of them being former NBA players. The list of arrested players includes former Boston Celtics center Glen “Big Baby” Davis and Los Angeles Clippers forward Darius Miles, who was once one of the league’s most prominent prospects.

In addition to Davis and Miles, Alan Anderson, Anthony Allen, Desiree Allen, Shannon Brown, William Bynum, and Christopher Douglas-Roberts were also charged.

Others include Melvin Ely, Jamario Moon, Milton Palacio, Ruben Patterson, Eddie Robinson, Gregory Smith, Sebastian Telfair, Charles Watson Jr., Terrence Williams, Antoine Wright and Anthony Wroten.

The scheme was reportedly executed between 2017-2020.